Bust Your Stash with a Tumbling Blocks Afghan

It’s well know around these parts that I’m a sucker for knitting projects that are inspired by quilting (there’s a whole post full of quilt inspired knitting patterns you can check out for reference).

What I love even more? When knitting patterns that are inspired by quilts also lean into the scrappy nature of some quilt patterns to help you use your stash.

Of course the Tumbling Cubes Afghan from Lion Brand Yarn is designed to be used with their yarn (Vanna’s Choice, to be exact) you could also use whatever worsted weight yarn you have handy to make it your own.

Inspired by the tumbling blocks quilt pattern, this deign calls for 15 different colors of yarn, but for most of the colors a ball or less is needed, and you could always mix it up and use more colors as you like. Or you can keep colors in the same family as shown in the chart (so, like, all the greens are still green but you might use different shades of green for some of them) to help use up odd balls.

If you are using odd balls be aware that your finished blanket will need to be laundered according to the needs of the most finicky yarn you used. So if you have some wool in there, it will need hand washing. Stick to superwash wool, acrylic, cotton, etc., if you need it to be machine washable.

The pattern is charted and worked in stockinette stitch using the intarsia technique and with a striped garter stitch border that is worked one side at a time after the body of the throw is done.

The pattern is rated for intermediate knitters since you need to be comfortable reading a chart and working intarsia.

You can grab the free pattern from Lion Brand’s website. I don’t need another scrappy blanket project but I have to tell you I’m tempted by this one!

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

There are two schools of thought when it comes to instructional books about knitting. Either focus in one particular technique or kind of knitting (stranded knitting, say, or brioche) or try to cover a little bit of everything in a reference book that knitters will use throughout their careers.

The Knitting Book by Frederica Patmore and Dr. Vikki Haffenden aims to be the second kind. The subtitle is: a step-by-step guide to creating imaginative projects for the home and to wear. I’m not sure it does that, exactly, but it does include a quick look at a lot of different techniques and stitch patterns you might use in your projects.

A “guide to creating imaginative projects” sounds to me like it’s about design, but this book is not. There’s 1/3 of a page about altering patterns that only talks about how to add length to a sleeve and adjust where the increases go.

There’s nothing about measuring your body (the section on choosing a size in a pattern only suggests measuring a garment you already own), general garment construction, ease or stitch pattern multiples. The section on gauge (which is the last third of the page with choosing a garment size and altering patterns, discussed above) just says to knit a swatch, block and measure it to compare to a pattern, with no discussion on how you might use your swatch to design your own project or alter a pattern to meet your gauge.

If you ignore the subtitle, what you will find is a lot of information about different kinds of knitting and various techniques you might want to try on your projects. There are 20 cast ons and 15 bind off options, for instance, all discussed before you learn how to knit or purl. (Another quibble I have with this book is the order in which things are presented, but that’s relatively minor.)

You’ll find quick hits on increases and decreases, twists and cables, lace, colorwork, textured effects like fisherman’s rib and brioche, loops, mosaic knitting, double knitting, decorative stitches, shadow knitting, bias knitting, mitered squares, entrelac and more. There are tips for selvedge stitches, knitting with beads, adding buttonholes, picking up stitches and more.

A few patterns at the back give knitters a taste of some of the techniques included, but they’re not rated by skill level and the first one is a bias knit gradient scarf worked in six different colors of mohair, which isn’t a thing I’d wish on any beginner.

And I guess that’s maybe what my issue with the book is. I don’t know if it’s meant for beginners and it doesn’t seem to, either. I feel like this book would be overwhelming to new knitters and doesn’t really give you a place to start or all the information you might need to do projects well.

The variety of techniques included is fun, and there are also stitch patterns in the back you can use on your own projects, but again it doesn’t really provide any guidance for how to design your own projects so I don’t know how helpful all of that is.

I want to like books like this because having one reference that helps you with a lot of different things is great, I’m just not sure this is the one. If you can find it at your library or local book store and flip through it before buying, I think that would be a great idea to see if it’s a book that would be helpful for you.

And if you have this book and love it please let me know! I’m sure it’s good for someone I’m just not sure who.

About the book: 336 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by DK. Suggested retail price $40.

Have you read?