Crochet Flowers Ideas

One problem commonly faced by those who do a lot of knitting and crocheting is the question of what to do with their leftover yarn. These are the bits and pieces -- sometimes a few yards -- of yarn that are left over from the hats, scarves, mittens etc. that you have knitted or crocheted. What do you do with all of this yarn? Just throw it away? Not if you have a lot of it -- that's like throwing money away!

One possible alternative would be to try and group the leftover yarn together by color, matching similar colors together in order to have enough yarn for another complete project. The difficulty here in lies in the fact that yarns purchased at different times, from different dye lots, will not match exactly. But there is another option -- one that I thought I would share with you.

Recently, I came across some old patterns for making crochet flowers. Yarn required for making these flowers can be pulled from your leftover yarn basket, as crochet flowers are typically rather small. Making crochet flowers does not take very long, so this is the perfect project to work on when your time is limited, or when you are in between other, more involved projects.

Here's what I do: After completing a number of more extensive projects, I usually find I have a fair amount of scrap yarn left over. These I turn into a half dozen or so different crochet flowers. It doesn't matter that I may not have an immediate use for these -- I simply save them up in a small box that I keep in my sewing room just for this purpose. These little flowers are excellent projects to work on while I think about (and plan for) my next full-fledged knitting or crocheting project.

I need to emphasize that this is not busy work. The crochet flowers that I have prepared and stored can be used in a multitude of ways when I'm working on other projects . For example if I am knitting a sweater, I can attach a small crochet flower as an accent. The same is true if I am knitting a tassel cap or even a pair of mittens. Occasionally I will pop down to my handicrafts store and purchase a pin backing; I can take a crochet flower and glue it onto a pin and it makes a very nice brooch. I have given several of these away as gifts to my granddaughters and nieces.

Speaking of granddaughters and nieces, a great way to teach them the art of crocheting is to show them how to make these little crochet flowers. Again, because you can use leftover scraps of yarn they are cheap to make, and will not tax the patience of the little ones because they can be constructed pretty quickly. When they are finished, your favorite little girl will have a wonderful item that they can treasure as a keepsake, or save to use when they are tackling their first major knitting or crocheting project. Nifty, huh?

Well, these are my thoughts -- I hope I have given you some food for thought as to how you can be more prudent and economical with your sewing and knitting supplies.