Hi! I'm a new knitter and have recently been given quite a bit of nice yarn. I made a few scarfs and am now ready to start a more ambitious project. My new stash has the original information on it. I have 7/8/10 skeins of each. It ranges from cotton to all different types of wools and different weights. How do I find patterns to go with my the yarns. OH, the sash also came with a LOT of straight and circular needles.
If you use some of the washables, lap blankets for nursing homes are always welcome, and a good changae to experiment with different stitches. You can make strips of various patterns and then sew or weave together to make the size you want. Chemo caps and baby items also are good starter projects, and forgiving if you goof a little bit on the design. kNITTING DAILY free patterns is a great place to start.
Another good way is to make shawls, there are patterns of various abilities for knitters of various skill. They make great gifts, knit with love.
Lucky you to get all that fantastic yarn!!!
Take a look at www.garnstudio.com - a wonderfull Norwegian site with thousands of knitting patterns for free, also in english! You can search by gauge, too, so if you made a swatch or just look at the yarns label, you are able to find patterns to go with your new yarns! Good luck!
If you just have small amounts of yarn, you could make a multi-coloured scarf , hat or other small item, say 1 or 2 line stripes. You could also make small tension squares/sample swatches of different patterns and sew them together to make a sort of patchwork sampler and make it into a wacky baby afghan for a little one or a bigger afghan for a grown-up baby! Or what about toymaking?? This has got me thinking - I will now disappear to my stash room (yes I have a lot!!) and see what I can do!
One of my favorite ways is to make an afghan just like a super-big scarf. Cast on about 250 stitches on a #7 or #8 circular needle. Work each row in garter stitch AND at the beginning and end of each row, leave a 6"-8" tail. This way, your piece will already be fringed when you are done. I find it is prettiest to mix the colors and textures up every few rows instead of having big hunks of one yarn. My birthday is February 23, 1953 so my favorite stripe pattern is 2-2-3-5-3. That way, I never forget my pattern and I never lose my place!
Saspero - what a great idea!! I must give this one a try. I have a bundle of lovely earthy browns/mustards/burnt orange type colours and I think this idea will be a fantastic way to use the yarn, which is all pure wool. Thank you!!!
What a great idea!! I won't have to search any more!! Thanks a bunch!!
what an incredible idea!! I recently received a small stash and this will come in very handy. I especially love the manner in which you calculate row changes!
I make afghan strips using dishcloth patterns. There are so many on the web you could make 100s of afghans with them. I just lay out a lot of patterns, figure out which ones have similar numbers of sts and either add more edging sts or dec them. Then just start knitting, I leave the bottom edging after the first so they look better in a row. Do as many as you want to make the correct length for you. Then start another row. I sew the strips together, some crochet them. Uses up small amounts of acrylic or cotton or you can do the whole thing in 1 color. Each finished afghan is truly one of a kind.
I also do scarves this way. Sometimes I start with one dishcloth pattern, do it then fill in with st st until close to the end and then just do the cloth pattern from last ro to first to have identical ends on the scarf. They look great and everyone who gets one wants 2 or 3 more.
Sandi
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