Stash Busting with Knitted Toys

I don’t knit a lot of toys, and I don’t know why that is, because I always enjoy doing it and they’re so sweet and fun to look at and play with.

But dolls and other toys are a great way to use up bits of stash because a teddy bear is still adorable in stripes, or you can make different parts of a toy in different colors to use up some of your little bits.

Looking for more Knitting patterns for Teddy Bears? Check it out here.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Dolls: I love these little Knubblechen dolls from Ravelry user pzi888. They’re worked in sock yarn, and there is an English translation. Manne has little cork dolls (there’s a translation for this simple pattern, too), while Tonya Gunn has knit gnomes in a smaller version than those first ones.

Animal toys: I love Mary MCK’s Syndey the Stash-Busting Snake, but there’s also Socktopus by Laura Edwards, Susan B. Anderson’s adorable Elefante, Sheldon the turtle by Ruth Homrighaus, Rebecca Danger’s Bunny Nuggets, the Owls Two Ways by Ana Clerc (that’s knit or crochet) and Bob, from Mochimochi Land, which may not be an animal so much as, well, I don’t really know (he’s inspired by the plastic floaty thing in the toliet. Eww.).

Balls and other toys: Check out Celestine from Berroco (my mom made my daughter one of these once!), the Braided Ball by Marleen Hartog and Doddy by Carol Feller, which is a ball made out of pentagons.

That should get you going! If you have any favorite toy patterns, I hope you’ll share!

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

Have you read?