Yarn Craft: Scraps Are For The Birds!
Spring is finally here! Do you feel like you’ve been waiting forever? Me too!
One of my favorite signs of spring is seeing birds fly past, busy with building their nests in hopes of impressing a mate with a decked out place to settle down. Even better is when a few birds decide to call the yard home and we get to hear their serenades and cheeping of brand new babies.
This year I’m trying out leaving nesting material out in hopes of seeing some scrap yarn get put to good use. I would be fun to see a splash of some pink or green yarn in a bird’s nest.
Hanging up some scrap yarn as nesting materials is a really quick project, great to do with kids.
All you need is a suet feeder, which is a wire cage that you can hang from a tree or hook. It’s meant for hanging suet cakes to feed birds. Flickers love them, so if you like woodpeckers, grab a few! These should be easy to find at and store that sells garden items. I picked mine up for $2 at good ol Kmart, even less when you factor in cash back from eBates.
And of course scrap yarn! See, now you don’t have any excuse not to hoard every little shred of fiber. You can tell everyone it’s for the birds!
Just fill the cage and find a good place to hang it up. If you have a fruit tree you’d like to attract predators for pests, you could put it there. My son and I hung ours up on a hook attached to the fence. We are patiently waiting to see some yarn disappear.
Some people feel that you should only use natural fibers when leaving out nesting material. I’m really on the fence about this. We included some roving, burlap, and wool, but there is plenty of acrylic in there too. My take is I don’t see the harm really, but I’m not an expert. I do believe that plastic in the environment is a huge issue. I see straws, wrappers, and plastic bags end up in nests, and I’m thinking this is more the problem to tackle. What do you think?
If you have an opinion either way, leave me a comment. I’d love to hear what you have to say.
Still got scrap yarn? Try these other yarn craft projects, too:
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Awesome! I too share my yarn for the birds to build nests. I love to watch them pull at the yarn grabbing at different kinds. I’m a bird lover!
Great, Stephanie! Do you find they like a certain type of yarn better? I’m surprised a lot of my wool didn’t disappear.
This is a really great idea. It would be so cool to find a nest in your yard with some of the scraps in it. Have any gone missing yet?
The level seems a little lower, but it might just be settling. I haven’t seen too many nests being built yet though.
What a smart idea. I’m definitely copying this!
Brilliant idea for the suet cage Sakeenah. I used a large, strong plastic whisk because that’s what I had…and I’ve been saving scraps for more than a year so there’s lots to go around on Dog Lake, which is where the whisk will be hung. I’m
running a sturdy branch through the bottom of the whisk for perching purposes. This is a first attempt at tempting nesters; I’ll keep you in the loop !!
A whisk is such a great idea, love it! Yes, please do keep me updated. 🙂
This is such a clever idea! I am thinking o putting up a bird feeder. This would be a nice addition to that space.