I had an interesting thing happen to me in a different sub. The OP asked what to do with a tiny ball of yarn left over at the end of the project. I estimate it was only 10 or 12 feet of yarn. I replied: 'as a weaver that's too small for me. I would throw it away.' Very quickly I got five down votes. I wanted to take a photo of the scrap from my last project as an example. (I still have it because it was a gift project and putting it the trash would have tipped off the receiver). I decided against it because they probably wouldn't understand and I would just get more down votes.
I figured as weavers you would be more supportive of me discarding 12 feet of yarn. I'm not exaggerating when I say, I have hundreds of miles of yarn in my stash. I recently warped a single tube of yarn that had 3.8 miles on it. And that's not even one of the big ones. I have 52 miles of one color and 200-ish pounds of another(length unknown).
So, 12 feet of boring yarn that no longer matches anything else in the stash. In the trash.
I was about to throw out some loom waste, but in this cold weather, I decided to tie it all together as weft while I huddle under a blanket watching youtube. I'll use the weft to make scrappy towels. In the past, I have also thrown it away. Really depends on my mood and the amount of time (and storage space!) I have.
This! Ties up those cotton/linen thrums and make towels. Wool scraps make great little felted coasters. Donate to a local school art program. It’s all useful.
I would not discard anything less than 4 inches of yarn. I keep my loom waste to use as choke ties, to tie yarn that I spin, to tie yarn for dying, etc. It could be made into tassels. It doesn't take much to micro crochet earrings. If it's wool then it may end up in the center of a dryer ball or in some other felted project.
People pay money for loom waste for spinning and felting projects. Sari silk yarn is expensive af.
I use the longer warp remnants for crochet/a weird icord project, the mid-length for sashiko, and the shortest (less than 6 inches) are either tossed or turned into stuffing. I don't particularly care if other people throw all their scraps out, but I have found scrap crafting very fun. I like your use ideas! I'll have to try out micro-crochet.
Personally, I can't stand wasting yarn. At all. Fortunately I knit, crochet, and spin in addition to learning how to weave and have plans to learn how to nälbind after a big move coming up. Loom waste goes towards scrappy knit or crochet projects, while pieces too short to use in any craft get brushed out and used as stuffing or blended with other scraps and some fresh wool to spin new yarn. I understand that this isn't for everyone though.
12 feet I would at least think of donating! As someone who does tapestry weaving on a simple loom with a needle that length is super useable especially for tapestries with many details!
I guess I don't consider a leftover "ball" of yarn as loom waste. To me, personally, that is cutting things close on using my stash, but, happy dance, I made it. Loom waste is the warps used for tying on and those left when the weaving is finished.
What was the other sub? If it was knitting or crocheting or another craft that could use that much yarn, or one like anti-consumption or frugal, I understand the downvotes.
I understand it either way, if they're asking for ideas they already decided they don't want to throw it away, they didn't ask for help with that decision.
I think that's totally fair.
Myself, I am a hoarder and find ways to use anything I can... Like I'll take smaller leftovers of yarn and cut to use them for tying warp chains. Then they might get tossed/recycled after that. I've been saving my loom waste recently because I'm going to try to reclaim it for spinning. It might be a horrible idea, but I've seen some promising videos 😁
It’s one of my life’s missions as a weaver to reduce the amount of waste I have to as closer to zero as possible. I’ve got my tie on down to 2” per section and the non-negotiable waste on my loom down to 15”. I take that section to my weaving class and let them use it to learn to make pile.
12 feet is like 4 strands of loom waste lol. Those folks would have a fit if they saw how much waste I have. That being said, I do save my natural fibers and bundle them up for fire starters.
12 feet is a lot of yarn. Donate it to a creative reuse shop so someone else can use it. There are other fiber artists that would appreciate it, or weavers can use it for weft for a scrappy project.
I own a creative reuse/ secondhand craft supply store that has a drop-in crafting studio and community space in the store. I can guarantee the kids who want to experiment and play with art would use it in a heartbeat. If you care about arts or crafts or mutual aid or environmentalism or education, I'd encourage you to Google around and see if there's a place to donate.
Whatever makes the most sense for you! I keep all of my waste. The smallest bits go into recycled yarn or become stuffing for little ornaments, the slightly longer stuff gets used as ties, stuffing or recycled, or put in my class stash for teaching small weaving projects. Anything with length more than a couple of feet get turned into pieces for my stuffed animals or worry worms to give away. I actually have friends save all of their short lengths for me because they all know I can use them.
Right. There are so many uses! I like tying longer thrums together and using as weft in scrubby towels. Smaller thrums can be used in paper making or carded down into tweedy speckles for spinning fiber.
