When making scrap ghans do you...

[jenuwhiner]

just reach in the old stash bag and pull out a color and go or do you put some sort of rhyme and reason to your color choices?

No matter how hard I try and I can't just grab and go. I always carefully plot out what color goes where. It drives me crazy. I want to be a grab and go kinda gal.

[PBLKNP]

I'm one of those people who have to organize the colors, too! I do what I call "Scrap Sweaters", where I'll knit or crochet a sweater using up my scraps, but I always end up lining up balls of yarn on the bed, agonizing over what colors should go with what other colors.

[shelly_bean]

i never grab and go.. Are you kidding?? i usually line it up and make it work. I spend hours in the yarn aisle at hobby lobby putting yarns together asking people if they go together. I'm such a nut.

[jenuwhiner]

but I always end up lining up balls of yarn on the bed, agonizing over what colors should go with what other colors.

That's why I try to make myself grab and go. It usually only works for the first color.

 

I spend hours in the yarn aisle at hobby lobby putting yarns together asking people if they go together. I'm such a nut.

I do that too! The whole purpose of scrap anything is to get rid of the extras you have. I always end up buying more just to make it come out looking right.

[Debbi-a1]

I grab and go. But if when I did a lined one (just basic single crochet) I made sure I had enough yarn for each row.

 

Well let me correct that. I do grab and go, but I do usually do solids together and verigated together. For example, I have a never ending granny square scrap afghan (been working on it for over a year and figure it's a never ending project-- with all those ends to weave in:lol) and I'm just purposely using solid colors.

 

The 3SUB afghan idea (Scrap Afghan CAL) is based on grab and go and the afghans turn out beautiful! Well the bright red, bright yellow and tan wasn't the prettiest. But the rest of the afghan was beautiful (and so warm this past winter). Again I did mine is all solids, another started using mostly verigated (at least 1 strand in verigated).

Debbi

[dragonpuck]

i try to grab and go , but i don't like too much of the same color together so if i just did blue and i pull out another blue , i drop it back in and try again.

i also found that almost anything goes together if there is a row of black in between

[SlowCrocheter]

Grab and Go. Only way to go. lol

[crochetluvknot]

I grab and go to me it makes it funner that way

[cjansen]

I can't grab and go, but I work one color at a time. The one I am working on now is a crazy quilt style, "squares" of colors in no pattern what so ever. But I try to add a color that is not like the ones around it when I run out of one color and go to the next.

[dewbaby00]

I have tried to just grab and go but I never can. EVRYTHING has to be in a certain order. So my 14 yr old DD has most of my scrap yarn and I am making her grab and go, so far so good she is even letting her little DS and DB close thier eyes and pick the colors. So far she only has 2 colors pale purple and neon orange.

[proudmama762003]

i have done both - and both have come out very nice

 

i have a never ending ball of yarn that when i get small balls i just add them in until it is really big then i start crocheting. it's kind of fun that way because by the time i get around to starting a blanket i have forgotten what colors there are in there and so i get a surprise when i start crocheting

 

i have had more compliments on the crazy mish mash ones than on the planned out ones - kind of funny!!

[LI Roe]

I am always making scrap afghans with those little leftover balls that seem to multiply when you are asleep. The only thing I don't do is put two of the same colors together or even shades of the same color. Sometimes I line them up (like a row of toy soldiers) to get a general idea of how I like them, other times I just grab the next skein. I have done four square granny afghans, with each large square having a different color round. Right now I am doing one with a few rows of white in dc, long dc, chs, then a row of color, then the same sequence of white. Coming out very nicely. I have even done one with rows of white alternating with different variegated yarns. You wouldn't think they would go but they do. I have several variegated squares done now in different color variegated, when I have enough, those will be put together using black as the main color. Saw it on another board and it was just dynamite.

 

LI Roe

[jenuwhiner]

i have a never ending ball of yarn that when i get small balls i just add them in until it is really big then i start crocheting. it's kind of fun that way because by the time i get around to starting a blanket i have forgotten what colors there are in there and so i get a surprise when i start crocheting

That is an awesome idea! My kids told me they were bored so I might put them up to rolling up one big ball of yarn for me. Then it really will be a surprise!

[Debbi-a1]

That is an awesome idea! My kids told me they were bored so I might put them up to rolling up one big ball of yarn for me. Then it really will be a surprise!

Those are called "A Magic Ball "(also see Magic Ball Knots?). I did one in a purse and turned out great. I had a ton of white that was more off white and none of the yarn not good for giving or using for anyone else, so I divided the colors with white (I figure it would be good enough for me).

