Cleaning out those Koigu scraps
A long time ago I mentioned wanting to use my odd Koigu scraps to make something . . . at the time I was imagining making lots of mis-matched socks in crazy stripes of handpainted colors and wearing them interchangeably with each other. While that still seems like a good idea and I may end up doing that also, over the weekend I was reading a book and found myself with no simple projects in stockinette to work on while I read. When I'm reading I like to knit stockinette on circulars (either in the round or flat works well), but it has to be a completely mindless project. Enter the scraps bag:
This bag actually has more than just Koigu leftovers in it, it has all sorts of fingering-weight sock yarn scraps and leftovers. All the baby skeins of Koigu I got years ago at TNNA are in there, too. I'm sure there are even scraps of Koigu collected from my days at the knitting store! Apparently I hoard Koigu like it's a precious metal. I've been adding to this bag for years (literally!), always with the intention of turning it all into something one day.
This past weekend, I went through the bag and separated out all the Koigu scraps from the rest of the sock yarn riffraff (as if, everything in there is awesome!). Here's what I have to work with:
As I pulled out those partial balls and tiny butterflies of yarn, I kept remembering the projects that each scrap belonged to. It was like going through my jewelry box! The gray in the bottom right-hand was from the first Charlotte's Web I ever made . . . the very bright orange-pink on top of it became a pair of ruffly socks . . . and on and on. It's amazing how well I can remember working with each of these colors! Although not surprising, given how much I love Koigu and how the color is the whole point of Koigu . . .
I pulled out a set of size 4 circulars and cast on a bunch of stitches and just started knitting. Here's what I had after one day's worth of reading:
I'm trying not to worry about what color comes next, but I did decide on two rules:
- Colors next to each other should be different enough to stripe
- Adjacent stripes should be of varied widths
So basically what I'm doing when I finish a section is reaching blindly for another bit of yarn and then seeing if the amount is OK and if the color isn't too similar. I was shocked to see how much medium blue is in this pile! It'll be a challenge to make sure all that blue doesn't end up overwhelming everything else.
So far I have about 10" of fabric knit and it's about 20" wide. I was initially thinking of making a stole, but now that it looks like I have way more yarn than I realized, I'm thinking of turning it into a small throw. This may end up being a perpetual project that I add on to as I finish other Koigu projects, but that's completely fine with me. Using up my scraps this way makes me think of old-fashioned patchwork quilts and the idea just fills me up with warm fuzzies. And knitting with all these Koigu colors isn't half-bad, either!
Julie
October 08, 2009
that’s a great way to use up the leftovers! I love knitting while reading, too- feels like the best of both worlds.