How to Make Fantastic Projects from your Knitting and Crochet Swatches

If you knit or crochet, you will have a collection of "swatches" (samples of how your full pattern will look). No one knows what to do with these swatches, and most people can't bring themselves to throw them out. Here's many options for you so you'll never suffer from this dilemma again.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• knit or crochet swatches
• yarn or thread in matching or contrasting colors
• crochet hooks which work with the size of yarn you've chose to use
• creativity

1. 
    
   swatches from say llama on Flikr

   The gauge swatches that we make for our knitting and crocheting projects can be used and made into their own projects. The possibilities are endless, but we'll address a few of those possibilities in this article here. Divide your swatch collection by fiber, and then by color.

2. 
    
   purse from staysik on Ravelry

   Determine what project you want to make based on the number of swatches you have collected. If you have A LOT of swatches, consider making an afghan out of them. When the swatches are all, or most of them are wool, you may want to felt them- either into coasters, or just a thicker material that you can sew together into a purse.

3. 
    
   Ponto e virgula's swatch from flikr

   You can make your swatches into a purse, a scarf, a blanket, a shawl, a headband, wristband, fingerless gloves, table-runners, trivets, pot-holders, laptop cases, rugs, mittens, hats, and much more. Anything that can be made from a square (which is nearly everything) can be created with your swatches.

4. 
    
   Veer.com

   To make something out of swatches that have a similar color-family, stitch them together with a new yarn that matches, and crochet them together into a scarf or purse or any of the other projects mentioned in step 3.

Tips & Warnings

• If you felt your swatches, then you can cut them into whatever shape you need it to be for your project.
• You can mix colors- contrasting or complementary and mix fibers, try wool and cotton, or some sort of novelty with cotton or wool...
• Look at projects and see if you can use your swatches to create them.

Resources

• Knitting links and books
• Berroco's website
• Craftzine
• Ravelry
• Craftster
• Arte de Shelley

[sneedc]

on 12/21/2008 What a terrific skill to have, knitting and crocheting, I am envious & jealous---these make AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME gifts for ages 1-106!!!! lol