Tip Tuesday: Weaving in Ends

Hey Makers! Alison here, back with this week's Tip Tuesday. 

Casting-off a knit project is one of the most satisfying feelings for me... that is until I remember that I have to sew-in all of those pesky ends I've been avoiding. All knitters can relate to this feeling of simultaneous accomplishment and dread for the tedious task that lies ahead. Sometimes sewing in your ends can take almost as long as it took to create your finished piece in the first place. Oy!  

I wish that in this post I had a maker's secret about how to skip out on this dreaded task, but sadly I sew in all my ends just like you guys-- one painful stitch at a time. Instead today's tip is all about what do with your end pieces or scrap wool from your projects. 

A couple of month's after I opened my Etsy shop I realized that I had accumulated an entire basket or end pieces that needed to find a home asap. 
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Ready to find out what I did with all my end pieces? Let's go! 

​Use ends as stuffing for another project 
Using your scrap pieces of yarn to stuff another project is one of my most favorite use for my ends. Scarp yarn tends to give a nice plush shape to your knitted piece, leaving it feeling soft and squishy to the touch. The best part of this is that everything is hidden, so it doesn't matter what mix of colors you have left over, simply shove them in your new piece and you're good to go!   

Tie all pieces together to knit a recycled project
This tip only works if you have end pieces that are more or less the same yarn weight. Tie them all together to form one long string and you can make something new! It may take you a few months (or years) to accumulate enough scraps to make something big, but a simple kitchen cloth or baby hat can be made with minimal amounts of yarn scraps!   

​Use Yarn scraps to wrap packages
Wrapping my gifts and packages with my yarn scraps is probably my favorite way to recycle my ends. I send out all of my packages this way and couldn't be happier with the way it turns out. The best part? You can get as creative as you'd like. 

Arts and crafts for kids
Remember all of that cutting and gluing we did as kids? Yarn is a perfect addition to most arts and crafts projects for kids. In the past I've donated my yarn scraps to a local daycare center to be used as embellishments on drawings (leftover yarn makes great hair), or any other arts and craft projects you can think of. 

How else do you guys use your yarn scraps and end pieces? Tag #OMLTipTuesday on @ourmakerlife instagram  so I can peek at your page and see all the amazing ways you are using these tips - you just might have the next great Insta page that we'll feature!

Happy Making !
Alison, OML dream team 
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Alison is the knitter behind @la.reserve.design. She has always loved making things with her own two hands and the idea of turning strands of yarn into warm, wearable garments gets her itching to pick up her needles. With a background in textile design, she currently works as a design assistant for a menswear company in Montreal, Canada. Her favorite thing to knit is warm chunky blankets made of cozy, thick wool.