I've been knitting stuff for Johanne's ranch shop for a few years now, and all those little bits have been building up. Taking inventory, I found I had 8 or 9 colours of her 2-ply yarn in little balls, and the scale confirmed there was enough for a pair of fingerless mittens.
So with the help of the scale, I sorted it all into approximately equal quantities of each colour in two piles, one for each mitt.
Looks a mess, right? What do we do with it? Arranging things in a gradient order of some sort always helps, I find. (I've been arranging things in rainbow order, gradient order, whatever, since before I started school. I think it's a compulsion.)
A quick swatch suggested that I would have at least enough for 3-4 rows in each colour, more in a stranded pattern. The dark browns had the most, so I figured that would be cuff and trim, and I let the rest percolate a bit. Finally decided on a 4 row pattern repeat with the colours shading in and out along the gradient, and cast on to start.
I think I like the way it's coming out; now it'll just be a question of hoping the colours hold out properly to keep the sequence going. And the weaving in of the ends will be a chore. But hey, as a method for not wasting yarn, it'll do!
While my ideas were percolating for the mitts, I started a new project. I probably "should" have been spinning, or sewing quilt seams, or frogging something in my frog bag - you know, dealing with the things that are already on the to-do list - but I didn't want to do any of those. I wanted to start a new cross-stitch. So I did. I've had this cross-stitch kit around for years, and finishing Frederick last year means I can start something new, right? And the colours are just what I want for the space over my table, now occupied with a print of pansies in blues and yellows, and my dishes are mostly blue and white...As my friend Deb would say, 'Justify, justify, justify!'
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