"Wallflower" patterns and neglected yarn/materials: How’s it going?

Dear users, dear authors,
how are your “stepchild yarn” / “stepchild materials” (=unloved yarn / unloved materials) and your “wallflower patterns” (purchased or free patterns that were only downloaded but never made) coming along?

Let me know.

Don’t forget about the June projects, the “Heinzelmännchen” thread and the thread for yarn stash and yarn purchases. Have fun.

Hi,

I’m currently using some “neglected” yarn.
I’m making a vest for myself out of it.

I bought this yarn years ago, and it had just been lying around ever since.
I even put it up for sale on 3-2-1 E***.
But since nobody wanted it and I didn’t want to buy any new yarn either,
I’ve now put it to use.

Now that I’ve finished part of the vest, I can say that I have enough yarn.
I was really worried it wouldn’t be enough.

Best regards, Heike

Yes, that’s exactly why I hardly ever buy yarn just to stock up—I only ever buy it for specific projects: I’m always afraid I won’t have enough in the end. And that’s also why my yarn stash keeps growing: I always buy 1–2 skeins more than the project requires. So I end up with tons of small amounts of leftover yarn. That’s why my shop almost exclusively features patterns for leftover yarn ;-)

I’m knitting with some yarn that I really liked when I bought it—a beautiful green. But no matter what I’ve started so far, I’ve ended up putting it aside again.

Now I need a stole very quickly (by early July) for a wedding, so I’m going to make a stole out of it. I don’t know yet if it’ll be finished—I’m not really thrilled with the pattern or the yarn. It was just pretty to look at…

These days, I only buy yarn if I have at least some idea of what I can crochet or knit with it. Just looking pretty isn’t enough anymore.

I’m currently knitting up some neglected yarn into a vest for myself. It was basically just lying around because I never felt like winding it up. And because I only have white and a little pink. It always seemed too dreary to me. Plus, it’s bouclé yarn… and now I’m rediscovering my joy in knitting with this very yarn.

Who would’ve thought? Thanks to Josefa!

By the way, the vest will have vertical colorful stripes, and I’m not using multiple skeins to knit it. ;-)

The little soccer figure is one of my oldest “wallflower” patterns (free pattern): the first one is finished; the second one still needs to be put together.

“Stepchild” yarn: if that refers to yarn that’s been lying around for a long time, I’m currently knitting it into hiking socks (reinforced with new yarn, since my stash isn’t enough).

By the way, I don’t think the term “stepchild yarn” for unloved yarn is exactly nice—it suggests that stepchildren aren’t loved (we don’t live in a fairy tale, after all!).

@ChristinaE.,
if you’d like to suggest a term that’s better than “stepchild yarn,” feel free to do so.
Then we’ll vote, and if your term wins, we’ll stick with it.

@everyone,
of course, you’re welcome to submit suggestions too.

Christina, yes, you’re right. That really is a sort of storybook term and could be understood that way.

Do you have a better idea for what we could call this unloved yarn?

Yeah, that would technically be “wallflower” yarn too, but we’ve already used “wallflower” for the patterns! How about “Cinderella” yarn? It’s also a fairy tale, but not as common a term as “stepchild.”

And in the end, Cinderella becomes a princess…

...And there are no Cinderellas in real life. That way, no one feels like their toes have been stepped on :) There are stepchildren, though.
And hopefully, they’re usually loved and not left unwanted in a corner ;) 

Or “swan” yarn... like in The Ugly Duckling....

Any other suggestions?

Caterpillar yarn... caterpillars turn into beautiful butterflies, and they have to spin a cocoon first, of course :)

Ok, I’ll briefly sum things up. These alternatives have been suggested so far:
- Ashenputtel yarn (from kitchen maid to princess )
- Swan yarn (from ugly duckling to beautiful swan )
- Caterpillar yarn (from caterpillar to wonderful butterfly )
- Cinderella yarn would also be an idea, although of course that’s very much along the Ashenputtel lines.