Debbi

[jenuwhiner]

Those are called "A Magic Ball "(also see Magic Ball Knots?). I did one in a purse and turned out great. I had a ton of white that was more off white and none of the yarn not good for giving or using for anyone else, so I divided the colors with white (I figure it would be good enough for me).

Debbi

Thanks! I've never heard of it. Now I'm excited all over again.

[jenuwhiner]

I got home last night and didn't have time to work on my magic ball. I did a lot of thinking about it though, trying to decided if I wanted to color coordinate it or just get after it. I guess I thought too much about it because I dreamt I made one that was so huge I couldn't get it out of my living room or even make it roll so I could crochet off of it. My husband stood by it and moved it as I needed more yarn.

[Elle]

just reach in the old stash bag and pull out a color and go or do you put some sort of rhyme and reason to your color choices?

No matter how hard I try and I can't just grab and go. I always carefully plot out what color goes where. It drives me crazy. I want to be a grab and go kinda gal.

 

OMG, I am just like you! I put three times as much work into my "easy, quick scrapghans" than I ever do into even the most complicated afghan pattern I've ever done, because I can't just grab a color, use it, grab another, and so on, When I see the ones that other people do I am amazed by how pretty they come out, yet when I do the same thing they did, mine look awful! The colors look hideous together and I hate them! And they can be the SAME COLORS that the other people have used together, yet when I do it, I don't like it! I'm so odd, I swear. I think there's something wrong with me!

[jenuwhiner]

What's bad? I will even go out and buy more yarn to even something out instead of just grabbing another color from my scraps.

[chichiwawa]

I try to be a grab and go kind of girl. I really do. But I have found that I have some type of as yet undiscovered OCD that only applies to crochet. I have to match my colors up, which is a laugh in of itself since I can't match colors even with a color wheel. I am the woman in the yarn aisle asking total strangers, "Do these colors match?" I am a lost cause. My dh says matching up the colors or buying new yarn to go with it defeats the purpose of a "scrap" afghan. What does he know?

[Debbi-a1]

I got home last night and didn't have time to work on my magic ball. I did a lot of thinking about it though, trying to decided if I wanted to color coordinate it or just get after it. I guess I thought too much about it because I dreamt I made one that was so huge I couldn't get it out of my living room or even make it roll so I could crochet off of it. My husband stood by it and moved it as I needed more yarn.

I love that dream though!

What's bad? I will even go out and buy more yarn to even something out instead of just grabbing another color from my scraps.

I did that with a magic ball purse. I used white to go between the colors every now and then, simply because at first I didn't think I had enough colors then it looked good.

 

And scrap afghans can be color cooridinated. That's how all the ones on patterns look. And I've saw some and they are nice. There's no wrong or right way.

Debbi

[Michaels Gram]

Thanks! I've never heard of it. Now I'm excited all over again.

 

What they also do is not bury the knots but leave them sticking up and of course trim them so they are all the same size and it creates a little texture to the afghan. That is what Dot Mathews did with her Magic Ball.

[jenuwhiner]

But I have found that I have some type of as yet undiscovered OCD that only applies to crochet.

 

I have that too! I made an afghan for my grandma several years ago. I have been begging her to send it back to me for quite some time now because while looking at a picture of it I found a skipped stitch.

 

I did that with a magic ball purse. I used white to go between the colors every now and then, simply because at first I didn't think I had enough colors then it looked good.

 

And scrap afghans can be color cooridinated. That's how all the ones on patterns look. And I've saw some and they are nice. There's no wrong or right way.

Debbi

 

I love the ones that have no set color pattern to them. I want to be able to make one that has no reason behind it just color. I just can not make myself do it.

 

What they also do is not bury the knots but leave them sticking up and of course trim them so they are all the same size and it creates a little texture to the afghan. That is what Dot Mathews did with her Magic Ball.

 

I finally started my magic ball and I am doing a russian join with them. I am hoping by doing that I will be able to just crochet and not think about what order my colors are in.

[magiccrochetfan]

Some very funny stuff on this thread:lol

 

I spend hours to make sure the colors look random:P

[amdm]

This is a most interesting and entertaining thread. It has also given me some very good ideas. But I have to say that I could never grab and go. I generally use my leftovers to try out new stitches and patterns, and even for these experiments, I have to find colours that go well together. This trait causes problems for me because where I live there is very little choice available in yarns, and I have to buy from what is available, and then spend hours trying to make them look good together.

[HappyOldCro]

I divide the yarns into color groups, red shades, blue shades, green shades etc....

I grab and go within the shade groups but when switching to the next group I try to see if they work well together. I guess that makes me kind of fussy, but not fanatical ???