Pretty Ways to Use Your Yarn Stash

I’m all about using yarn stash most of the year, but this time of year especially I spend a lot of time thinking about and sharing patterns that you can use if you want to pare down your stash a bit. Whether you’re looking to use advent calendar yarns or the odd balls you’ve accumulated through the years, these patterns should give you some fun ideas.

The Happy Scarf is a free download on Ravelry from AC Kao that you can use as a jumping off point for making your own from your stash. They used light fingering weight yarn and larger than expected needles to get nice drape on the bias garter stitch design. It uses about 50 yards of each color but you can use more or less depending on your stash.

Another fun bias knit project is the Kruger Cowl from Bigger than Life Knits. It’s worked flat with a ruched pattern on the bias, and the ends are grafted together when the knitting is done. Each contrasting color is only about 9 grams, so you can use mini skeins or leftovers for this fun and colorful project.

Make a stash-busting hat for heads of all sizes with the Hudson Hat pattern from family roots. This stripey stockinette stitch hat can take all your worsted weight odd balls to make a super sweet long stocking cap with ear flaps and braids, and an optional tassel. It comes in five sizes from newborn to “big noggin’ adult.”

Sarah Ayers is taking the quilting trend in knitting a step further with the Starlite Blanket. Worked in sport weight yarn (though you could use different yarn to get blocks of different sizes) it’s made from classic flying geese units that are joined as you go to make the star squares. The pattern is on Ravelry and is sized to make a stroller sized blanket up to a king sized bed. That would use a lot of stash!

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.

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