You can submit further suggestions until 4 p.m. tomorrow. After that, I’ll start the vote.

You should look at the phenomenon of unloved yarn itself from the positive side for once:
The more unloved the yarn / material (no matter what name it goes by ), the more creativity is needed. Working with pretty yarn is easy, and (almost ) anyone can do that, but turning the yarn that nobody ever wants into something special—that’s a challenge. Of course, that earns you bonus points in the project threads and compliments here in the forum.
And you’ll train your creativity muscle along the way. :- )

How about this as a project idea?
How about working through or letting go of the wallflower patterns in 2018 (what’s left of it ) (the ones you no longer want to make) and working through all the unloved yarn / unloved material, or letting it go / getting rid of it if there’s really no other way? Then you can start a successful 2019 fresh and cheerful.

Yeah, working through the unloved yarn is definitely a good idea. That’s one of the things I’ve set out to do this year, too.

We could just call it “the unloved yarn.” With “Swan” and “Cinderella,” it always feels very pretty to me—not unloved at all.

Otherwise, “Aschenbrödel yarn” is fine, too.

Voting: open until Monday evening at 8:00 p.m.

We need a new name for “stepchild” yarn/material = unloved yarn / unloved material. Here are the options:

- Aschenbrödel Yarn (from kitchen maid to princess )
- Swan Yarn (from ugly duckling to beautiful swan )
- Caterpillar Yarn (from caterpillar to wonderful butterfly )
- Cinderella Yarn, similar to Aschenbrödel, just more American. :- )
- The Unloved Yarn: This has already been part of the name before; it would become the main name once the “stepchild” is gone.

One vote per person. No multiple selections.
If someone does select multiple options anyway, I’ll count the first word mentioned, and all other words will be invalid.

Additional name suggestions can no longer be added to the list now that the vote is underway.

Go ahead.
I’m curious.
Happy weekend

Hahaha, Josefa, that was a good one ;-) ... once I’ve worked through my patterns, I can start 2021 fresh and free!

Too bad about the poll… I just thought of a good name… we call unfinished projects UFOs. For unwanted yarn, we could just say UWO. :-)

@mifas,
2021 is at least a goal to work toward.

@Anja,
UWO is too similar to UFO.

@everyone,
Since your enthusiasm for voting is somewhat limited, I’ll probably declare “Aschenbrödel” / “Cinderella” the winner tonight. Unless you have anything else to say about it?

I’ve decided on the Swan yarn.

Of course, I’m also all for “swan” yarn... ;)

OK, so “Aschenbrödel” and “Aschenputtel” aren’t quite so clear-cut after all :-)
So let’s keep the poll open until we have more votes.

Please cast more votes. :-)

I prefer “Aschenbrödel”/“Aschenputtel.”

Any other thoughts?

You can also read along / post here on the side.
Cherry prints and floral prints are in: Do you like them?

Busy Tuesday: What are you working on? Any helpful elves? 

The “majority” thing isn’t quite working out yet.
Do you want to add anything, or should I come up with something?

Josefa, I’d say you get to decide if no one else chimes in. 

Okay, since none of the names suggested so far was able to get a majority,
I’m going with
unruly yarn/material instead of stepchild yarn/stepchild material.
That’s more neutral and probably fits the idea better too.

I think “unruly” is a good word. I saw the poll too late. So-called “stepchild yarn” is basically yarn with character. Back when you bought it, you saw something special in it, but then it didn’t really want to reveal that special quality. This yarn simply needs people who are up to the task. So, in my opinion, “unruly” yarn is yarn that requires the craftsperson to possess certain qualities in order to bring out its beauty.

Exactly. That’s probably how it is. :-)

Then the title would be “Yarn Tamer”?

Wow, Ida, that’s such a lovely way to put it! :-)

Yeah, I think “unruly” fits best, too. I just finished a piece with that kind of yarn, and it looks great. Now I’m really glad I finally got around to working on it.

@mifas,
in addition to the yarn saver, yes :-)