We knit socks. We have leftovers. We must do something with the leftovers in order to make more room for new sock yarn. What to do?
1. Sock balls. Every time I finish a pair of socks, I roll the extra yarn up into a ball and plunk it in this glass jar. Obviously I need a larger glass jar. I also think this is handy because if I ever need to mend a pair of socks (and you know, I’d ONLY ever mend hand-knit socks), then I just come to this jar and find the right yarn. I like it.
2. Toe rings. It’s summertime and we’re all walking around in sandals …. and not wearing our wonderfully handknit socks. Why not match yarn to your outfit for the day, and tie on a toe ring? It’s the next best thing to wearing a handknit sock, I’m sure.
3. Blankets. True, it would take close to forever to knit a whole blanket out of your leftover sock yarn, but if you do a bit every time you finish your socks, one day you’ll be done. Won’t the end result be beautiful?
4. Cat toys. While Zoe is wonderful about leaving skeined and balled yarn completely alone, heaven forbid that a tail of yarn might dangle out to catch her attention. She’d love her own yarn-ball cat toys. Of course she’d eat the yarn and then there would be trouble. But maybe your cats are better behaved.
5. Face cloths. If the thought of a whole sock yarn blanket is intimidating, why not make up some face cloths with it? They’d be soft, machine washable, and beautiful.
6. Tying the stash cupboard shut. Of course I’m speaking of the cupboard where your yarn stash lives. No one needs to go in there except for you, right? (No one SHOULD go in there except for you, right?) Tie it shut and tell everyone that you’re working on things for Christmas and it’s not to be opened or disturbed.
7. Baby socks. One can never have too many pairs of socks for babies. Baby socks make nice gifts (they are great to keep on hand) and they take little yarn, depending on the size of those cute tiny feet. Maybe your next baby gift ought to be a “sock wardrobe” – different colors for the multiple wardrobe changes that babies seem to go through. 🙂
8. Reminders. Maybe you’re like me. Maybe not. But oftentimes I’d rather be knitting than … doing household chores, for example. And have you ever forgotten to do something because you became so involved in what you were knitting? Leftover sock yarn is great for tying a string around your finger so you don’t forget. Or tying several strings around several fingers, if there are many things you are putting off while knitting. This might apply to me.
9. Chevron scarf. You all know that I’m having fun with my Chevron scarf. 🙂 Why not make a “scarf of many colors” and make it in all different sock yarns? The dip-and-weave pattern in the Chevron scarf mixes it all up very colorfully.
10. Save your seat. Have you ever wandered into the tv room to knit, only to find “your knitting seat” occupied? Annoying, isn’t it? Now you can use your leftover sock yarn to tie up an effective road block. Just loop a long tail of yarn across it to keep people out. Depending on your family and how likely they are to obey that, you might also need to add a sign to further dissuade them. Mine would not be dissuaded by yarn. Come to think of it, they probably wouldn’t be fooled by the note either. Maybe I need to resort to just leaving a bunch of yarn balls in the chair.
Those are a few ideas, but I’m sure you have more. What have you done with your leftover sock yarn?
Sheri no,I’mnotseriousaboutallofthese,butI’llleaveittoyoutofigureoutwhicharemeantinjest!
Entrelac Scarf – it would look like lots of little woven ribbons. I started one with Trekking that was so pretty I bought more just for the scarf. I used the pattern for “Lady Eleanor Stole” on size 2s. Well, still using. It takes forever.
Knit skein cozies for your pristine skeins of sock yarn. 😉
(Yes, I HAVE taken my pain killers. Why do you ask?)
I’m just starting my stash of ‘leftover’ sock yarn, so I appreciate the suggestions!! Oh, and you may try having knitting needles stick out of your knitting chair to ‘save’ it for you (much more effective than a pile of yarn balls I think!)
Braided yarn bracelets would be pretty out of leftover yarn I think…
I use my left over sock yarn to knit mini sweater ornaments to give out at Christmas time. They make great gifts!
