Scraphappy: March Yarns
Arianell in green
Two enormous bags of scrap yarn arrived at the Quimper cupboard – skeins, and balls,
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$3.00
…and bags within bags of colourful bits and pieces. They all came from the bottom of a trunk belonging to my late mother-in-law, who collected interesting, useful and beautiful yarns and fabrics from charity shops.
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Floradora in flowers
We set about sorting, distributing and winding skeins into balls…
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small
…but some of the yarns were damaged so that I ended up with many small balls of yarn…
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shreds
…and some enormous piles of shreds and tangles. A relative has been collecting yarns in various conditions and colours for a current rug-making project and didn’t mind the short bits, so they went home with the shreds and with several of the thicker yarns.
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Little Cotton Rabbits
I decided to try making some Hitty dresses in colourwork, which fortunately only requires very small balls of yarn. I adapted some patterns from “Little Cotton Rabbits” (click here for the website). I thought this particular pattern (Autumn Leaves) looked a bit like shamrocks, so I knitted it in green and “oatmeal”.
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Inside
Inside the dress before weaving in the ends…
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choosing
…selecting two similar mother-of-pearl buttons from the oddments in the button basket…
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Stitch
…stitching them on…
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ribbon
…ribbon at the waist.
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back
…tied in a bow.
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Three
Here are: Floradora wearing (of course) Little Flowers using scraps of white, dark pink and green; Tipsy in the Autumn Leaves dress using scraps of green and oatmeal yarn; and Arianell in the Seed Stitch Grid using green scrap yarn.
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I am pleased with the results! The Little Cotton Rabbits pattern is designed for a seven-inch stuffed toy. I adapted it for Hitty by:
using wool fingering weight yarn instead of cotton;
using 2.5mm needles instead of 2.75 mm;
lengthening the skirt by adding an extra pattern repeat for Seed Stitch Grid and Little Flowers patterns, and by knitting extra stocking stitch rows for the Autumn Leaves dress until the total skirt length was 3 inches;
knitting the three first and last stitches in all bodice rows (including the purl rows), and making two buttonholes (rows 4 and 8 of bodice);
running a ribbon through the waist band at the decrease row which makes a natural eyelet row, the ribbon is tied at the waist to cinch it in.
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ScrapHappy is a group of bloggers using up scraps of anything – no new materials…Anything made of genuine scraps is eligible, and posts come out once a month on the 15th! If you like the idea and want to join the group, contact Kate or Gun who devised and run this group. Their blogs are the first two links below:
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Quimper Hittys 
glorious
Thanks! The poor Hittys have been feeling neglected, so I tried to make something special for them!
That’s such a lovely colour on Arianell, a real rich emerald. What are you planning with all that yarn?
I do love that green too! I’ve kept mostly fingering and lace weight yarns. My relative and I will have fun finding things to knit – we’ve been doing some colourwork experiments (for humans) lately – it is nice to have so many new yarns in so many nice colours to work with!
What lovely little ladies, adorned in scraps of yarn, memories memorialized in yarn. You’ve made such beautiful creations out of treasured bits of yarn, buttons and care.
The three girls just popped their heads up and looked hopeful when I started the project! I was so glad to find these patterns to play with, it took a few iterations, but it was quite a peaceful project, and satisfying to end up with these dresses. I plan to try some of the other designs too.
I love these little dresses more each time I see them! Brava!
Thanks! I have been having a fine time with this project, and really enjoy the results – I am glad you like them too!
the dresses are priceless, as I have recently found out how challenging it is to make such tiny Hitty clothes I’m more than impressed. Thanks for the link, I’ll check out the pattern. Arianell’s green dress is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day.
Smaller is definitely not easier! I do find that knitting is a pleasant activity, and the Hittys are glad of their wool dresses – spring has been taking its sweet time!
what beautifully dressed Hittys ^^
Thanks so much, the Hittys are always happy to wear my experiments!
Three beautiful young ladies! Such an interesting post, and I know your relative is happy to see her collection being used and loved.
I hope my late mother-in-law would be happy to know the yarns are being used and appreciated. She had a good eye for colour and quality!
Your little Hitty girls are adorable and the dresses are fabulous. They are getting quite a wardrobe! You are so very talented.
Thanks – I love their sweet faces too, and they always look so happy when I make them new clothes!
They are adorable! What a great use of “scrap” yarn!! You are so very clever.
Thanks very much! We are pretty happy with the way the dresses turned out…and hope to make up a few more of the patterns now we know where to add and subtract to make the dresses fit Hitty!