Over the years I have made countless attempts at turning all my, my mother's, my grandmother's, and even an aunt's leftover yarn into SOMETHING.
My first attempt was a granny squares afghan when I was about 14. I was not skilled enough back then to have my squares come out even remotely similar in size from day to day. Clearly, I had not mastered tension yet. So, I tore them all apart.
Next I tried to make one single giant granny square. It buckled all over the place and was a horrible looking thing by the time it was about 5 feet across. So, I tore it apart again, and it sat in a bag for a couple years.
Next attempt was a popcorn blanket. This came out better, but I set my goal much too high and had attempted to make it large enough for a queen size bed. and with the popcorn stitches it ate yarn like crazy and I ran out when I had a strip roughly 6ft wide and only 2.5 feet high. I was also ridiculously sick of doing the popcorn stitch by then.Again, I frogged it.
I let the yarn all sit in a tote for a good 10 years, always nagging at me from whatever corner or closet it lived in, until I decided to try again.
About two years ago I picked up my hook again to make some throw blankets for my kids for Christmas, and decided to give the Scrapghan another go, pairing the yarns in the bin with a second strand of plain white. This looked beautiful, but again had to be frogged when I discovered I STILL had not mastered turning and tended to randomly lose a stitch on the turn. I was off to improve my skills before another try.
It sat waiting again for another year, when the yarn I had added grew the piles so much, and I had improved my skills enough, that I decided to try to make a six strand rug from it all instead.
The first time I tried a basic circle that increases with each row. I'd done these in single and double strand amigurumi many times with no problems, so it should be a cinch, right? Notsomuch.
By the time the rug/circle was 5.5 feet across it buckled so badly I would never be able to use it as a rug. So, I frogged it and hunted for a different pattern, and eventually settled on a hexagonal granny type rug.
Another disappointment. It laid flat but the holes in the pattern were so large that no one would be able to walk on it barefoot without risk of snagged and broken toes. Frog again.
Now I am back to trying the circle rug again, and not sure even now that it will work out. Its about 2 feet across and buckles a tad bit, but will flatten out if I walk all over it for a while. I am hoping beyond hope that it doesn't get any worse, but honestly don't feel too positive about it. It seems too similar to how the first round rug attempt went. I figure I will know for sure some time around the 5 foot mark again, as that seems to be as far as I ever get.
IF I end up having to frog it again, I would honestly probably be better off going through the hell of separating all the huge six strand balls of yarn back into single or double strand balls and just going back to the two strand afghan, but I REALLY don't want to go through that again because it is a horribly complicated tangly mess.
