I have a silly question about leftover yarn

Hi everyone,

what do you mean by “leftover yarn”?

I know what leftover yarn is, but where do you draw the line?
When I see some patterns meant for using up leftover yarn,
I think, “Okay, I’ll need at least half a ball for that.”

For example, I have a box full of small to tiny little balls of yarn, some
of which might weigh as little as 5 gr.
Those have always been my leftover yarn.
I haven’t really considered half-balls to be leftover yarn until now.

I’m curious to hear your answers.

Best wishes, Heike, who has to work until 6 p.m. today and has been at the office since 7 a.m.

Dear Heike,

there are no silly questions.
I even categorize my leftover yarn.

I have a small box that holds very tiny leftovers, just like yours. These are my trial leftovers, or if the kids quickly need a piece of string to play with, they help themselves from there.

Then I have a bigger box full of half-used skeins that I just ended up with. So, to me, they’re leftovers. But they’re big enough to make something a bit bigger out of them.

I still have enough “leftovers” from a baby blanket that I could easily make another one. Yeah, the yarn was so beautiful, and when I’m shopping, I usually can’t help myself....
They’re all collected in a separate bag so I can get started right away. I just need a mom or a pregnant woman among my friends who’d like a baby blanket in these colors.

I think everyone defines “leftovers” differently.

Good morning Heike,
For me, leftover yarn is the yarn left over after a project. That is often half a skein. 
It varies a lot.

I hope your workday goes by quickly. Best wishes 
Sandra

I consider all partially used skeins—or even single skeins that don’t match anything (for now)—to be leftover yarn.

These days, I only keep the really tiny scraps from clothing projects (if there isn’t a leftover skein left) in case I need to repair any damaged areas.
Everything else goes to kindergarten or school; otherwise, I’ll soon end up with another huge collection of tiny scraps.

I can’t really define the term either, but for me, “leftover yarn” mostly means partially used skeins...

When I specify in a pattern that “leftover yarn” is needed, though—for example, with the popular Catania yarn—I’m really only talking about a maximum of 15g or so...

  Those tiny bits (like, under 1 meter or so...) aren’t really leftovers to me anymore—they’re just trash... ;) I find that collecting them is more work than it’s worth.

If you still have some leftovers and aren’t sure whether it’ll be enough for a project, you can always just write to the designer and ask roughly how much is needed.

For me, leftover yarn also includes partially used skeins. My four antique skeins of cotton—even though they’ve been lying around for years—are simply yarn I have on hand :-)

For me, leftovers also include partially used skeins. So, for example, if I bought 5 skeins for a project and then used 4 1/4, I’d have a 3/4 skein left over.

Just like Arni, for me anything left over from a project and every started ball of yarn is leftover yarn—sometimes more, sometimes less.

Hi Heike,

For me, leftover yarn usually means partially used skeins that are left over. Every now and then, in exceptional cases, it can also be a whole skein.
I also throw away very small scraps or use them to crochet little hearts or scattered decorations, for example.

For example, beautiful, colorful larger pieces can also be crocheted or knitted from different leftovers of the same quality. That would also be a leftover-yarn pattern.

Yes, for me, leftovers are basically anything that’s significantly less than a full ball of yarn ;-)

Beatrix

For me, leftover yarn is anything that’s left over because I bought too much for a specific project—including started skeins. But sometimes I also buy just one skein of a yarn because it feels soooo nice; for me, those are now leftovers too, since you can’t really make anything out of them.

  These days, I use the tiniest scraps to crochet little flowers or even patches (like monsters) to patch the holes in my grandson’s pants.

Warm regards to everyone