Hello knitting friends! Today I have some solutions on how you can turn your scraps into something you'll truly love--something you'll love knitting and also love having. This post is important because I'm sure that you, like me, have drawers and bins of leftover yarn. Sure you do! And no matter how well you try to maintain the oddball situation in your yarn storage, it ends up a mess. Yes? Well, I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the jumble and tired of storing and sorting and then rarely using those precious scraps. I had to fix this. 

Problem: Five drawers of tangled oddballs, loosely organized into weights.

Goal: Find projects for the best scraps and donate the rest. 

First things first: I dumped the drawers, all five of them, onto the floor. I thought if I saw it all in one place I'd have a better chance with being honest about what I would use and what would never get used. I wish I had taken a picture of that holy mess; it covered the entire floor of my knitting room. One by one I picked up each ball, gave it a good hard look and decided, worthy or unworthy? This is where I had to be honest with myself, but I kept in mind my last years of decluttering and how great it felt going through my house and removing the excess of the first world problem of having too much. I dropped the unloved balls into a large bag for donation, then organized the rest into projects. I promised myself I would start on the projects right away and honestly, I'm loving knitting through memory lane. 

Projects Number One and Two: I picked out the primo pieces and squirreled away two bags for future stripy sweaters for my grandson. One bag is wool and one is cotton. He adores his yearly striped sweaters from Grammy and this brings me much joy! Status: not started.

Project Number Four: Bunting! I used a free pattern, Trellis Bunting, using dk and worsted weights as is, plus fingering weights doubled. The pattern is easily memorized and a great travel or car knit. This is a project for my patio and I think I need about 100! Gulp. But the thing is, I don't even know if I will like the look of bunting on my patio, so I'll stop soon and hang a few strands up and decide. I hope I love the look because these are super fun to knit and they're gobbling up yarn. Each one takes approximately 23 yards dk or worsted weight, double that amount if using fingering doubled, and 30 minutes to complete. Status: 30 finished. My project page is here.

Project Number Five: I'm picking yarn from the same basket above to make the new Painting Bricks afghan from Stephen West. Love making this one too, totally addictive, as in, just one more color then I'll stop! You'll have the pattern memorized after a few rows. The pattern comes in two sizes but you can easily customize your size and my project page tells all. Status: half finished.

In the end I have moved from five drawers of oddballs to two and I have a growing bag of donation yarn. Plus I'm making some projects that I love. Win win! Here's the big thing to take away, don't let any yarn you don't absolutely love stay with you. You know in your heart that you don't need it and it's doing no one any good sitting in that bin. Give it away, now. FYI, I have turned into my grandson's preschool principal's favorite grandma, just by donating unused yarn and craft supplies. The school goes up to 8th grade and she says the teachers have numerous yarn projects for all ages. She'll take anything I give her. Yay!

Happiest May Day to you! In honor of May Day I filled my house with roses and took a ton of garden pictures because the roses are at their peak! I hope you find a moment today to sit down with a cup of coffee and enjoy. 

My new summer sweater is Cime Tempestose by Knitting For Breakfast. I love the name but had no idea it translated to Wuthering Heights until a few minutes ago when I googled it!

The sweater is knit in one piece, top down, with the yoke increases incorporated into the feather and fan pattern. There's bobbles too! I don't know why this gorgeous pattern only has 22 projects even though it's been out since January. Perhaps the designer is not all that well known, but look at the beautiful design page! They appear to be two sisters who team up to design. Their design style reminds me of a mix of Caitlin Hunter and Andrea Mowry. Check them out. I think you'll be as impressed as I was.

The yarn required is dk weight and I used a discontinued cotton, Calmer from Rowan Yarns. This pattern would also be beautiful in Summerlite DK, or in winter, long sleeves with Kidsilk Haze doubled. 

And in other news--last week we had a duck family wandering our street. Duck and quail families are infrequently found in our neighborhood and on the few times I've seen them I think they must be making their way to the creek, but this mama was walking in circles. As I got closer I heard little distressed duckling quacks and when I came to the storm drain I looked down and saw three ducklings had fallen down the grate. Their tiny quacks were pitiful and mother duck was desperate. Two neighbors joined me and we tried to lift the grate, but there was no way we could move it even an inch. I finally called the fire department and told them the problem and if they weren't too busy would they please come and save some ducklings? Five minutes later four of the nicest men arrived in their shiny truck thinking that an actual baby had fallen down the storm drain! They were relieved and amused to find they were there to save ducklings, but I assured them I was clear in my call that the tiny emergency was baby ducks, not a human, but somehow the message was mangled in transit. Anyway, they were good sports and proceeded to lift the grate and scoop up the ducklings. After they were returned to mama duck, they waddled off to where we know not, but it was the opposite direction of the creek and the grate. The firemen were so sweet and took pictures to show their families and the guys back at the firehouse. Thanks guys! 💜