Knitting & Crocheting With Oddballs
By auburndreams
@auburndreams (838)
United States
December 11, 2006 1:34pm CST
I swear I should name a book that someday. By oddballs I don't mean those strange relatives you have or people that hang out in public parks.
Whenever you finish a project you almost always have a bit left over. These tend to accumulate. I call these oddballs. You can use them for 'magic ball' knitting. To make a magic ball, you start with a ball of yarn, tie it to the end of a new color and just keep winding, adding a new color in whenever you feel like it. The ball will get bigger and bigger. Then use the ball to knit a sweater or crochet a scarf or whatever you feel like. If you like multicolored knitting or stripes, this is a more portable way to do it than carrying around 5 or 6 big fat skeins of yarn.
You can also use your oddballs for freeform knitting and crocheting.
You might want to make sure all the yarns in any one ball have the same washing instructions, like acrylics with acrylics and wools with wools, because some day you will want to wash your finished project.
12 responses
@wyrdsister (584)
• Canada
12 Dec 06
Oddballs! I like that! :) Of course we all end up with little scraps of yarn after we've finished our projects. It's fun to use them up!
I've started making scarves out of "oddballs." I'll knit or crochet 4" swatches to use up the bits of yarn, then I'll crochet them together to make a scarf. They've turned out quite well! I wish I had a picture to show you, but alas, I have no digital camera with which to take pictures.
Thanks for starting this discussion! I hope more people post pictures of what they've made with their oddballs! And let us knwo when your book gets published. :D
~Wyrdsister
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
11 Dec 06
I will post a photo of a teddy bear I made from oddballs.
These are fun to make and usually end up as gifts. I need to finish some of these that I started last Christmas. Always a day late and a dollar short. Anyway, enjoy the photo.
@vipul20044 (5793)
• India
12 Dec 06
Hehe great name you gave there
I know this my mom usually does this
Whenever she makes a sweater or something for me there is a bit of wool thats left over and she uses it to make more beautiful and amazing stuff
I really love the art
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
18 Dec 06
Don't throw those labels away. You want to be careful with mixing wool and acrylics in the same item, since they have different washing directions. You might want to keep acylics oddballs seperate from wool or angora or cashmere or other exotic yarns.
Some wool is washable so read your label.
Some wool is better for felting as well. Keep notes on your projects so down the road you'll know how to care for them.
@suscan (1955)
• United States
12 Dec 06
I like to use all my yarn up,there is so much you can do with just a little. Besides crochet or knitting with the left over balls of yarn,you can even use the smaller pieces to make a great rug. Get a piece of latch hook canvas and use your smaller pieces to hook a neat looking rug.
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
12 Dec 06
Latch Hook is great fun and one of the crafts kids catch on to quickly. I see latch hooks for sale dirt cheap at thrift stores all the time. Maybe I shouldn't have throw out all that pre-cut latch hook yarn when I got bored with some big kits. I've learned the hard way that kits just don't do it for me. It has to be my original art or I lose motivation halfway through.
@loved1 (5328)
• United States
11 Dec 06
What a clever name for this. I do this quite often! I just made an afghan for my family out of leftover yarn. I thought it would be very ugly but did not care because it was not going to be a gift, it was just for us. It turned out really cool and is my kids favorite blanket! I have often seen huge bags of yarn at Goodwill or garage sales for about $5.00 which is much cheaper than you can purchase it new. This would be an excellent way to use that bargain yarn.
@4monsters4me (2569)
• United States
12 Dec 06
That is funny--the name. I never would have thought to call them that. I was just keeping them in a big box but I bought a nice basket and balled up what I had (they had still been in the skeins with the wrappers on). They look so pretty sitting there. I decided to crochet them into an afgan. I just grabbed one and started in the corner adding a stitch to either end each row. When I got to the end of that ball I joined another one and kept going. It is almost wide enough to be used as a baby blanket but I want a throw blanket so I have a ways to go. When I decide it is big enough I will start decreasing at each end and I figure when I am done and have more leftovers I'll just start adding a border around. It will probably get really big eventually.
@Pythonis (233)
• United States
12 Dec 06
This is fun to do, but my problem is that my knitting leftovers tend to be all different gauges and stexures so that anything kniot from them all together looks really odd. It would be great fun to get together with a bunch of people and trade extra yarnn bits so I could make like random stripe socks or a scarf of many colors!
