Because I do a lot of amigurumi, I often end up with small amounts of several colours of yarn left over...Not enough to make another creation, but too much to throw away with good conscience!

I was inspired recently by a stuffed animal that I was given for a leaving gift from my last job: it was made from recycled yarn, and had a "patchwork" quality to it. Before I saw it, I thought the only thing I could do with my yarn "bits" was to make granny squares, which isn't really my thing.

Soooooo...Patchwork kitty was born (see pic above). It's a normal cat pattern, but instead of a single colour yarn, I used the scraps of my leftover yarn.

The way I achieved this was to cut the scraps of yarn into equal lengths. (Any lengths will do! Since I crochet cross-legged mostly, I used a length that was twice the distance between my knees, roughly.) Then, tie a few lengths together using normal square knots and start to string it onto a ball winder. Then start winding! As you get to the end, tie on another length. Try to be "random"...This can be hard, but my tip is to just not really pay attention to which colours you're grabbing! At the end of it all, you'll have a multi-coloured wound ball.

Once you've got your ball, just start crocheting! When you get to a knot, just make sure that the knot and ends are inside your 'gurumi, and carry on. It doesn't matter if you don't have a textbook colour switch (e.g. where you complete the last yo & pull-through of one stitch with the new colour), because the more mixed-up it looks, the better.

The only thing to remember when using this technique is that all the scrap yarns you choose should be roughly the same weight (kitty above was made using a combo of chunky and aran), or you will have difficulty shaping your 'gurumi.

Enjoy!

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