I have a confession. I’m a yarn scrap hoarder. I can’t bear to throw the little things away! I put them in a big zipper bag and all the colors are pleasing to look at.
If a piece of yarn is longer than my arm, I bundle it up and keep it for something else. I call them yarn morsels. Sometimes they’re just right for an embellishment or a bow. If there’s enough yarn to make a granny square center I will do that. A lot of squares start out with a center made of 3DC, CH2 four times. If I run across a square that needs one, I have one made!
If I have a 10 yard piece sometimes I put those in my Etsy shop! I noticed that people seemed to be selling such things and I thought to myself “Why in the world would you want a 10 yard piece of yarn?” I found that you can do a lot with 10 yards. You can make a 4 inch granny square! You can make a flower. You can make a couple of YoYos.
Here are a few more things you can do with them:
- Stuff them into amigurumi (I put them in netting or something)
- Put them outside in the spring for birds to nest with.
- Donate them to a preschool or kindergarten. They use them for crafts!
- Knot them together securely and crochet something with them. It’s a cool effect.
- Fill clear glass ornaments with them
- Use them in a decoupage or mixed media project
- Put them in a jar and admire them
What do you do with your scraps? And at what length do you tell yourself you just can’t keep it? Let me know!
Craftaceous Period 
E.C.
January 23, 2013 at 6:09 pm
I usually don’t keep any yarn under 3 inches. I use yarn scraps in plastic canvas and other crafts to for bows and pom-poms and such as that.
I like your suggestions. Very creative ideas.
Thanks for telling about the 10 yards. I’ve seen yarn offered in such lengths, but I didn’t know what a person could it for. I thought maybe plastic canvas, latch hook or needle point.
Interesting info, thanks for sharing. 🙂
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craftlyn
January 23, 2013 at 6:28 pm
A 2-3 inch piece could also be used for latch hooking!
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E.C.
January 23, 2013 at 6:39 pm
True
I just remembered, shorter pieces of yarn can be used for hair on homemade dolls and other critters. Even 1 inch and shorter can be used for gluing it on top of sculpted doll heads. I’ve used it like that for my dolls.
🙂
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craftlyn
January 24, 2013 at 3:28 pm
Doll hair is a great idea! Probably useful on amigurumi, too, since those can be pretty small!
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Bekka Poo
January 24, 2013 at 3:13 pm
It’s hard to throw away any materials that come into my possession, but usually I don’t keep scraps that are smaller than a few inches. I mostly use them as stitch markers, but haven’t thought about some of these other uses..
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craftlyn
January 24, 2013 at 3:26 pm
Oh yes! I’d forgotten about stitch markers. I do that in a pinch, though I do love my little plastic stitch markers that look like little locks. 😀 I also use them to tie gift tags onto things. Or when I need to put a tag on a project to remind me of the pattern or something.
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Jess P
January 28, 2013 at 7:53 am
If it’s at least as long as my arm, I ball it up and save it. After a couple months, I take all my scraps and make hats for the local children’s hospital.
If it’s about half as long as my arm, I use it to tie around our homebrew bottles for beer and mead, color coding yarn with flavor/style.
Less than half my arm’s length, and I use it for stuffing or toss it outside for birds. I do my best to use all of my yarn.
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craftlyn
January 28, 2013 at 10:30 am
Oh, I like the bottle coding idea. And I’ll bet it makes the bottles look festive, too.
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