Odd Ends

The great hazard of being known as a knitter is that people will give you yarn. Some of it is beautiful, some of it is fugly, but all has a common trait: I don't have plans for it. Luckily, I don't live in a rural area, or I would probably get fleeces!

When I buy yarn, I almost always have a project in mind. It is usually vague, like "hat" or "socks," but there is a purpose. If I don't use it all, I may have random ends to add to my stash, but most of it has a purpose.

Yarn bought for the just-finished vest

More importantly, I inherited from my grandmother a dislike for "frou-frou" yarns. Yarns that have fringes, or ribbons, or beads. "Art" yarns.

An inherited "art yarn"

Frou-frou yarns can be good for scarves. They can be good for edgings. What they are rarely good for are making things I would actually wear.

They are mostly designed for beginner knitters. People who have finished a scarf and want to make another one (or a hat), but want it to look "fancy" without needing to do fancy stitches. As such, they are designed to hide stitch work as much as possible. Since I get bored with any project that is just stockinette or garter stitch, these yarns get stuck in my stash with nowhere to go.

Some other highlights of the unusable collection:

This came in a kit to make a "breast cancer awareness" scarf. I don't know anyone who would wear such a scarf, and the eyelash yarn can really be a pain to knit with.

This one was also part of a kit. To make an American flag themed bag (it came with a big red button). The yarn was just impossible to work with, frankly.

This one is not so bad, and I actually used it to make a throw that is still sitting in our living room. The problem is that I rarely like working with bulky yarns, so I have nothing to pair it with. Also, again, it tends to hide, rather than showcase, fancy stitching.

This one also isn't so bad. It is worsted weight, which I tend to use a lot. But the color-changes are arbitrary, and I'm not such a fan of the barber-poling effect. I also don't have a lot of it, so it would only work for a small project. It wasn't a gift: I found it under the bed in a hotel in a foreign country.

This stuff, I was able to make some gloves out of it. But there is just so much of it, and I tend to dislike acrylic yarns these days.

I saved the ugliest for last. I have no idea what I am going to make with this. I hate the color, and it is a bulky yarn.

Maybe there will be an update next year saying that I have used some of these in projects, but I doubt it.