I love a project that’s great for beginners but also gives people who might have more projects under their belts (read: more stash) to use what they have in a fun and creative way.
The Bernat Beginner Change Your Stripes Knit Vest is a super simple, boxy, garter stitch vest worked in stripes of different colors. As shown it uses four colors, but I will never stop saying you can use as many colors as you like on a project like this. This might be a great time to pull out a magic ball and use all the little random bits you have in your stash. (It calls for super bulky yarn but you could also mix it up by holding two strands of worsted weight together to use even more stash.)
As written you change colors after two rows, which makes sense because that gives you one garter ridge, so if you wanted to keep the look more uniform you could choose odd balls where you have enough to knit at least two rows (or four rows if you want the front and back to match).
This piece is literally just rectangles finished with a bit of garter stitch to form the armholes and then sewn together.
And while this would be a super fast stash buster if you’re the sort of knitter who needs such a thing, this pattern is perfect for beginners, too, because it has tons of pictures to help you figure out how to change colors and manage your yarn without cutting it every two rows. (This is actually a super helpful thing to know and past me would have loved that knowledge when I knit a baby blanket with tons of color changes and cut the yarn each time.)
Grab the free pattern and any supplies you might need from Yarnspirations.
[Photo: Yarnspirations]
