A gift of yarn....unwanted.

[Krystal]

So my mom likes to tell people I knit. She came over today with MASSIVE bag filled with yarn. I guess she mentioned this to my Uncle, who works for GoodWill. They had all this yarn no on was buying, so he packed it up to give to me.

But it's all so old, smelly and itchy... I pulled out a small bag or 2 of ok yarn. One filled with some soft cotton, and another filled with a pink mystery yarn that is very thick and thin. Enough for a scarf and hat set.

But now what? Normally I would tell people to give it to good will, but that is where it CAME from... I don't care to do charity work, and if I did, I certainly wouldnt use such itchy yarn, or seriously ugly colours. One bag is filled up with like 14 balls of neon mustard yellow. Seriously, I didn't know mustard yellow could be neon.


What would you do with it?

[HollyP]

Maybe you could contact your local nursing home or elementary school and see if they would have any use for it.

My sister volunteers at a nursing home. Every week they have a sit and knit group that will take almost any yarn since they really don't have much access to shopping.

[Jan in CA]

I don't care to do charity work,

In that case, I'm not sure. Maybe donate it to a different charity group.

[Debkcs]

I don't care to do charity work

One man's trash is another man's treasure, it's said. As Jan said, drop it off somewhere else, they may find someone who wants it.

[figaro]

I know you said you don't do charity work however maybe you can make pet beds with 2 yarns at the same time for a local humane society? You could contact them to find out how big they need them to be and just knit the squares or rectangles with double stranded yarn? Great mindless tv knitting and they (and the animals) don't care about the colors!

Otherwise maybe contact them and see if they already have people who knit for them and see if they would like to have it?

[Sandi]

I just dealt with the same thing. Even though my kids are done and through school, I dropped off a garbage bag full at my nearest elementry school with the art teacher.
She assured me that it would go to good use within the school.

Nursing homes, "Boys & Girls Club" , Brownies, i'm sure you can find someone that will take it off your hands, enjoy it and be appreciative of it......

And even though you said that you did not do any charity knitting, by giving the yarn away I believe that somehow it will make some small difference in either your life or that of anothers.......(maybe both)

[iwouldratherbeknitting]

All good suggestions.. and as an ART teacher.. I agree.. drop some off at your local school/s... teachers at ELEM schools will use it and art teachers in all grades can use it..

and, the donation to shelters, elderly groups are all good suggestions.

Just don't throw it away... someone can use it.. :D

Some people might be on limited budges and want to do charity knitting??

[Mariblue]

My local yarn store here takes yarn donations. They know a group that knits for charity. Maybe you could call your lys, and see if they would want it?

[kellyh57]

Not all yarn needs to be knitted/crocheted. You can donate it to groups that will make other use of it. My son's preschool is constantly making "necklaces" that use yarn, they also make their own "books" and use yarn for the binding, many art projects use little bits here and there, etc. I used to use it to tie around the top of jars with a little circle of fabric for a decorative touch (use for those layered cookie/brownie mixes).

Just tossing out some ideas of other uses for it since you say it's icky yarn. I'm sure you can find someone or someplace who will take it!

Kelly

[Mulderknitter]

These are all fantastic ideas. I too have been "gifted" not so nice yarn. There are plenty of people just on this site alone that are fine w/ olld, acrylic yarn. Just FEBREEZE the heck out of it and let those charity knitters have at it!