Take on an Afghan for 2014

Back in January I started a giant stash busting garter stitch strip afghan (man, that’s a lot of adjectives!) that’s still not finished because I only pick it up when I’m not working on anything else and I’m pretty much always working on something else. But it’s like the comfort food of knitting because I don’t have to think about what I’m doing at all. Just knit, join as you go, change colors when you run out of yarn. Repeat and repeat and repeat.

A stash-busting afghan, whether on regular or giant needles, is a great way to start if you’re resolved to use more of your stash in 2014. This ripple chevron pattern from Mosier Farms is another great choice for stash-busting, or you can choose colors consciously and change them regularly, whichever you prefer. Or check out the Psychedelic Squares Afghan from Knitting-and, which makes crazy stash busting look really cool.

Or, if you’d rather, here are some afghan patterns with a more traditional look.

I have a moss stitch lap afghan over at About that I knit ages ago but is a really nice, easy project for keeping one person warm.

This easy striped garter stitch afghan from JoAnn is a great choice for using team colors or whatever colors you like.

Speaking of chevrons, the Farmhouse Afghan from Classic Elite Yarns uses contrasting stripes to make a mostly solid project a lot more interesting and beautiful.

The Block Afghan from Coats & Clark uses two yarns held together for lots of texture and a quick knitting sort of basketweave pattern.

Bernat’s Textured Afghan uses two colors in blocks and box stitch for a bold afghan with lots of texture.

Lion Brand has a beautiful Slip Stitch Afghan that shows beautifully the cool things you can do with slipped stitches and multicolored yarn.

Lois S. Young’s Guernsey Afghan is mostly a really simple ridged pattern with columns of easy cables. It would be a great first cable project.

Do you have a favorite afghan pattern? Please share!

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I’m not saying you have six different colors of super bulky yarn in your stash, but if you did, this would be a great use for it.

Anastasia’s Cardigan from Anastasia Pargett and Andi Satterlund is a cute, boxy, colorblocked cardigan with an open front that would be a fun first sweater pattern or first playing with color sweater.

It comes in 10 sizes, ranging from a chest measurement of 34 to 70 inches (that’s 86.4 to 177.8 cm for our metric friends). There’s no shaping at all except a little bit on the sleeves, so its a great choice for knitters of any skill level. The color changes are easy to do because all the pieces are worked separately and seamed together. And because there are different colors everywhere your seams don’t even have to be perfect to line up different blocks of color.

In addition to the color blocking options (which of course you could tone down if you don’t want as many color changes or don’t have that many colors) there are other ideas for customization through surface stitching. One of the versions shown here, for example, only uses five colors, while one uses contrasting yarn for the bands and more stitching to highlight the color changes on the sleeves.

If you don’t happen to have a ton of super bulky yarn on hand, you could make this an odd ball project by working multiple strands of worsted or other weights of yarn held together. Change colors when the pattern suggests or just whenever you run out of yarn to make it colorful and fun to knit and wear.

The pattern is available for free from Knit Picks, where you can also make yourself a kit using the suggested Fluff of the Andes yarn, a singles yarn made of Peruvian Highland wool that’s available in 26 colors.

[Photo via Knit Picks]

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