Scrap-ghans….

I love the idea of no waste at the end of a project. I thrill at useing up every last piece of string, and cannot tell you how pleased I am when the clipped ends pile at the completion of a project is less than a fistful.

I always wind up the last bits at the end of a project, to the point of ridiculously small balls that seem too small to do anything with. In fact earlier this year, when I emptied my craft room in the frenzy that accompanied DD1’s urgent return home, I purged my stash of precious little balls to the waste bin, not being able to justify the even now limited storage. Of course, as with all things let go in haste, the squirrel in me is severely regretting my hasty purge. Now I need those little balls to add to my mitred squares for the scrap blankets that I am making for Anita:

However, I think It won’t be too much of a problem. I still have a great deal of plastic bins filled with full skeins of stash afghan style yarns. And so, I will just have to get to knitting them up! And you know exactly what will happen as each skein gets knitted up. Yup – those little balls will appear to replenish my collection. Like I said, it will not be much of a problem!

It’s a never-ending cycle. Buy yarn. Knit yarn. Wind little balls. It makes me happy to see those little balls reproduce. And each time I pull out a familiar color I can reminisces about the original project that produced the little ball of color.

What is the fascination with these little balls? Well I just love scrap-ghans! I love the thrifty use of seemingly useless bits and pieces and the wonder at the time it must have taken to piece all these bits together.

Let me show you a prime example of what I’m talking about:

I received two of these gorgeous blankets some 20+ years ago from my ex-mother in law, Betty, for the DD’s beds when they were quite little. The blankets have survived numerous moves and were one of the few important things other than the gorgeous DD’s and my beloved Jack Russell terrier Buttons, salvaged from that first marriage! It was Betty that first put a crochet hook in my hand, and I am forever indebted to her for instilling in me my love of yarn!

The blankets, although slightly worn with time, but holding up extremely well (a credit to their maker who always produced beautiful quality items), are as charming as the day Betty put them on the DD’s beds, and I marvel every time I pull them out at the commitment and foresight it took to produce all those squares. Each blanket has approximately 220+ squares! I remember that at the end of each her project’s, after the last tails was darned in, out would come the crochet hook and the bag of little coloured balls to which she would add the newest ones, and little brightly coloured granny squares would magically appear, bordered by the lovely cream colour.

I never really thought about what they would create, or how they would look when all joined together. But I learned that even the smallest ball of color could add just the right bit of umph! to an otherwise bland square. I certainly had no concept of how many squares would be required, but I surely now understand why this would be the type of blanket produced over a long period of time, since a knitter or crochet-er would have to complete a large number of other items first to generate enough scrap balls of yarn to produce and collect such large numbers of squares.

So I have been making my own squares for a while now too. I have shoe box full so far, but probably not enough for a full Scarp-ghan yet. From half skiens and leftovers. These are solids, destined to be bordered by something, probably black to make them pop. Of course you know I'm keeping the leftovers from these wound up in little balls for, well, you know.

Google key words like scrap blankets or scrap-ghans or scrap knitting or crochet for some more inspiring examples. Go look at Sanna’s recently finished Mother and Daughter patchwork blanket for some wonderful inspiration.

And so with another recession looming on the forefront, climbing gas prices, and my creative spending subsequently being severely curtailed in favor of another commodity that I am very partial to, food, I intend to go back to my roots and that of my grandmothers, and do what women have always done in times of economic lack: use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without! When it comes to yarn, I’ll be using it up alright, every last little bit of string, you can be sure of that!

Knit on…….