Wednesday 5 January 2011

How to knit a scarf using leftover yarn

Knitting project - Level: Beginner

Just before Christmas I had an idea to knit a scarf using only leftover yarn. Today the scarf is finally ready:


Here is how I did it: 
First I looked at all the leftover yarn I have and selected the yarn of similar thickness and texture. I decided to use 5 colors, which looked good together: 3 neutral colors (white and two grays), one subtle color (light blue) and one vivid color (lime green).


Because I wanted my scarf to be warm and my chosen yarn was thin, I knitted with double yarn. This also gave me the advantage of being able to mix the colors, creating more color varieties and more subtle color harmonies.

To make the scarf quite fluffy and soft, I used big size knitting needles:
Metric size 4mm - British size 8 - American size 6. You could use even bigger size needles.

I started by casting 60 loops on the knitting needle. I did not make a tension sample, as in this simple project it was not necessary to get the exact width correct. I continued to knit using  Double Rib pattern (knit 2, purl 2, repeat).


While knitting I mixed the colors freely, taking into consideration the overall balance of colors and the amount of yarn I had available. For example, I had very little light gray yarn so I had to use it sparingly; and because I had a lot of white yarn, I mixed it with almost all other colors.


I tried the scarf on for length and when it felt like it was long enough I finished knitting by casting off all loops. The only thing left to do was to tidy up the yarn pieces sticking out from the scarf, left over from the color changes. I did it using a crochet.

Happy knitting :)
Yolanta
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4 comments:

  1. I really like this scarf ! Me too, I enjoy creating stuff from left-overs or recycling things. I will follow your blog, I like it ! Greetz, Rozemie (Belgium)

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  2. Hi Rozemie, nice to meet you. I just got back home from my travels. Greetings to you too. Yolanta

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