December 15, 2017
Dear Everyone:
How much yarn is “enough” yarn?
As “Jeannie” would say, “You can never have enough yarn.”
When you follow a design pattern, the instructions typically tell you
how much yarn you will need for the project.
The instructions will also “suggest” that you get a little more
yarn, just in case. Also,
the amount of yarn is usually given in ounces, or so many skeins, or
balls, of whatever yarn the instructions are trying to sell to you.
After all, selling yarn is what they are in the business of
doing.
Then there is the total amount needed.
You may only need as much yarn as there is in half of one skein;
but you can’t buy half a skein.
As “Marshall” once put it:
“You know, you may only need one sewing needle, but you can’t buy
just one needle. You have to
buy the whole package.”
Another facet of the “how much yarn do I need?” question is the color of
the yarn. Manufacturers used
to recommend that you get “enough” yarn all in the same
dye lot.
This is because lots of dyed yarn differ, even if it’s all the
same color. If you’re making
a sweater in “Lemon Yellow” and one skein is a different dye lot than
the others, you may end up with a “Lemon Yellow” sweater with one sleeve
that’s darker or lighter than the other.
More recently, this has been less of a problem.
Now that yarn is dyed by computer, each dye lot is so close to
all the others than mere humans can’t tell the difference.
In fact, many manufacturers now label their products “No Dye
Lot!” Nevertheless, some of
us still try to find all the skeins with one lot number.
Just in case.
The result of all of this is a tendency to have some yarn left over when
a project is completed. A
ball of blue here, half a ball of pink there, a quarter-ball of really
dark green in the corner.
What to do with all this leftover yarn?
Some people get rid of if by donating it to the
Senior Center that I
frequent. Seriously, they
have a multitude of plastic bins devoted to various colors of balls of
yarn given to them. One bin
is marked “Pink”. Needless
to say, it’s filled with many, many varieties of pink yarn in a plethora
of shades somewhere between red and white.
Volunteers at the Senior Center will hunt through the donations
to find just the right color to make a baby hat, which honestly doesn’t
take all that much yarn to complete.
As for myself, I have several bins at home that are occupied by yarns
that either were leftover from some project, or haven’t yet made it to
the “project” stage to begin with.
Some years ago, for Christmas, I decided to make crocheted wine
carriers for “Richard” and “Marshall”, in their college school colors.
That would be
Oregon State University Orange-and-Black and
University of Oregon Almost-Kelly-Green-and-Yellow.
They were gag gifts, really.
The real gifts were the accompanying wine stoppers with the school logo
on the top. And they didn’t
use that much yarn either.
So I had orange, black, not-quite-kelly-green, and yellow yarns in my
leftover bin.
A couple of months ago, I decided to try making a crocheted dragon, from
a book of “critters” that I had acquired somewhere.
Orange seemed like a good color for a dragon.
I wasn’t entirely sure about the author’s technique for making
nostrils; but other than that, the orange dragon, with brown accents,
came out reasonably well.
I brought it to our more-or-less-every-other-Saturday Needle Arts group
meeting at the
Martinez
Public Library and everyone agreed that it was
quite a handsome dragon.
Except that it needed scales down the back.
Our group leader, “Marni”, was completely taken with it, cuddling it in
her arms, cooing and nicknaming it “Fred”.
Once I added the “required” scales down the back, I donated the
dragon to the Senior Center.
Then I went to work on another dragon, which I nicknamed “Barney”, this
time in leftover green yarn.
The green yarn and the orange yarn were from the same manufacturer, the
same weight and type. I had
used the same amount in the original wine carriers.
Nevertheless, it became obvious that I was not going to have
enough yarn to complete the green dragon.
Everyone at the Senior Center directed me to the bin of green yarn
balls. I did find one ball
that was almost the same color, although a lighter weight and unknown
fiber. (I usually use cheap
acrylic yarn because it doesn’t require dry cleaning the way wool and
silk do.)
I went to my normal sewing-and-craft store in hopes of finding the same
yarn, by the same manufacturer, which just might be close enough.
After all, if the dragon’s arms were a different shade of green
from his legs, who’s to know it wasn’t planned that way from the
beginning? But the only
green the store had from that particular manufacturer was intended for
Christmas. More “Forest
Green” than “Kelly Green”.
Nevertheless, in another part of the yarn aisle, I found a green made by
another company altogether.
It was “Emerald” green. But
when I held a small ball of the original green yarn up to it, I couldn’t
see the difference. Maybe
it’s like automobile colors.
All the manufacturers buy their paint from the same sources, so one
“graphite gray” is pretty much the same as any other.
I swear, you can’t tell the difference between Barney’s fingers
(original yarn) and his arms (new yarn).
Or you couldn’t if you could see the dragon.
“Barney” wasn’t in the display case for more than a few minutes before
one of the quilting ladies snapped him up for her
coming-in-January-grandchild.
One of the advantages of volunteering at the Senior Center, in
addition to having an outlet for completed projects, and an endless
supply of leftover yarns, is getting first dibs on items for sale.
Something to keep in mind.
Love, as always,
Pete
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