Use Your Stash on this Stranded Knit Sweater

I am known to be a big fan of stash busting projects (I even have a whole little ebook about it!) so when I saw the Stowaway pattern from Wool & Pine I knew I had to share it, and I might just have to make it, too.

The body of the sweater is a solid color, but the sleeves and kangaroo pocket (!) are worked in stranded knitting, which you can make match across the pieces if you have a lot of the same colors, or you can mix it up and use all your odd balls in one place. Or you can use fewer colors than are called for and use a great amount of each color if that’s how your stash works.

This project calls for DK weight yarn, and the pattern lists the weight in grams for each color used so you can go hunting in your stash for just the right thing. And if you don’t have enough leftovers, you can leave off the pocket, though that seems pretty drastic (there’s a cropped and pocketless version shown on the pattern page on Ravelry if you want to see what that looks like.

The pattern comes in 10 sizes, ranging from 32 to 66 inches, or 76 to 168 cm in the chest. It’s meant to be worn with 2-6 inches/5-15 cm of positive ease depending on what works for you. And as mentioned if you don’t want a pocket you can knit a shorter version, or do the longer sweater without a pocket if you’d rather. It’s made by picking up stitches at the bottom front, knitting flat and attaching to the body at the top with mattress stitch; no seaming required!

Check out all the options and grab your copy of the pattern from Ravelry, or buy direct from Wool & Pine.

[Photo: Wool & Pine]

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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.

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