A lot of the carded fibre batts I make are around 25 grams. I get it. 25 g doesn't seem like that much fibre. Of course, you can buy more than one to make more yarn, but sometimes you want to buy a batt because you want to try out the blend of fibres, or it's just far too pretty not to get one.
And the good news is you can make use of just one with some careful planning. I've put together some ideas to use 25 g of either unspun fibre, or hand-spun yarn.
1. Christmas decorations! This time of year, handmade tree ornaments bring a sense of warmth and personality to the home. Try knitting or felting baubles, small creatures, snowflakes and stars.
2. Knit a hat, headband or wristwarmers – either in a plain stockinette or ribbing, or add a simple cable.
3. Newborn knits! Hats and booties won't need as much cleaning, and are the perfect opportunity to use some special yarn.
4. Embroidery or visible mending – add pretty details or darn your clothes and homewares. I found a delightful article by Kate Larson about spinning for embroidery.
5. Colourwork. You can use your handspun as a contrast with commercial yarn to make it shine. Try stranded colourwork in vibrant hand-spun alongside some undyed wool yarn for a hat or pair of mittens, or use textured hand-spun as an edging on cuffs or necklines.
6. Ply it with something else. I often like to ply more 'special' fibre with some nice-but-plain, undyed wool. This can give a bit more consistency to the yarn, both in terms of colour and texture, as well as doubling the amount of yarn you have.
If you want to give any of these a go, head over to my collection of hand-dyed and blended batts and give it a go!
Pictured above: 'Firecracker', a 25 gram batt blended from British Bluefaced Leicester wool, lustrous soy fibre and textured kid mohair locks.
