Most of us will be spending a lot more time at home over the next few weeks.
We are sure that many knitters and crocheters will find things to occupy their time
, but here are a few ideas in case you are feeling at a loss.- Have a stash shake up. This when you take all your yarn out at once and take a look at what you have. You often get a surprise – finding a skein or a even a sweater’s worth of yarn you had forgotten about. You might see new colour combinations that also inspire you.
- Have a yarn swap with friends. Once you have done your stash shake up, you might well have yarn that you don’t think you’ll use but a friend might love it. So why not pop it into the post so they can enjoy it. They may have something to send you in return. Or share photos of unwanted yarn with other yarnie friends on social media and arrange swaps that way. You could even agree to donate a small amount to charity for each ball of yarn received.
- Collect up all your oddments and partial balls and wind them up into neat balls. You could even collect them together by yarnweight – DK, aran, etc. This might give you some inspiration for some colorwork or to make a granny square or mitre square blanket.
- If you have a Ravelry account, why not update your yarn stash list while you know what your have. Or simply lose several hours exploring Ravelry.
- If you have lots of colours of the one type of yarn, make yarn pegs as a handy way of working out colour combinations for new projects.
- Pattern filing. Once you have finished with your yarn sorting, go through your pattern collection bringing the items you really want to make to the top of the pile. Now you can try to match patterns to stash yarn.
- Find some storage for all your needles and hooks – one way to support your local yarn shop might be to buy a needle roll or case.
- Find ways to support your local yarn shop. Lots of local yarn shops have web or Facebook pages so check these to find out if they are offering ordering and deliveries or phone them to see what they have in stock that might work for your next project. We have even heard about yarn shops who will pick up simple groceries like milk and bread for you if they are dropping off a yarn order.
- Complete all the unfinished project – including sewing up and weaving in ends. Or unravel the ones that will never be finished.
- Start your Christmas knitting – it pays to plan ahead!
- Do an online workshop or learn a new skill from a book. Look out for designers offering online classes and clinics as they won’t be teaching at yarn shows.
- Join a knitalong or a crochetalong. These often have lively Facebook or Ravelry groups so they are an excellent way of getting some social interaction. Look out for news of a KnitPro project very soon.
- Tackle the heirloom blanket or shawl pattern you have always been putting off.
- Take part in an online knitting group – these are springing up across the country so look out for news on social media or ask friends if they want to try to do one.
If you have come up with other ideas we would love to hear about them too.
