Knitting

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Bust Through Your Stash with a Garter Stitch Blanket

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garter stitch afghanConfession time: my stash is starting to make me a little nervous. I have book leftovers, yarns I bought, things people have sent me to review, little bits of balls from projects I’ve finished and big projects I stopped in the middle.

Something needs to be done.

I have plans for some of this stuff; some will get used, some given away, maybe even a little sold. If you’re looking for a way to use a bunch of yarn (somewhat) quickly, check out the Color Blocked Afghan from Smiling Colors. More of a method than a pattern, she used two strands of yarn held together and changed colors five times across the length of the blanket.

You could also hold two different colors together, or have one strand the same color throughout and change the other one as needed.

Holding two strands together like that both makes it go faster and makes it go through yarn faster, both of which are great when you’re trying to process some stash.

What are some of your favorite stash busting projects? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo via Smiling Colors.]

Comments

  1. The end result would be much appreciated by the homeless. Friend pays a huge amount of postage to ship hers from the UK to Africa. My knitting group prefers not to pay that, we’re retirees, some on small incomes. I intend no criticism of anyone,it’s a free country for anyone to do what they like with their charity makes. but by phoning around locally, we’ve found 2 homeless hostels who welcome our stash-busting blankets.

Have you read?

Beyond Basic Pumpkin Knitting Patterns

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork. 

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn. 

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look. 

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me. 

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. 

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.