Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Bust Your Stash in the New Year

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striped dog stash busting knitting patternsOne of my perpetual New Year’s resolutions has to do with winnowing down my yarn stash, both through getting rid of things that I don’t love or can’t imagine actually using, and through actually knitting with the yarn that I have.

Stash-busting projects are great because they allow you to use a lot of yarn — often a lot of yarn you might only have one ball of, or a partial ball, or a mini skein — in a project that still ends up looking harmonious and planned.

I have two stash-busting blankets on the needles (they’re kind of perpetual projects, too), but these ultimate stash-busting projects collected by Love Knitting are pretty great, too.

That dog! The cowl! The hat and pillows that could be worked in even more/crazier stripes. This is a great list.

Have any favorite stash-busting projects? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Penny Connor via Love Knitting.]

Looking to buy your Yarn online? Check out these online yarn specials.

Specific to knitters, you can join our Knitting Patterns Only group to get, well, knitting patterns, ask questions and gain inspiration for what to knit next.

Check out these books dedicated to Knitted Cowl Patterns still looking for more cowl patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

Comments

  2. I really like to save old pillows and use up those small amounts of yarn to make striped (or patterned pillows for throw pillows on the couch or just load up the bed with them. When I buy new bed pillows or just get tired of the ones in the living room, I just make new covers with the bits of yarn that have accumulated. Of course they look great with granny squares too, but those multi-colored stripes are hard to resist.

Have you read?

Knit Back at AI Patterns with the AIlephant

Lots of craft designers are understandably frustrated about the proliferation of AI “designed” patterns and photos of projects that have no basis in reality. People who don’t know how to tell if a project is AI are often also frustrated when they see a picture for something but there’s no pattern because it’s not real, or they buy a pattern that doesn’t actually explain how to make the thing or ends up looking totally different from the picture. 

Some designers have taken it upon themselves to try to make some of those AI patterns that we see online, often with hilarious results. 

Katherine Foster was inspired by a famous AI elephant to make what she calls “AIlephant,” which is now a free knitting pattern on Ravelry. 

Her prototype uses worsted weight yarn, but you can use whatever yarn you like to make different sizes of elephants. 

The elephant features a cable running down the trunk and a different cable pattern on the back. It’s worked in pieces that are joined and stuffed as you go. It uses German short row shaping on the body and includes written instructions as well as a chart for the cable patterns. 

Reading through the pattern, it sounds a little fiddly, which makes sense because it was designed to look like a pattern that isn’t real. But it’s doable, as evidenced by the handful of projects you can find on Ravelry. The ears on her version aren’t quite as big and round or maybe don’t sit in quite the same place as the AI version (which if you haven’t seen it there’s a photo of that on the projects page, too). But it’s a pretty honest replica of a dishonest photo, and a really cute elephant in its own right. 

If you make this one I would love to hear about it!

You can grab the free pattern on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Katherine Foster]