Review: Self-Striping Yarn Studio

I love working with self-striping yarns, and actually have a whole chapter in my colorwork book on the subject (and my favorite sweater ever, which is in that book, is made with self-striping yarn). But I’ll admit it’s not always easy to work with self-striping yarn, or to know what to make with it.

Carol J. Sulcoski’s Self-Striping Yarn Studio is packed with information about how self-striping, self-patterning and gradient yarns work, how to use them in projects and how to deal with them when your project don’t turn out exactly the way you wanted. It also has 24 patterns from a variety of designers for sweaters, scarves, hats, shawls, mitts and more using self-striping yarn and lots of fun techniques that show off the colors in interesting ways. Check out a few of the projects on Ravelry.

The projects are arranged by yarn weight, which makes it easier if you have some self-striping yarns in your stash you’d like to use for a particular project.

Some of my favorites include the colorful, lacy Celebrate shawl by Barb Brown; Sulcoski’s Wyldhaven Yoke Sweater, a simple top-down, circular yoke sweater worked in sock yarn that makes the colorwork look more complex than it is (her Belrose Striped Tam is pretty great, too, and could be a stash-busting project); the Fairfax Baby Jacket, also by Sulcoski, which uses a great, bright colorway and pieces worked in different directions for a stripy coat with lots of swing; Erika Flory’s easy Tracks Scarf, which combines a solid and a self-striping yarn for high contrast; and Sulcoski’s Sugartown Sweater, which uses odd balls and a tweedy background for a super casual garment.

This book is a lot of fun whether you’ve worked with self-striping yarns before or are new to their wonders, and you’re sure to find a few colorful projects to try out.

About the book: 144 pages, paperback, 24 patterns (11 rated easy, 11 intermediate, 2 advanced). Published by Lark Crafts, August 2016, suggested retail $19.95.

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns.

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn.

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options.

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners.

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set.

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn.

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers.

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.

Have you read?