Beth
Your leftover sock yarns would work beautifully in this vest:
http://www.liisu.homestead.com/Kits1.html
The pattern can be bought separately. I knit this with worsted weights and, while absolutely beautiful, the worsted was much too heavy. It would be stunning using leftover sock and shawl yarns blended with a DK.
I did start to make a stash of booties but the better project are pom-poms. You see I thought I was getting a new, rare color w. my new car (dealer even had plastic on the seats still). Great I think, on the drive home what do I see? Another car of the same model, and another and another! Granted we are in a larger city but really! So the rear view mirror gets a colorful pom-pom once in while.
Anyone who has an excess of leftover sock yarn should just get 4 daughters and then there will be no yarn left. They have endless uses for bits of yarn…doll socks, shawls and scarves, bridles and harnesses for little toy horses and wagons, quick free gifts like bookmarks (I have a gorgeous Yarn Pirate bookmark my second daughter made for me), tiny leashes and collars for toy dogs, string for bead necklaces…their ideas never end.
Nice mission oak stash cupboard, by the way, Sheri!
My cats are not better behaved. In fact, they are much, much worse than Zoe!
I think I’ll get a jar, and make some baby socks, and Janice’s idea for braided yarn bracelets is wonderful too. And so are pom-poms. Maybe tassels too. (If I ever put the sock needles down I could do some of these…)
My uses have been much more practical – somehow, a little sock ball ended up in my car, and I’ve put it to use pulling my hair back, and creating bookmarks for reading at red lights. Yarn and duck tape will take a girl far in life 🙂
I plan to make a bunch of those little socks from the pattern that came with my last Loopy order! Too fun.
My fat, black cat loves the yarn as it comes off the ball as I’m knitting, so I have to tussle with him to get him to let go. I have made him his own yarn toys, but he only want the yarn I’m using. I usually just put the yarn ball over my shoulder so he can’t see the string as I knit and he dozes off and on in my lap next to my little Pomeranian, who also has to be in my lap. Lucky for me I have a lot of lap!
The jar of balled yarn is quite pretty! you could use it as decoration as well!!
Sadly, I live alone, wait, that’s not the sad part, the sad part is the heathens who steal my seat are all 4 legged beasts who don’t read and say “meow”. And the extra yarn may even be added incentive for seat stealing!
I like lobbing the yarn balls at my husband when he won’t stop teasing me. It doesn’t stop him but it makes me feel better. 🙂
I make monstersocks, baby socks, bookmarks, barbie sweaters and hold it with a plain worsted wt sock for CIC socks. My DD2 likes to steal the left overs for her braided and knot bracelets too.
I like the balls of yarn in the jar, it is very pretty.
Baby Socks! Duh! Why have I not thought of that?!? And my best friend is due in late Sept.
I had been contemplating the Chevron Scarf with my yarn. I might just try it for giggles!
Re-knit worn out toes of hand knit socks. That’s the area of mine that wear out first. I usually have enough yarn left to re-knit the toes once, thus greatly extending the life of my socks.
Another good use would be making striped socks for kids and babies for Children in Common.
I don’t think there are cats who wouldn’t eat yarn given the chance. None in my house, anyway!
You can always donate your left over sock yarn to a knitting guild. Someone will
make little socks, scarves, or hats for people who need them. That’s what I usually
do with my left over yarn. I donate it to someone I know who can use it since
I can’t make them all up anymore. The premie babies at the hospitals need hats
and cancer patients need chemo hats. People in St. Louis should think about
joining the guild here. They do a lot of good things. I’m sure there are guilds
around in other states and countries. They can also make up these things and
take them to the hospital theirselves. They don’t have to join the guild. The
hospitals are always grateful.
I am thinking you could knit a little toe ring. I think I will have to try that and see if it works.
I LOVE your “reminder” yarn photo! Too funny!
Did anyone mention lacey hairbands I keep meaning to knit some up to match my socks, but I keep casting on more sokcs instead, generating more leftovers…
PS I am throwing my stupid typo-generating keyboard out the window now
Little socks and Barbie outfits for my grand niece!
