Great Books for Stash-Busting

I have offered you a lot of great ideas this month on how to use bits of stash, big and small. But if you need even more ideas, you might want to check out a book or two on stash busting or one skein projects to get you even more inspired.

It happens that Knit Picks was thinking small, too, because it just released the Under 100 Knit Collection (there’s a crochet version, too, but we get a lot more patterns), full of 30 patterns for knit accessories like hats, socks, scarves, boot cuffs, bags and shawls, all of which use 100 grams or fewer of yarn and many of which have stash busting in mind because they’re worked with stripes of colorwork patterns.

Stashbuster Knits by Melissa Leapman is another great one. I’ve even kind of forgiven her for beating me to it (I’ve had notes for a similar book in my pile of stuff that never gets done since before her book was published). It includes 21 patterns organized by yarn weight so you can find ideas based on what you have a lot of in your stash.

One skein pattern books are also great to look at if you have a lot of single skeins or want to combine some of your little balls in a project. I particularly like One-Skein Wonders edited by Judith Durant (as well as Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders for those super-special balls) and One Skein by Leigh Radford. All are nice collections with a lot of variety that are sure to inspire you to work through some yarn.

Do you have a favorite one-skein or stash-busting book? I’d love to hear about it!

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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