I'm not being big headed - just honest.
In an effort to find a crochet project to use up some of the aran weight yarn that's been with me for a while, I found this blog post by Australian blogger Cintia. Her blog, My Poppet Makes, is crammed with colourful inspiration, and not just crochet but sewing, knitting and papercraft too.
When Cintia uses what she terms 'ugly yarn' I do know what she means - squeaky, neon acrylic / anything dung coloured / once fashionable tinsel or pompom yarn / questionably, flashy eyelash. I'm personally of the opinion that one woman's woolly trash is another woman's treasure and, if you're asked to create the angel for the church knitted nativity, that silver tinsel eyelash yarn you've hidden at the very bottom of your stash, becomes the stuff of dreams and fits the bill perfectly.
But I digress - the wee balls of wool I wanted to use aren't categorised in my mind in derogatory terms such as 'leftovers', 'remnants' or 'scraps'. To me they are beloved bits from projects I'd created with joy and care, in colours that made my heart sing once upon a time and still do.
I laid them out to have a look and separated them vaguely into 'lights' and 'darks'. Meanwhile, I also unearthed some rainbow sock wool I'd been given a while back, with insufficient length to knit socks.
Some of these beautiful bits still remained after I'd created previous multi-yarn projects - like this cushion I knitted for my friend, Lorna, seven years ago.
The sheepy cushion I blogged about here is also knitted from yarn from other projects and still didn't use them all up.
Many wee pretty bits remained after I'd knitted these hats for family and friends over the past few years.
This gorgeous silk blend wasn't all used up after I knitted these cowls as gifts in 2013.The purse I made for Mum's birthday a year later from New Lanark heritage wool yielded bonnie bits of bramble and gritstone.I'd wool left after I knitted this hot water bottle for a charity initiative in 2016. What didn't get used for the hottie went on to make these mittens I gave to a lady at church last year after she'd admired mine. And there was still some left!
These tiny wee balls were all that remained after I made this pair of socks in 2019 for Operation Christmas Stocking organised by a friend who supports a homeless charity at Christmas and gifts warm woollies and toiletries to those with very little.
The most recent wool to make it into my basket of beautiful bits joined some other Jamieson & Smith that's been there since 2016 when I knitted my sister in law a Baa-ble Hat. I knitted the Rose Thorn Mitts by Maddie Harvey Designs for my niece last December in time for Xmas and, you've guessed it, there was a wee bit left.Now imagine that my mental trawl down memory lane through these woolly projects of yore lasted just as long as it took to wind these yarns into a magic knot ball.
So, back to Cintia's blog - where this yarny yarn began - where I found her pattern for a crochet scrap yarn basket. Using a chunky 9mm hook and both strands of my knot balls, held together with the unwanted rainbow sock yarn, I began to crochet my own basket. Who knew this random selection of bits and bobs would make such beautiful fabric?By the time one ball was completely finished, I'd only a few inches left of the second and all the extra sock wool was gone. I incorporated handy handles too as instructed in the pattern.
It's not a rigid basket, and collapses like a failed pottery project on The Great Pottery Throw Down when it's empty, but I love it - and it holds a lot of wool (well, 32 balls in this case). Enough for an entire blanket project - or a very, very big jumper!
