Scrap busting…dishcloths, blankets and more!

I have a lot of wool.

A LOT OF WOOL!

And frankly, some of it is old and boring.

I maybe bought it for projects that never materialised or simply just bought it on impulse. Whatever the reason for it all being in my gigantic yarn stash, it needs to be used up…so I can find the room to fit more yarn in of course.

So, in the past week or so, I’ve done a few short projects to use up some leftovers.

Knitted Dishcloths

First, I made a few dishcloths with some 100% cotton I had leftover. I don’t normally like knitting with cotton as I find I have to hold it quite tightly and it hurts my hands after a little while.

And in full disclosure (I really wanted to write dish-closure here!), I don’t even use these kinds of dishcloths haha!

I know a few people who do, so they might get a few as a random gift the next time I see them.

I really like this yarn though, for all that I might whinge about cotton, this feels really nice and comes in some vibrant sunny colours.

It’s by James C. Brett and I believe it’s called It’s 100% Pure Cotton. I’m using shade IC08 below.

So far, I’ve done a waffle stitch pattern and a simple garter stitch one. Since I don’t use them, I’m not really sure how big to make them, so I’ll do a variety and see what works.

The waffle stitch

Cast on an even number of stitches

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Knit

Row 3: K1, P1

Row 4: K1, P1

Repeat those 4 rows for as long as you want it. The front looks like squares and the back is textured too, so I quite like this simple stitch!

Below on the left is the back of the dishcloth and the front on the right.

The back looks pretty cool too, though doesn’t it?!

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Knitted Blanket

I’ve had a pattern for a knitted blanket that I ripped out of a magazine years ago. There are 9 large squares and 3 patterns.

A complicated cabled centre square, 4 stocking stitch squares and 4 other cabled squares (with a simpler cable pattern).

I’ve done one square in aran leftovers so far, just a simple stocking stitch one that I can sit out in the garden with and not have to keep looking at a pattern. It’s not as big as I thought it would turn out to be, so I might have to do more squares or a huge border. Not sure yet. Maybe I’ll just see what it looks like stretched out and sewn together!

I’m using darker, maybe more autumnal colours, like orange and grey instead of the pastel colours of the pattern.

I’m not really a pastel person, you know?!

And since I didn’t think 4 balls were going to enough as the square below used up more than half a ball…I went and bought 2 more balls of a beautiful blue/ green colour.

Just in case.

The yarn is Stylecraft Special Aran and I’m using the following 3 colours: 1062 Teal, 1063 Graphite and 1029 Copper.

You can get the same yarn from The Knitting Network here.

I’m looking at the photo below and I’m wondering if I took the photo of the back by mistake. I was so sure it was the front. Ooops!

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That’s just a couple of things I’m doing to use up my stash. I have quite a few other projects on the go at the moment and it’s getting to the point where I need to finish something before I cast on anything else!

I have a few half balls of chunky yarn, a couple of DK weight yarn and a few odd bits in either 4ply or aran, so I can’t use all my scraps in one blanket project…more the pity.

I’ve seen a few patterns for chunky hats, so I might have a go at that. We’ll see. I have one bag of leftovers left, so it’s not too dire at the moment.

What’s dire is the fact that my drawers and boxes are overflowing with full balls and hanks of yarn ready to be knitted up into projects, hahaha!

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