Sunday, February 8, 2009

Patchwork Stash Scarf

My knitting friends found a yarn that was made up of different yarns, tied together in about 4 foot lengths, and each yarn more special than the last. It had mohair and glitter and silky and metalic, changing on it's own as you knit... We were all in awe as the lacey shawl it became grew... So it inspired me to dig into my stash, and spend an hour selecting leftover bits of fancy, finer yarns and winding them into a ball of patchwork stash. I also found a few small remnants of larger exotic ribbon yarns and brought those out too, but did not wind to the ball.
Starting with 10 mm needles, I cast on 25 stitches with the stash ball, and knit 2 rows. (the whole scarf is knits and yarn overs - simple). The next row is K1, [yarn over twice and knit the next stitch] repeat bracket until end of row. Next row knit all the knit stitches and drop all the yarn over stitches.... pull gently after this row to stretch out the long stitches you have just made. I knit 2 more regular rows, then another yarn over row.... basically one fancy row to 3 knit rows. To make it even more fun, I tied in a ribbon yarn at every third fancy row, and used that larger yarn for the yarn over row, and the knit row back, tied off again and continued with the stash yarn (which was not cut, but just carried on the side for the two rows). The beauty of this is that you can do what you want, when you want and if by chance (like I did) you mess up and do an extra knit row.... who cares, it is so busy and lacey you can't track the design!



So dig down deep into your stash and see what you can create. Definately one-of-a-kind yarn!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful way to use up all the odd bits of yarn I have. I will make it wider and it will be one of the prayer shawls I make for my church's ministry! Thank you for sharing

Symphony Sue said...

What is the best knot to use for joining yarn to make a stash ball?

chris said...

I use an overhand knot, pulled really tight. Any knot will do, and the dangly ends can be trimmed or not. Anything goes here!