Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

General Stash-Busting Project Ideas

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stash bustingOver the next week or so I’m going to be sharing a lot of different specific patterns that would be good for stash busting, but first I wanted to offer some general considerations for using bits of stash in projects to get you thinking.

If you have a bunch of odd balls that you’d like to use in a project, stripes are of course the classic. Whether you add stripes to a simple hat pattern or make a horizontal scarf in which you change yarns every row (I have one over at About if you want to see how it’s done), using stripes and a simple stitch pattern is a classic way to use up bits of yarn.

You could also use each ball to knit a swatch (all the same stitch pattern or a variety) and sew them together into a blanket.

Another option is to work a project mostly in one yarn and use an odd ball to work a single stripe. Alternatively you could work just the cast on in a different yarn for a interesting look.

Stitch Patterns for Stash-Busting

Both garter and stockinette are great choices when you’re going to be working random stripes, but stockinette in particular looks best if you’re consistently changing yarns on the same side of the work.

Other stitch patterns that are great for stripes include chevrons, fan patterns and patterns with slip stitches like linen stitch and bamboo stitch.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on stitch patterns and projects that are great for stash busting, and stay tuned for a ton more ideas.

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Comments

  1. I made a blanket of hexagons, each knit in the round, outside edge to center. You don’t really have to worry about where the yarn runs out, so long as you leave a tail to weave in. I hate, loathe, abhor and abominate sewing blocks together, so I picked up stitches on edges, and made it seamless. Sort of the ultimate “un-vented” pattern.

Have you read?

Embellish Your Knit Dishcloth with Flowers

One great thing to knit when the weather is warm (or honestly any other time) is dishcloths and washcloths. They are fun and easy projects and a great way to play with new skills. Pretty washcloths make cleaning a tiny bit more fun, and they’re great to have on hand as a quick addition to a store-bought gift. 

The Daisy Delight Dishcloth from Yarnspirations is a fun one for using leftover bits of green in your cotton yarn stash. What looks like the bottom in the picture is actually the left side as you knit it, and each little color section is worked with its own ball of yarn, intarsia style. 

That’s a little fiddly for a washcloth, but the effect is cute, and it’s a simple way to learn the basics of intarsia knitting (as well as reading a chart) if you don’t already have those skills. 

One the knitting is done, you add the flowers with a bit of lazy daisy embroidery, which is really easy to do even if you’re not that into embroidery. You could also potentially add flowers in duplicate stitch if you’d rather. 

This may be the most work you’ve put into a dishcloth, but isn’t it adorable? It would be fun to use as a hand towel through the spring and summer, and if you already have some leftover green yarn from other projects it should be pretty easy to do. 

You could also take this same concept and make it different colors. All dark green stems with stars on top might be reminiscent of Christmas trees, or brown with daisy stitch on top in different colors could be trees in the fall. 

However you stitch it, this looks like a fun little project for knitters who are comfortable with intarsia and reading charts or who are ready to try those skills. 

You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

Book Review – Dishcloths for Special Days [Knitting]

Book Review – Holiday Knit Dishcloths