I’ve got a left over jar too– I love to look at the colors of all the yarns and think about the people I made socks for!
One of my favorite bloggers, who knits his socks with an antique sock-knitting machine, uses up all his leftover sock yarn in what he calls “Eco-socks”. Check them out here: http://soxophoneplayer.blogspot.com/2007/08/sniff-snuffle-pthwe.html
I love them!
What about Wendy’s (wendyknits.net) Miter Sweater? It’s fantastic!
I’m not that ambitious, I use mine to knit socks for my Sock Blocker Keychain!
A couple of my boys took off with two and booby trapped the basement with them! Being the yarnaholic that I am- I rewound it all instead of just cutting the whole mess down!! Otherwise I just put them in a nice big jar!
I use them to tie on yarn tags or on handmade cards.
I’m making a mitered squares afghan. It’s… uh…. going to take forever, but I think of it more as record keeping for my other projects. Like a yarn scrapbook.
I like to use left over yarn for heels and toes of other socks. I also make baby socks. Working at a school, it always seems like there will be some kind of baby shower on the horizon.
Your reminder picture was hysterical!
I haven’t yet, but I definitely plan to make leftover socks… Why not?
I plan to make several pairs of “crazy socks” out of the leftovers. Nothing will match – I will just put my hand down into my bag of leftovers and knit what comes out!
I like heels and toes, baby socks and granny squares! I also adore the major Zoe baby cuteness with the yarn tails 🙂
Thus far my sock yarn leftovers have turned into a Teddy-Bear cardigan (Teddy is remarkably unconcerned if the stripes in his sweater don’t match) and Teddy-Bear socks. I like the infant sock idea! Three of my neighbors are due this fall…
I’m thinking of doing a striped or mitered vest, depending on if I can accumulate enough scraps in coordinating colors during my lifetime…..
I’ve made some socks for my daughter. They are so cute and knit up SO fast! If there isn’t a lot left I save the yarn to tie up yarns for dyeing.
I plan to make a scarf with sock leftovers knitting it from end to end the long way (do you know what I mean?) changing yarn at every row, leaving a tail as the fringe. Maybe I’ll have enough to never have use the same colorway twice…. eventually I guess 🙂
Sheri,
You are too funny!
There is a Lucy Neatby pattern for a scarf, called Sea Lettuce- I think, that uses up all the sock yarn scraps. When I took the class from her at Threadbear everyone wanted the pattern.
Oh, man..one more thing has been added to my list of things to knit! I have the pattern and havn’t gotten around to it as I have been knitting Monkey Socks, Embossed Leaves socks, and now the new Fall Loopy Kit is calling my name…..plus, I have been wanting to make the Chevron scarf…..not enough time to knit:)
I love your leftover balls of yarn jar! Where do you find big jars like that?
One idea would be to knit a “sock” for your laptop computer to wear. I use a laptop computer exclusively (no desktop). Currently, when I go to bed at night, I have been putting one of my high school son’s used book covers (those knit fabric ones that you can buy now that it’s back to school time, so they will stretch over it & hold). I do that in part because the latch doesn’t always hold, but also as a dust cover, etc. Fir those who don’t want to knit a cover, but who want the store bought “book cover”, I am using a “jumbo” sized because mine is a 17″. (And, thanks to my son for the idea of using his old book covers. The old “re-use, recycle game, too.)
But, wouldn’t it be fun to design your own hand knit “book” cover for it? It might help to have one of the cheapie ones from Office Max or something, to use as a basic pattern.
Collect dust? Honestly, I have little balls of yarn in my secretary, in my clothes drawer and sitting around the house. I keep looking at them wondering if I could make a semi-coordinated pair of socks.
I like the cat toy idea! However, my big guy eats the yarn. I’ve woke up to more than one sock that has been separated from the yarn. (sigh)
I make mini skeins and put them in a basket that I have in the family room, they are too cute. Every once in a while my two girls will pull them out and play with them. My youngest likes to wind yarn up on the winder, and make balls. Then I make them back into mini skeins.
