Twinkie Chan Do you ever look at the pile of yarn scraps from your knit or crochet project and think, “That is an amazing color palette!” Or do you ever have a tiny ball of unused yarn that doesn’t seem big enough for a new project but would be wasteful to throw away? Keep all your yarn scraps because you can turn them into magic yarn balls with invisible yarn joins! Magic yarn balls are made of many different kinds of yarn that you connect together. They are such a fun surprise to work with later, and you won’t need to weave in all those ends.
Best Invisible Yarn Joins for Magic Yarn Balls
You could really use which ever yarn join is your favorite. I teach the magic knot, the weaver’s knot, the Russian join, and a braided join in my class Invisible Yarn Joins for Knit and Crochet. My favorites to use here are the magic knot and the weaver’s knot. The weaver’s knot feels very efficient, especially with worsted weight yarn. However, with thinner yarns like mohair, the magic knot worked best, as the thinner yarns seemed to want to slip out of the weaver’s knot. If you absolutely do not want even in the tiniest knot in your work, you might want to use the Russian join, although it will take a bit more time.
The actual rolling of the ball is pretty straightforward. Be sure to change the angle of your yarn wraps for an even ball-shape as you go. You could also make a center-pull ball and use a piece of folded up paper or an old yarn label as a core.
Types of Yarn Scraps You Can Tie Together
Some of your yarn scraps will likely be too short. Something like 8 inches and under will be difficult to tie into knots, but you could certainly give it a try. It depends on how nimble your fingers are.
Different fibers might be easier or more difficult to join with knots, so definitely practice a little bit to see what works best for your ball.
I really enjoyed mixing all different textures of yarn into one ball, from smooth acrylics to fuzzy metallics to speckled wool and tweeds. You can combine different weights of yarn, but I would keep the weights as close as possible, depending on the final project you think you’ll use your magic balls for.
I’m often working on multiple balls at once. I think a really fun idea would be to organize them by color: all red scraps, all blue scraps, all neutral scraps, etc. I might try that next!
In addition to using your scraps for these balls, you could pull from skeins and wind something with more intention, where you select the color palette and control the amounts of each color. I use the word “control” lightly here because the color changes in your actual stitches will still be a delightful surprise.
What I Made With My Magic Yarn Ball
A super quick project for your magic yarn balls is a granny square – that you can save and use to make a bigger project later, like a blanket or a cardigan. I used my magic ball for the center of the granny square and then chose one consistent color for the last round, so even if you have all kinds of colors and textures in the center, you have one unifying color to tie everything together.
I love how you can get so many colors in one square, yet I only had four tails to weave in. That’s magic!
You could really use your yarn balls for any project where a surprise colorway would work with the pattern. A scrap yarn sweater is always fun, and I have fond memories of my Grandma Wendelton making corner-to-corner afghans with her scraps. Tian Connaughton teaches the C2C method in this pillow class, and you can work the C2C method for crocheting a big rectangle without following a color grid.
Finally, you can always trade magic yarn ball with your fiber friends. We should start a Magic Yarn Ball Club!