More Stash Busting Projects to Pare Your Odd Balls

I am always game for more stash busting knitting projects, especially since I’ve come to realize I don’t have a project quantity of much of anything, so everything I’m making this year is going to include stripes or colorblocking regardless of the intent of the designer.

I shared some stash busting projects last month that were mostly smaller projects. This time around we’ve got some bigger/most colorful projects, sometimes paired with a solid color and sometimes not.

For example, the Book Club Vest by Amanda Lee. This one is a great way to use all your leftover DK weight yarn, and you can make the stripes as big or little as your yarn allows (and make the back and front match or not). It comes in 10 sizes and the sample uses 7 colors. You can find it on Ravelry.

While these are called Autumn Glow socks, using any leftovers would make these worsted weight socks colorful, cute and cozy. The design, by Ninni Enlund, is available on Ravelry and as shown is worked in four colors. They’re worked from the cuff down and available in six sizes.

Use all your rainbow colored DK minis (or any other leftover yarns of your choice) to make the sleeves and yoke of the Bright Axis DK top by Stephanie Lotven (Ravelry). This slightly cropped tee is worked from the bottom up in a single color for the body, with the yoke and sleeves worked flat as separate pieces joined like an edging. It’s available in 11 sizes.

Another colorful yoke that would be great to make with leftovers can be found on Marie Green’s French Picnic, a sport weight, circular yoke pattern worked from the top down with a solid colored body and a bit of lace on the sleeves and neckline. It’s available in nine sizes, and while the original only uses three colors, you could easily work the colorwork in more colors as you need. Grab this pattern on Ravelry.

This is a project that kind of stopped me in my tracks when I saw it while scrolling Ravelry. It’s such a fun contrast of a semisolid color worked in stockinette stitch and a more tonal yarn worked in a feather and fan variation.

(See more about feather and fan in this post on my blog; I also have a feather and fan scarf if you want to practice.)

The Nitty Wrap from Renate Dziedataja is worked in fingering weight yarn from a Finnish mill, and the name is the Finnish word for meadow. You of course can use whatever yarn you have handy.

It’s even more interesting because the project is worked from one short end across to make a long rectangle, and the two different sections are joined using intarsia. Generally we think of intarsia as being used for colorwork, so this is a fun different use of it. The lace section is charted in the pattern but it’s pretty easy to follow.

And of course it’s totally optional but to add a little more interest and tie the two colors of yarn together the designer also added some embroidery along the short edges on the stockinette side. A drawing of what she did is included but you can also add different designs if you’d rather.

The shawl has I-cord edgings to give it a nice finished look that doesn’t take away from the organic simplicity of the design.

As shown, the shawl measures about 22.5 inches/57 cm wide and 59 inches/150 cm long. You can of course adjust this according to your preference, the amount of yarn you have and the gauge you are getting. Try a thicker yarn to make a wider shawl if you like.

This pattern is available in English and Latvian for free on Ravelry.

Photo: Renate Dziedataja

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