To plan or not to plan… That is the question.
Often, when I begin an afghan I don’t purchase all of the yarn at one time, unless it is a solid or variegated that I have become smitten with and plan to use.
Generally, what happens is, I begin a project with some yarn that I have in my working yarn bins (completely different from my stash) and hopefully fish out enough to complete the project.
Another scenario is that I have selected too much yarn, in that case the remaining yarn goes back into the bin or I decide that I am going to start something and see how much I complete before running out of yarn, then I go to the reserve and see what will work. Since I buy many neutral colors to use for afghans and also use many non-dyelotted brands of yarn, this works well, especially if I need just a yard or so to complete the project.
Then there is the third type of project which requires me to go to the store and purchase something suitable to go with the rest of the project. This doesn’t happen often, because I try to plan and have more than enough – sometimes a skein or so remaining which I can use for another project.
My method would probably drive some people mad, but I look at it as a way to use up the yarn that I have in interesting and unique ways. When there is too much left from a project, but not enough for a scarf and too much to add to the yarn bowl for future mystery ball use, I will make afghans with stripes or bold swaths of color. When as many complete rows as I can finish are done, then I take the remainder and add it to the yarn bowl. I try not to waste yarn. When it happens, its because it is too twisted, or knotted, so I toss it.
Making an afghan and sometimes a scarf is like cooking, just throw some complimentary spices together and see what happens. In this case, using complimentary yarns will yield a n interesting project. This picture shows some variegated yarns that I am using for a granny square afghan. The plan is to complete as many rows of a particular color as I can and then each section of color is separated by 3 rows of black yarn. Next post, after I have completed a few more rows, I will show the work in progress…
Fellow crafters – do you always plan your projects or play chicken when you run out of yarn?