Maybe my loom is smaller or I was just taught by someone ridiculously thrifty, but I use larks head knots on leaders/dupes on the back beam and lash on to the front, so my loom waste is usually about 3” including a knot on one end, and maybe 8” plus the knot at the end- about 2” in front of the reed, the distance from the reed to behind the heddles plus a couple of inches- enough to get a decent shed because I’m too lazy to switch to a stick shuttle to weave a shallow shed. The theoretical loom waste is probably 30”.
The biggest thrums from my last project, which had a hem stitch and 1” fringe. Masking tape roll for scale
I do larks head knots on my sectional looms but just loops over the apron rod on the non-sectional. It's super easy as I use a warping board for anything less than 12 yards warped. The warping board causes loops.
After reading all of the responces I'm learning that there is always someone out there willing to use short little yarns. I will probably start giving it away now.
A lot of people use it for stuffing handmade plushies. I have also used it for tassels and braiding, tapestry weavers would love it since a lot of tapestry yarn comes in like 15ft lengths anyways. I also make stitch markers for knitting using tied yarn since it messes with my tension less than regular markers. Occasionally use them for trying on sweaters (put the yarn through the loops so I can try it on without switches falling off the needle), and as leaders for spinning.
Guaranteed someone will be happy to take it off your hands.
Yeah donate -there is probably a supply depot that schools and artists use near you. And plenty of use for yarn in string art, friendship bracelets, etc.
And honestly, Ive bought loom waste before. Very nicely coloured Welsh blanket loom waste. I'm not a serious weaver though but I'm using that wool for a weave on a circular hand loom. Snippets are saved up for stuffing a sound screen. And I'm using scrappy bits of wool yarn to make poms poms for sound insulation.
As a knitter dipping her toe into weaving, I'd probably use magic knots to make the yarn long enough to make granny squares to turn into a cardigan or top of some kind. Waste not want not as they say?
We (my daughter and I) are six looms deep into weaving and hundreds of yards woven. WAY past dipping our toes. The yarn has to be spectacular to save small amounts.
If you're interested, there are a lot of crafty groups on facebook - I bet there would be people who'd love to take those yarn scraps off your hands and would be willing to pay the cost of shipping. It's really good of you to even think to ask about your yarn scraps to be honest, so hopefully you find a way to recycle your yarn scraps into giving them a second life :)
I think giving it away is a great idea! My school's craft center has a box where anyone can donate or take yarn, knitting needles, crochet hooks, etc. and it's such a wonderful resource. There's also a box of yarn scraps that get used for choke ties, small mends, or anything else you can do with short pieces of yarn.
I really love making textured yarn from waste yarn, but I'm allergic to fragrances so it can usually only come from my stash or from people who share my extreme allergies. Waste like that gets cut up, blended, and re-spun, or just used as a weft accent in a random odds and ends scarf. I only have a rigid heddle and can't use floor looms due to disability affecting my legs, and I think that lends itself to scrappier things.
You should find a local spinner who likes to make art yarn if you want to reduce what ends up in a landfill.
I keep forgetting about carding up thrums. I might try it with some scrap wool this weekend
I need to find someone who’s posted examples for inspiration (or maybe just look at the bag of sari scraps I purchased 20 years ago and still haven’t carded/spun)
Weaving 8/2 cotton? I want to reuse loom waste but I don't. Weaving worsted wool? Right now I'm making a sweater out of that loom waste and working hard to keep the knots on the I side.... I definitely just knotted the pieces together to reuse
Just my speculation here, but a lot of people really hate waste, and "I can't use this so you should throw it away" (to paraphrase) isn't a sentiment that tends to go over super well.
To me, 12 feet is not anywhere near waste. I can use it for accents, tapestries, scarp yarn at the beginning of a project and of course knitting or crochet
I use all of the waste as weft. With these, I weave “weftover” cloth. 95% of my yarn is hand spun, with a few commercial warps. Throwing away the yarn I make would be a huge waste of time, resources and wool. Other yarn that isn’t suitable as weft gets brushed into a leftover batt and spun into leftover yarn, which is then used for weaving. If it is very unusable, it becomes stuffing for knit plushies.
You could make six children happy with homemade cat’s in the cradle set-ups? Contribute to a half dozen string bikinis? Crochet part of a mug rug? Donate to the zoo for elephant dental floss? Start a string ball? Lace up five stuffed turkeys? I mean, it just takes a little imagination! 🤣
I'm new to weaving and I was not prepared for the amount of loom waste. When sewing I save my scraps and make quilts or small projects or stuff things, so I have been tying together all the loom waste for scrap yarn. I really don't want to waste anything but I can see how it would get overwhelming. I generally try to weave extra little projects with as much of the warp as I can and then tie the thrums together to use that for something, but it does get overwhelming to try to use every scrap.
