Use Up Odd Balls to Make a Cool, Colorful Pillow Cover

This is a really fun technique from purl3agony. She made both a pillow cover and a coffee cup cozy using odd balls of yarn and Linen Stitch (which looks so cool done in lots of different colors).

But one big problem with odd ball projects is having to weave in all those ends, am I right?

She solved that problem by turning the yarn ends into a design feature. They are brought to the front of the work and tied into tassels that give the finished projects an even more colorful look.

I love this idea (and I’ve done something similar with a horizontal scarf before: change colors every row and leave a tail at each end to turn into a tassel).

Have you ever used yarn ends as part of the design in a project? I’d love to hear what you did.

[Photo via purl3agony.]

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The other day I saw a post from Pinterest about trends for summer and it said one of them was “cultivating whimsy.”

Well, I don’t know where Pinterest has been all this time, but we’ve been cultivating whimsy here at Craft Gossip for a long time. I love sharing projects that are a little different, things that make you smile when you see them, and will make you smile when you knit them and wear them or use them.

Such it is with the Tutti Frutti tee knitting pattern from Bea Creative Knits.

This cute little baby tee is worked top down in the round with contiguous shoulder construction to shape the sleeve caps. There are short rows for the neckline and folded hems with picot edging at the hemline, neckline and edges of the sleeves.

All of this would be great on its own, but then there’s the addition of a super cute fruit icon, which is added with duplicate stitch. There are a lot of options, including strawberry, banana, orange, cherries, watermelon, lemon, blueberries, kiwi, peach, dragon fruit, apple and pear, so it’s likely you can add on your favorite fruit.

It is offered in eight sizes, to fit a bust measurement ranging from 28-30 inches (71-76 cm) to 56-58 inches (142-147 cm). The design is meant to be worn with around 6.3 inches/16 cm of negative ease, but you can choose the fit you prefer. There’s also optional bust and waist shaping included in the pattern if you want to make it even curvier.

This is considered an advanced beginner or intermediate project because of all the skills involved, but it’s sure to be a lot of fun even if some of these techniques are new to you.

Grab a copy of the pattern for yourself form Bea Creative Knits on Etsy.

[Photo: Bea Creative Knits]

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