More Stash Busting Projects to Pare Your Odd Balls

February 23, 2026 by Sarah White

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.

Have you read?

Beyond Basic Pumpkin Knitting Patterns

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.