I spin, knit, crochet and weave, so I have a bag of waste scraps of all sorts of oddnesses that gets used to stuff the next stuffed animal I make. Cuts down on the amount of polyfill I have to buy, since I've never been a huge fan of scrappy projects so am unlikely to use it up that way
I have to compromise depending on what's going on in my life. Ive saved all kinds of unt scraps with good intentions and then those piles just make me feel like garbage. When I can I donate things to young crafters or art programs. If the pile gets a voice and starts haunting me it goes in the bin. My mental health is more important.
Honestly, I dump mine like you do. The local arts center will take lengths over 18” as donations for the kids craft programs, but at home I trash them. I could save the ends for all sorts of projects. But I don’t make those projects so then I’m hoarding unnecessarily. I’ve learned to make my peace with not saving scraps.
It’s likely because someone asked for suggestions on what to do and you said that, in your specific experience that likely does not apply to the person asking, you throw out what’s left instead of finding another use for them.
I'm with you. Sometimes I save loom waste if I liked a color way and want to remember it. Sometimes I use cut bouts as filler to spread knots in the beginning of a weaving. If I sewed, I'd hold onto it for pillow stuffing. But I don't so I don't!
My husband has become addicted to the small handlooms, so he's always asking for scraps. Spinning waste I use for stuffing little dolls and animals, keeping it all 100% wool.
I am a weaver, so yes, in weaving terms that 12 feet is nothing.
I am also an embroiderer, and that 12 feet (and all my thrums and yarn samples, etc) is a whole lot of surface couching yarn, braids, or other something another embroiderer could play with.
But there's no handweaver on the planet that wastes more yarn/fabric in their whole career than even the small weaving mills I used to work at wastes in one day. We should all be more creative at managing our waste streams, but we should be aiming our ire at the right targets, and a handweaver with 12 feet of leftover thread on a bobbin or spool mentioning it on reddit is terrible aim.
What was the other sub? If it was knitting or crocheting or another craft that could use that much yarn, or one like anti-consumption or frugal, I understand the downvotes.
I started by keeping every scrap, then common sense shook me by the shoulders and told me to be realistic. I can now discard scraps with no guilt and it's easier to organize my stash.
I mostly weave with cotton or wool. I use dummy warps or long ties to allow my rod to reach the back of the heddles to minimize waste.
And while I have been known to keep some thrums for use if I feel up to it - I wove a few dishcloths with thrums for example - I often tie them into bundles and hand cotton or wool in trees on our farm for wildlife to use as nesting material.
To keep and try to use ALL of the waste is not worth my time.
I didn't see the post in question, but I have some ideas for why people reacted as they did. I think maybe you got downvoted not because people disagree with throwing away waste in general, but because OP could absolutely throw away waste without any input from anyone. I think the implication of coming online and asking other weavers for ideas is that OP didn't want to throw the waste away, and was looking for other things to use it for. There's lots of potential uses for loom waste as a material (beyond weaving applications) if one doesn't want to discard it.
I think we all have to come up with a threshold for what we find useful to keep! I'm all for finding uses for yarn scraps but you also don't need to hoard everything.
It does seem ridiculous to get downvotes for a gentle comment like that, but, it's just some people clicking a button on the internet.
I wouldn’t feel too bad. Many of the same people shaming others for “waste” have entire stash closets they don’t touch in years. If you’re using the materials you have, I think there’s an argument to be made that is less wasteful than buying more materials when you aren’t even using ones you have
Very good point. I've often wondered about those who can't part with a scrap of yarn. The yarn users vs the yarn hoarders. The hoarders have their own groups. I've seen their stashes but not their work. They panic if their stash can't fit into two totes or a small closet but can't part with any of it.
It would be like a woodworker who couldn't part with sawdust.
