Knit Yourself a Special Little Something

You know I’m all about finding and sharing patterns that help you use your yarn leftovers. Here’s a sweet little shawl that’s meant to be made with the leftovers from a couple of other projects, as it calls for about half a skein each of two colors of sport weight yarn.

The Garter Smidgen by Fatimah Hinds was designed to be a relaxing knit that’s perfect for using up some leftover yarn. It needs 360 to 400 yards total (or about 329 to 366 meters) and measures 64 inches (162.5 cm) long and 17 inches/43 cm at its widest point. The crescent shape is worked in one piece, with wedges of garter and stockinette stitch broken up by eyelets.

It’s designed to use the amount of yarn you have, whether that’s two partial skeins, some minis or several smaller leftovers (since you can easily make more stripes, or wider stripes, as you like depending on the yarn you have available).

It’s a pretty quick and easy project worked in sport weight yarn, though of course you could use sock, DK or even worsted weight yarn, depending on the nature of your leftovers.

The pattern is available on Ravelry. This is actually the second shawl in the “smidgen” series. Fatimah also has a super cute little sock weight, single-color shawl worked in linen stitch that’s designed to use a single special skein, though here again if you’ve got a smaller skein and some leftovers or mini skeins you could throw in some stripes to make it bigger. (That pattern is also on Ravelry.)

Speaking of mini skeins, if you need even more ideas of what to do with your special little skeins (or lots of yarn leftovers), check out my roundup of mini skein/advent calendar knitting projects. These projects are sure to inspire you to bust your stash in a beautiful way.

[Photo: Fatimah Hinds]

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Blankets are a great blank slate project that you can change up in a million different ways. From color to stitch pattern to size, the possibilities are almost endless.

Jared Flood, the designer behind Brooklyn Tweed, was inspired by a log cabin quilt his mother made in 1995 to re-create that design in knitting, which led to more blankets and ultimate Brooklyn Tweed’s Knit and Crochet Blankets, which includes 25 patterns from an array of designers using different skills and techniques to make cozy, pretty blankets.

The patterns are divided into three aesthetic themes: traditions, minimalism and colorplay. The patterns are rated on a scale of one to five, with one being the easiest, and there aren’t any pieces rated five. Two blankets are rated one, 14 are two, eight are three and one is four.

In addition, three of the 25 patterns are crocheted, but they either use single crochet or granny stitch, so they are pretty easy even if you don’t do a lot of crochet. You can see all the patterns on Ravelry.

Some of my favorites include Rattan by Rastus Hsu, a chunky blanket worked in knits and purls with simple crossing stitches to make a raised woven look; Homewood by Seth Richardson, covers in dramatic, loopy cables; Ainur Berkimbayeva’s Tessellate, one of the beginner projects that doesn’t really look beginner but is totally worked in knit and purl stitches; Warp + Weft by Aist? Butkevi?ien?, which is mostly knits and purls but makes a fun woven look fabric that blew my mind a little bit; and the same designer’s Canyonland, a multicolored blanket with wavy stripes.

The patterns tell you how to resize them for different dimensions and include information on pattern repeats where it is possible to make a totally custom size.

Many different techniques are included here such as cables, lace, shadow knitting, intarsia and other colorwork techniques, as well as modular knitting and lots of sewing pieces together. The patterns are all presented with charts, but there are line by line written instructions available on the Brooklyn Tweed website if you need them.

The book ends with a deep dive into log cabin knitting, telling the story of the quilt Jared’s mom made and how he made it in knitting, as well as the multitude of variations you can make if you want your own log cabin style design.

The back of the book includes a little written information about some of the special techniques needed, but there are no photos.

This is a lovely book full of inspiration for knitting and crochet blankets for any skill level. If you like to make blankets as gifts or aspire to have a handmade blanket in every room of the house, these designs would be a great place to start.

About the book: 192 pages, paperback, 25 patterns. Published 2024 by Abrams Books, suggested retail price $24.99.

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