Weaving left over hand dyed yarn to create a handwoven luxury snood scarf

Whilst my main yarn craft is weaving, like many other weavers I also enjoy knitting (along with sewing, crochet, felting and many other craft activities). For knitters the dilemma of what to do with the left over yarn from a large knitting project will not be unfamiliar. Especially when the yarn is a luxury or handdyed yarn those precious skeins or small left over balls feel far too special to just tuck away in a basket. Recently, I found myself with a handful of yarn left after knitting a jumper, and rather than let it languish, I decided to weave it into a snug handwoven snood. This blog discusses this project using up the left over knitting yarn to create a beautiful handwoven wool snood.

The jumper knitting project

I often knit when I am on holiday, partly because I am not able to take my large floor loom away with me. This summer I challenged myself to finishing a jumper that I had started the previous year. It doesn't get much better than sitting outside near a beach knitting in the sunshine!

The jumper was a top down knitting project using 4 ply hand dyed yarn starting at the neck and working downwards with the result being a garment with no seams. The yarn used was 4 gradient skeins of hand dyed Birdstreet yarn starting with a deep teal moving to a paler teal, pale green and then a soft green with hints and speckles of deep burgundy and pink.

Having finished the jumper I was left with about 140g of yarn across the 4 different skeins. This was sufficient yarn to knit some socks, something which I often do with spare yarn. However the issue with socks is that the majority of the yarn would be hidden inside my shoes and I wanted to create something so that the beautiful yarn would be in full view!

Why weaving works for leftovers

Knitting a jumper requires a significant amount of yarn but one of the benefits of weaving is that small amounts of yarn can be used to weave smaller accessories or fabric for sewing projects. A loom lets you mix colours and textures, and even short lengths of yarn can become part of a striking pattern. Handdyed yarns, with their natural tonal shifts, look particularly beautiful when woven – the colour pooling that sometimes appears in knitting becomes lively streaks and flecks in the cloth.

Sample weaving on my TabbyandTweed square frame loom

I often do a sample weave before embarking on a larger weaving project and you can read all about sampling in another recent blog by clicking here: Sample weaving before embarking on a large weaving project

I decided to weave a small square of fabric on my TabbyandTweed square frame loom using the 4 different yarns along with some other pink yarn from my stash. This gave me a good idea about how the different coloured yarns would weave together.

Planning the handwoven snood weaving project using up left over yarn

• Loom setup: My TabbyandTweed rigid heddle loom is perfect for small projects like snoods and scarves. It is quick to warp and it doesn’t waste too much yarn at either end of the weave. I warped about 140cm across the loom which would be sufficient for the snood to be wrapped comfortably around the neck twice.

• Yarn choice: For the weft I decided to use the 4 skeins to create a gradient across the warp going from the darker turquoise yarn to the very soft green yarn. I warped about 1.4m length. The remaining yarn was then used for the weft.

  
  

  

  
  

• Design: Whilst hand dyed yarn looks great with plain tabby weaving I decided that for this snood I wanted to create some texture to the woven fabric. I therefore wove a pick up stick pattern which is a simple way of creating a beautiful design which I felt would show off the colours of the hand dyed yarn.

Weaving on the rigid heddle weaving loom

The four different skeins created a subtle tonal shift across the warp and I decided to use stripes of different widths of each of the yarns for the weft. I didn't want an ordered pattern so I changed the weft yarn randomly.

Finishing touches to the woven fabric

The handyed yarn is a superwash merino and nylon yarn. Superwash yarn is great in many ways because it is less likely to shrink on washing but for a weaver this needs to be taken into account. During the washing and finishing process this lack of shrinkage means that the woven fabric changes little. I was aware of this so I wove the yarn at a sett of 12epi rather than 10epi which I would normally do with 4 play woollen yarn.

Once dry, the fabric had a cosy and airy texture. The fabric was sewn into a loop with a neat French seam to create the final snood.

Will I be wearing the snood and jumper together?

No - I don't think so. Each I think is a beautiful garment better worn separately to allow for the beauty of the two different fabrics to shine through. The snood is now for sale in my website shop whilst I will be keeping the jumper to wear myself! Click here to shop the handwoven snood.

The joy of using every scrap of hand dyed yarn

There’s something deeply satisfying about turning what could have been an odd leftover into a finished, wearable piece. A handwoven snood is a quick project, a canvas for colour play, and a way to get maximum enjoyment out of some beautiful yarn.

Next time you find yourself with a small amount of precious handdyed yarn, consider giving weaving a try. You might just end up with a beautiful, practical accessory that carries the story of your jumper forward.

My handwoven scarves, snoods and accessories are available for purchase in my website shop for UK delivery.

Interested in learning to weave? Then my workshop page has all the details. Click here for details of scarf weaving workshops.

If you are interested in knowing what is on the loom, off the loom and workshop dates then do sign up to receive my weaving news emails by clicking here.