Hardworking little helpers: how are your scraps / leftover yarn doing?

Dear users, dear authors,
dear little helpers,
do you have lots of scraps right now? What are you doing with them? Are you busy crafting with or without scraps?

I’ve been busy lately—without using any leftover yarn. I needed almost 100 grams for my hat. I guess my pom-poms require a lot of yarn. 



Yesterday I showed it to my friend, and she said she’d like one too. Now I’m making another one—again, without using any leftover yarn—but my yarn stash is shrinking. This month I’ve already crocheted 700 grams, and the box has gotten a little emptier. 

Are those tufted stitches? What’s the difference between them and popcorn stitches?

Oh Josefa, you’ve got me there. I call them “cluster stitches” because they’re 3 double crochets worked off together. But they also look like bobbles.

I just Googled it: I think they’re all the same thing. With cluster stitches, bobbles, and popcorn stitches, you always crochet several double crochets into a single stitch and work them off together.

I also read that you can make cluster stitches flat by crocheting each double crochet into a new stitch and then working them all off together.

I hope everything is correct as I’ve written it. 

OK. I didn’t quite understand, but I’ll give it a try.
What’s the difference between this and post double crochet?

Do all the techniques mentioned add more texture to the handiwork?

A post double crochet is simply a double crochet that’s worked deeper. You don’t insert the hook into the stitch itself, but rather around the double crochet from the previous row below it and around it.

Either insert the hook from the front around the double crochet from the previous row, or from the back around it, and crochet a double crochet. I hope you can see it in the picture. 



Bobbles are made by working several double crochets into a single stitch, which are then worked off together. The bobble is always crocheted in a wrong side row; it then forms, so to speak, on the opposite side. 

Thanks for the pictures and the info.
That’s nice of you.

I have half a bag full of leftover yarn.

Here’s a question: at what point does yarn become “leftover”? Half a ball of yarn or less? Or is it a matter of opinion?

Best regards, Gabi

My leftover yarn is still in a suitcase, waiting to be put to use.

Well, for me, everything is a scrap as soon as I start a new ball of yarn.

And if I have a whole ball left over from a larger project, I sometimes call that a scrap, too.