If you’re a crocheter, or a knitter, then you know that a lot of the time you finish your project and you still have yarn left. What do you do with it? If you’re like me, you throw it in a bin or bag and move on to the next, fresh new skein of yarn. Eventually, though, those scraps of yarn start to build up, and it’s tough to get yourself to just throw it away. You paid good money for that yarn, and you’re just sure you’ll end up needing it the minute it’s in the trash.

I recently had a conversation with a friend about what to do with all of that scrap yarn. There are really a lot of possibilities. I found a few ideas that I love, and I thought I’d share them with you.

Donate Your Yarn

If you have a bunch of scrap yarn that is cluttering up your house, and you know you’ll probably never get around to doing anything with it, consider donating it. Call up a local daycare, preschool or elementary school and see if they have a use for it. Call some senior centers or nursing homes. There are a lot of crafts out there that only require a bit of yarn, and some of these places may be able to put your scraps to good use. Plus, it can be tough for them to budget in art and craft supplies, so they may be thrilled to receive your donation. This post on Craftsy talks a bit about donating your yarn, but also gives a neat idea for organizing and storing your scraps.

You could also donate it to the birds. I thought this was a neat idea, because it would help birds make strong, warm nests. Plus, it makes them more colorful. If your scraps of yarn are too small to really do anything with them, then this could be a neat alternative to throwing them away. I’m not sure how safe it is for birds, so maybe do a bit of research on type of yarn first.

Make Some Words

If you have kids, this could be a fun project for them to use up those scraps of yarn. Just grab some pipe cleaners next time you’re at the craft store.

With a glue gun, some scrap yarn, and a few embellishments, you can make a pretty letter to hang on your wall.

Or you can be a little bit more elaborate and make a whole name to hang on your wall.

You could also grab some nails and turn a boring fence into a great place to hang out, and a pretty background for photographs.

Make Some Art

This art project would be really cute hanging in a nursery, and if you have enough colors you could even do a more detailed design. This is done with rolls of yarn, but you could easily do it with pom-poms too.

You can turn your scraps of yarn into a pretty centerpiece for your table by gluing it to styrofoam balls.

Wrap Some Presents

You can use that extra yarn to wrap around gifts for an extra little touch. Attach a pom-pom or two, and it will look even better.

Make Some Bookmarks

Bookmarks made out of yarn are such a cute idea. You could really crochet pretty much anything to use as a bookmark, but I particularly liked these Harry Potter themed scarf bookmarks.

These pom-pom bookmarks don’t require any crocheting at all. It’s a project your kids could actually do with their scrap yarn, and would make cute gifts for their teachers.

Make Some Hat Ornaments

I thought these cute hats were a great alternative to making pom-poms. They’re easy enough for kids to do, and they’d make great decorations to hang around your house all winter long. You could even make a couple of them and add them to the top of your packages during the holidays. I make hats and scarves for everybody in the family for Christmas. I think these would be cute on top of those presents.

Make an Afghan

There are a lot of afghan patterns out there that are designed for using up scraps of yarn, but almost any pattern will work really, as long as you don’t mind sudden color changes and no real color scheme. A granny stitch blanket works well for this because it shows off each color quite well.

Ripple afghans also look nice with scraps of yarn because the ripples make the colors all stand out quite well.

You could also make hexagons with your scrap yarn and sew them together when you have enough for a blanket. I think this is a neat idea if you have a bin or something to throw them in. Just grab that leftover yarn when it starts to get overwhelming and crochet up some hexagons.

Make Some Pom-poms

Making pom-poms is my favorite thing to do with scrap yarn. I always like attaching them to hats that I make, but there are so many different things you can do with pom-poms. Go check out my pom-pom post to see a few of my favorite ideas.

I hope this post was helpful. What do you do with your scrap yarn? Have you found other ideas that aren’t listed here? Go drop by my Facebook page and tell me about it, or post photos of things you’ve made with scrap yarn.