Last year Hubby came home with a bottle of champagne. It was nestling in straw in a gorgeous wooden box. The champagne is long gone and the straw ended up on the compost heap. But the box lives on.
It will never be worth a fortune. But it is strong with rope handles and leather hinges. My eyes lit up; I love pretty boxes and had the perfect use for this one. I saw it as the ideal place to put all those small oddments of yarn that are left over after projects. I sort my oddments into dk, 4 ply etc and use them to make stripy hats etc. But eventually the oddments become too small even for that. I hate waste so I still keep them and sometimes use them for sewing or even for stuffing soft toys.
This week has been far too hot for knitting the blanket I am planning. I dipped into the box and knitted a few stripy hats instead. I noticed that the collection of tiny oddments was growing. Storing them in a box creates an "out of sight, out of mind" situation. But it also puts a sensible limit on how much I can accumulate. Then I remembered a method of joining yarn called the "Russian join".
In the past, I have occasionally used this method to join yarn mid-row. It makes a surprisingly strong join. It isn't right for very fine projects as it inevitably creates a slightly thicker stitch. But it is perfect for things like scrappy scarves. It works well on dk acrylics which I use a lot.
So, yesterday, I set about combining the tiny oddments into one large ball of wool. I was in just the right frame of mind for this relaxing activity. This ball is just whites and pastels.
But I have enough oddments to make a brighter ball later.
What will I do with them? When I have enough I will probably combine the pastel ball with a white 4 ply yarn or even with some of my coned 2 ply yarn. I'll knit with both together to make a variegated baby blanket. I will probably combine the brighter ball with a darker colour and make a scarf or even a pet blanket.
There's some way to go yet. The pastel ball weighs only 40g. But it won't be long before I can use it. When the weather cools down, my blanket will take shape and I will have a lot more oddments. Woo hoo!
That's a great use for the box. I like boxes too and so does my husband; he collects interesting old cigar boxes and uses them to store all kinds of things. I would love to learn the Russian join technique; thanks for the video!
ReplyDeleteI, too, am a box lover! Lucky you!
ReplyDeleteNever would have thought to use the russian join while winding random yarn together. Neat trick!
ReplyDeleteLove your box and great new use for it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder of the Russian join - I'm hoping to try it sometime - love your pastel ball.
Ali x