Grab My Stash Busting Strategies Ebook

I have had the idea for a long time (since before my teenage daughter was born, probably) to write a book about stash busting for knitters and crocheters. Not necessarily about purging yarn (though I do have a book about decluttering your craft supplies, too), but ideas for helping you figure out what’s in your stash, what patterns might work for those yarns, and techniques to use to make your yarn go farther or to use more yarn in a project.

I’m excited to share that I’ve finally done it, and Stash-Busting Strategies is now available as a free download when you subscribe for email updates on my website Our Daily Craft.

This 50 page ebook covers all the basics of stash busting, including:

How to evaluate your stash and get it organized
How to figure out what those odd balls are: what yarn weight and material and how much you have, no ball band required
How to find patterns that will work with the yarn you have

After that, it’s rapid-fire ideas for ways to combine yarns so you can make the projects you want to make, or just to use more yarn so you go through your stash that much faster.

From adding stripes and other colorwork to pockets, hems, marling and more, I hope that these ideas will get you thinking about how to use your stash in ways you hadn’t considered before.

Rather than providing specific projects (since I don’t know how much of what kinds of yarn you have or what you like to knit), this is an idea book that intends to inspire you to shop your stash first and get creative. It includes plenty of examples from my own knitting life (because I’m notoriously terrible at judging how much yarn I need for a project) of things like working cuffs and necklines in a contrasting color, making a new yarn out of yarn I already have, and adding stripes to make a project the size it needs to be, just to name a few.

You can learn more about the book and sign up for updates here. I hope you’ll check it out!

Yarn Organization

22 Page Knitting Project Journal and Planner

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.

Have you read?