Soon they will be plaing LYS. Gotta bring ’em up right!
I don’t have any creative ideas to add, but I must say I really do like the idea of sock balls. Whenever I get around to creating a knitting room, it would really add a decorative touch. And, since I have small feet (size 5 1/2), I’m bound to accumulate a bunch of leftovers! : )
Well, my sock-ball-jar is a 2.5 gallon zipper bag. 😉 Someday I hope to use them all up in some kind of sock-yarn-afghan.
Shelly Kang’s blankie. At the rate I’m going, I’ll be dead before I finish it. And then there will be ever more leftovers.
I like your pictures! I use up my leftovers to make E and D some socks. My leftovers made a good length sock for them. I’ve made knitted beaded cuff type bracelets for my daughter. She loves those. I also make headbands for her. Doll accessories are perfect for scraps too. I make doll scarves, doll shawls, and tiny doll socks. But, I’ve been thinking of one of those scrap blankets lately. I might start saving my yarn for that now.
Love, love your sock ball jar – what a pretty decoration for your knitting space! I have knit a couple of pairs of baby socks with some of my leftovers, but they have mostly gone into my big plastic leftovers tub – I need to dig out all the sock yarn and do something creative with it…Love the eco-socks, and I think a small Christmas tree covered with mini-socks or mini-sweaters of all my leftovers would be cool too. By the way, Zoe is BEAUTIFUL – her eyes are amazing! My kitties don’t seem to bother my yarn too much at all – One likes to swat at the yarn coming off the ball sometimes, but thank goodness she doesn’t eat it!
My daught & daught-in-law both have the same size teensy tiny feet so there is always enough left to make a pair for Sofia. Right now you can’t even think about putting a sock on that kids foot – she doesn’t even want to wear sandals half the time – it’s so flippin’ hot! Unfortunately the last pair I made was for my sisters birthday yesterday & there was about a 1/2 yard left & the yarn was such a pretty color – it would have made a darling pair of baby socks.
Sofia will be the best sock dressed kid around come fall.
I like crazy socks, and so my favorite thing to do with my leftovers is to divide each ball roughly in half (when doing very many at a time I use a digital scale to weigh them). I take the roughly-equal/matching balls and wind them onto a pair of “scrap balls”. These are center-pull balls. Since I knit from the center of them (and am absent-minded enough to have forgotten quite what I started the ball with) It’s such a great lot of fun to see what will come next. When starting the second sock from the second scrap ball, it’s even more fun to see how closely the second sock will match the first. My mom gives me all her leftovers too, and I love it so much. I am always wishing I could buy “leftover” amounts of yarn, because I go through phases where nothing but my scrap balls will do. 😉 It’s not unheard of for me to cut apart perfectly good balls of yarn to get scrap amounts, though it’s been about a year since I resorted to that. lol
I speachless. I’m pretty wowed by all the creative uses you’ve come up with. Me, well, they’re just balled up in my stash box.
Zoe is just a very good kitty all around! I could never leave a skein of yarn lying around; my kitties would drag it around the house and meow with this very strange meow that I think means they just found their favorite thing ever and they are in lurve.
Wimpy just did that with some Trekking. Very funny, and luckily she didn’t ruin it.
I’m making little socks with the mini loopy sock pattern and making them into magnets. I told my husband I plan to cover our fridge in itty bitty socks. 🙂
Crazy socks, or bookmarks. There’re just enough there to make a nice, lacy rectangle that will hold my place! Bonus if I line it with thin fabric so it holds together nicely.
Leftovers!?!?!?!?!?!?!
There are none for me! I do toe-up and keep knitting until it’s all gone! I like tall socks.
The jar is quite pretty though!
The sock yarn could turn into some mini socks. Please go to http://www.sockpixie.blogspot.com for a mini sock project to help deaf and hard of hearing communities. Thank you.
My leftovers are also wound into nice little balls. I store them in a basket. I’ve used them to make baby hats, baby socks, and keychains. I’ve also traded the leftovers with others in exchange for new skeins of yarn. 🙂