I only knit with scraps - read why (and how) here!

I am in favor of the 'zero waste' phenomenon, and I absolutely love knitting. I have combined the two things. Because I only knit clothes that are made from leftover yarn. Here you can read about all the advantages of making clothes from the products that others don't want.

They just lie there in the basket. They are redundant. They should really just be thrown out.

But I like them. I was only eight years old when I first saw the scraps of yarn and grabbed the knitting needles. In fact, I think the yarn scraps are far more interesting than a handful of plain colored yarn keys.

- All the women in my family knit, and as a child I loved to sit and rummage through my grandmother's and mother's scraps and find the right colors and put them together in beautiful combinations

I knit simple things like hats and scarves as a child, but when I hit the teenage years I put the needles aside. Only in my late 20s do I find them again. And here the remains have suddenly taken on a whole new meaning.

Alternative to fast fashion

Today I am 34 years old and I live in Copenhagen with my boyfriend, our son Carl, dog Charlie and then there is a little one on the way.
I've been bitten by knitting again and I've started developing patterns

I only knit with leftover yarn. Both because I think it's the funniest, but also because it has suddenly taken on a different meaning.

- I like using leftover yarn from a sustainability point of view. You have to use what you have, and that's what inspires me. It is super important that we have alternatives to fast fashion and the 'use and throw away' culture.

- I try to see value in things instead of just brushing it off. And then I love to go scavenging. Both in physical stores and online.

A creative leg span

In my early twenties I lack a hobby. I need something to sit with in the evening when I have time off from work and study. At the same time, I fall in love with a lot of sweaters, I want his mother to knit.

However, there is just the problem that I think her mother is far too slow to stick. That's why I find the knitting needles myself and comb through her leftover stock and look for yarn leftovers that are for sale. Although it might be easiest to buy a handful of plain colored yarn keys from a store, for me that would be a boring choice.

- I see it as a creative stretch to use leftover yarn. It forces me to be creative and think outside the box.

I make the patterns myself for what I knit. I have it all in my head, but because I just use leftover yarn, I am often surprised. Sometimes I also use yarn and colors I would never choose if it wasn't because they were leftovers.

I am so addicted to knitting that in February 2020 I will create the Instagram profile Frejasknit, where I will show off my creations.

Here I also start selling some of the sweaters I knit.

- All of a sudden I had knitted more than I could handle myself, so I put some of it up for sale, and it turned out that there was a lot of interest in what I was doing.

When you buy my knitting, you can also be completely sure that no one else has anything like it, because it is precisely made from scraps.

Choose the right yarn

Although I am in favor of using as much as possible, it does not matter to me which leftover yarn I use when I knit.

- I always check whether there has been smoke near the yarn or whether it has been hidden in a cellar. Then it smells, and I don't like that. But otherwise I'm not picky. I use everything from wool to acrylic and like to mix across yarn types.

I often look for whole bags of leftover yarn at DBA.

- Sometimes I have bought some leftovers which turn out to look different in reality than in the picture. For example, if the yarn is taken in poor light, it may look blue in the picture, but in reality be green.

Therefore, I encourage you to ask the seller to take pictures of the yarn in daylight – maybe even outside, so that you can see the real color. If I have bought a bag with several kilos of yarn, I usually select the ones I like and then sell the others on.

Throw yourself into it and let the yarn surprise you

If you have been inspired by me and would also like to knit from leftover yarn, I have a number of tips for you.

- You have to throw yourself into it and give the yarn a chance to surprise. The first five centimeters you knit can look absolutely mind-boggling, but when you've made half a sweater, it all suddenly makes sense, I say.

- I also suggest that you create an overall picture in your head of how the result should look, but then let the yarn rule.

- If you mix many types of yarn, the knitting strength can be difficult. Therefore, make some knitting samples first. Sometimes I use one thread, sometimes two, sometimes four, so try your best to hit the knitting tension.

Really good knitting skills!