I feel like a lot of people get hung up on small waste amounts because thinking about the big picture is too overwhelming. Just as an example: consider fast fashion. It used to be common to buy clothes and wear them for years. Now, even if you want to do that, most garments only have a few dozen wears max before they wear thin. We ship literal barges of waste clothing to countries that are drowning in our textile waste (not figuratively, there are places where the ground is invisible under layers of cloth and clothing, discarded by western society)
now, contrast that against a fiber artist who often makes things they will wear or people they know will wear. Garments that may outlive their wearer. Some waste will happen. It happens in factories too. I prefer to focus on my overall habits, reduce waste as a lifestyle and not fixate on “must use every thread” but then dump plastic and cardboard and other waste in multiple garbage bags daily. Not to mention, my time is a factor too. I don’t have unlimited time or storage. If the effort I have can go to making something usable or spending hours salvaging materials, well I know which one I’m choosing. Ultimately it’s a personal choice and I wish people wouldn’t be so judgmental of others on it. Like… do you really want your habits dissected? (At the people telling you that you are wasteful)
I understand it. I do a lot of knitting and crocheting as well, so I do save small amounts of yarn, but only when it's something I like. Something boring or not likely to be used goes in the trash.
OP, I am with you. If I’m feeling squeamish about what I put in the dumpster, I might bundle up some neatly tied thrums and give them to my local charity shop. But I’m not going to pretend that I am a zero-waste weaver. I’m not.
Ultimately, I believe purchasing new, virgin yarn is going to do a lot more harm than throwing away a few 10 yard strands. Overconsumption is a blight in the crafting community. Buy mill ends or go to your guild sales if you’re worried about the planet.
Throw it in a bag and donate to a classroom or local crafters. They might appreciate the extra supplies and we can always use more goodwill in the crafting community
Depends if I’d spun it or not or what fibre it is. Acrylic holds much less value than natural fibre around here, same with machine spun vs hand spun. Hand spun natural, I’ll probably keep because I never know when I’m going to have to do a repair or use it for a bit of embroidery etc.
I've used loom waste for narrow contrast stripes. Got to curate the scrap though, or you'll never be able to find the sort of thing you want in the scrap bin, so sometimes the bit you have is one to ditch.
Not judging you but I have been keeping my warp ends and i find fun uses for them. Might not be the kind of things others would do but: cut them into smaller pieces and hang them in a basket outside for the birds to make nests; weave colorful Y-branches that fall to the ground and decorate my garden with them; use them to wrap packages; use them in colorful pin-loom squares.
After many years of yarn crafting and, as a result, building a stash, I have little problem throwing out a few feet of yarn. It is not very useful to me, and if I want to make a donation to a cause, a whole skein (or close to one) is much more helpful to the charity knitter
I`m 100% with you, op. I like to keep my house tidy and I'd pitch a dozen feet of a yarn that matches nothing.
If the op of the original thread was asking for suggestions of what to do with it, though, the downvotes make more sense, since 'throw it away' wasn't something they were hoping to do. XD
Many of those people who down voted you would throw out a stained shirt or ripped pants without worry, which represents way more yarn than your loom scraps. We all make trash, it's just a fact of life.
I'm not going to pat you on the back for throwing something away that could just as easily be donated to second hand craft stores or put up for free on FB marketplace
We live on a planet with limited resources and limited space, and with overconsumption, waste is at an all time high. Okay, it's tedious, but the planet deserves better than what we do to it.
You should always be trying to figure out how to waste less.
"FB marketplace"? Really. ?? Who is going to take time and gas to drive somewhere to get a 12 ft scrap free? 12 ft? I wouldn't
I watch FB for crafting supplies. I see all the time listings totes full of partially used skeins sitting out there for weeks or months at a time. Almost no one is taking "scraps" and we have a huge crafting community in our metropolis.
At the various guilds im in - for supply swaps it's usually stated that only skiens that are 1/2 full or more should be brought for swap.
Charity shops don't want scraps. In terms of crafting supplies - They want whole / almost whole/ as close to New as possible. They seem "scraps" unsellable and most likely will end up in their dumpster.
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We live on a planet with limited resources and limited space"
OP lives in a home with limited resources and LIMITED SPACE. It's OP's home and OP's yarn. It's OP's right to determine what to save and give space in thier home. If OP gave space to every scrap because it might be useful someday for some unknown project then thier limited space would be overwhelming.
OP also probably has limited time - time is a resource - and maybe has chosen to focus their time on one fiber arts modality. It may not be practical for them to save scraps for another fiber arts modality.
OP didn't waste the yarn.
OP used the yarn.
It would be wasteful if Op had never used that skein or cone of yarn and that yarn just sat on a shelf. But OP used it. A large majority of that skien or cone went into a project that turned into something beautiful or practical.
A 12 ft section of yarn scrap is nothing to a full skein of yarn just sitting there.
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u/weavingalife Feb 17 '26
I was about to throw out some loom waste, but in this cold weather, I decided to tie it all together as weft while I huddle under a blanket watching youtube. I'll use the weft to make scrappy towels. In the past, I have also thrown it away. Really depends on my mood and the amount of time (and storage space!) I have.