What to do and not do with scrap yarn

This week’s tip is about the intersection of Earth Day and knitting leftovers. SPOILER ALERT stop giving yarn leftovers to birds and animals. If you read nothing else in this blog post, please read that sentence. Seriously, if you haven’t heard yet, the important part is that you quit putting yarn outside for birds and other animals.

Knitters and Crocheters have big hearts. We love to shower loved ones with handmade gifts. We love our yarn. Wool, acrylic, cotton, milk fibers, silk, whatever – we will kit and crochet with anything that we can get on those knitting needles and hooks. We get giddy over the latest yarn colors and colorwork techniques. Projects that require multiple skeins or balls of various colors are all the rage. However, all this crafting has one unintended consequence: Yarn Waste.

Yarn Conundrum

We all have a rainbow of unwanted yarny bits in our homes and at the bottom of our project bags. Seeing yarn scraps go in the trash tears us up. We can’t throw it out, but it can’t keep living with us. What a waste! It’s a yarny conundrum for sure. What can we do?

Don’t Do This With Your Yarn Scraps

I don’t know when, but some thoughtful soul started telling others that saving leftover scraps for the birds and other wildlife was a good thing to do. Good for the environment (it’s not) since it’s not in the landfill. Good for birds to nest with (nope, sorry, it’s not). Then we learned better and this act of kindness was revised. The new guidance told us to use organic or wool yarn for the beasties in your neighborhood. Turns out that’s a really bad idea too. Did you know that? I just learned that this year. Times change, we learn more, and then we can do better.

Audubon’s Advice – Avoid Yarn for Birds

According to the Audubon Society website’s list of materials to avoid:

“Yarn or string: Long strands of yarn and string can wrap around a bird. Hatchlings are particularly susceptible to such entanglements, Gordon says. Yarn in a nest can get caught around a baby bird and cut off circulation as it grows.”

Holy cow! I had no idea what a problem this was. If you want to read the full list of what you can and can’t put out for birds, please use the link above to Audubon’s site.

This leads me to yarn bombing. When the event is over, be sure to have plans to clean up the bomb. Leaving it behind can have deadly consequences for mother nature’s critters because they will try to use it.

So, this Earth Day and every other day, let’s do something wonderful and SAFE with our yarn scraps. Here is a list of ideas to keep those yarny scraps out of the landfill and keep our wildlife safe too.

10 Things to Do and Make With Scraps of Yarn

1. Save them in a decorative glass jar. It’ll be a beautiful artwork filled with your knitting memories.
2. Create holiday decorations by filling glass ornaments with the bits of yarn. Go wild and use all the colors, or just a few. By the way, great holiday gift too that you can personalize with color! College colors, wedding colors, or the recipients’ favorite colors. You get the idea.
3. Donate a box full of yarn scraps to your local after school program. They can use them to make colorful yarn pictures or other works of wonderous art. Bonus points if you include Elmer’s glue and saved up cardboard for them to glue the yarn too.
4. Use the yarn scraps to fill small stuffed toys or pillows.
5. Make a scrappy blanket. It’ll be full of life with all those yarn colors. There are lots of knitting and crochet patterns for these. Make one square at a time and keep adding to it. Lap sized blankets are great for gifting. Or spread the love and donate them to retirement homes, cancer centers, you get the idea.
6. Make a crazy ball. Tie the ends of the scraps together and wind into a ball of yarn. Keep adding your scraps until you have enough to make a garter stitch shawl or sweater. Leave the knots in place. It adds a bit of whimsy and fun.
7. Fill a clear glass lamp with your yarn scraps. Or make the scraps into a giant i-cord and put that into the lamp! (Memo to me to go get a lamp!!) Great gift for your LYS!
8. Use the leftovers to make pom poms for hats.
9. Knit or crochet bookmarks for a local reading program.
10. Knit or crochet tiny stuffy toys with the multitude of scrappy colors. Then stuff those with the rest of the yarn scraps.

Look at all the things we can do and make with our leftover yarn! Clearly we have lots of fun options for giving our treasured yarn scraps a new life that won’t’ harm the environment or the animals.

---

What else can you add to this list of ideas? I would love to know what you do with all of your yarn scraps.