Stashbuster Knits
Tips, Tricks & 21 Beautiful Projects for Using Your Favorite Leftover Yarn
by Melissa Leapman
The title alone tells you what kind of a book you’re getting involved with here. Dealing with the knitter's stash. Oh yes, the "stash" is always something to consider when you knit and what knitter doesn’t have boxes, baskets and/or bags of left-over yarn from previous glorious projects? Of course the question is "What to do with all that yarn?" The yarn is too good to throw away of course, but there comes a time when every knitter realizes that something has to be done to make room for more. After all, the intent is to be organized and not let the stash be hindered by the lack of space as the orphan balls of yarn start to take over a room or even the whole house. As much as we love our yarn we need to do something wth it right?
Melissa Leapman has the answers and gives some very good advise on how to get it all together and organized in a working manner so you can have access to what you have and make a plan on how to incorporate it all into a knitted project. Yet it also doesn’t have to look like it was made from left-over scraps. She then gives you 21 projects as a jumping off point to choose from and start you on your way to using up all those scraps taking over your house.
When I first got this book I grabbed two beautiful skeins of wool from my stash to knit the Urban Knitster Slouch Hat on page 109 just to see how well written or understandable Melissa’s patterns might be. Well, I not only loved knitting the hat and wearing it afterward, but I also loved how the pattern was organized and easy to follow from start to finish. She even gives samples of how the hat might look in alternative colorways from variegated to a solid color. Nice to see it before you begin.
There are a number of projects in this book that I know for sure that I want to knit and love the many tips & tricks scattered throughout the book in notes within each project, but the most invaluable part of this book is in the beginning. I’m referring to the "How to get it all together and sort it" section of the book. Melissa recommends sorting by weight first and then color families. She tells us how to do this and even gives us a couple of charts to go by for us knitters who find this one of the hardest things to do without a ball band. A problem for many of those left-over balls of yarn. But don’t fear, Melissa has helpful charts also. She even includes a chart on how to get the weight you need by combining two or three other weights of yarn. Even picking out the correct color combinations can be daunting. But Melissa gives you all the information you need to be successful. I hardly have to stress how invaluable it is to know how to plan the color combinations. Oh how I love this potential in this book. Melissa explains it and breaks it all down to where anybody will have success by following her advise.
I know I'll be referring to this books for many other projects as well. Even just for the color combination secion alone. So now I'm going to take Melissa's suggestion of shopping from my Stash and making use of this wonderful book while knitting a dent into my own yarn collection. But first I need to pull all those hidden balls out into the open and find out just what I have. Thanks for the inspiration, Melissa!
The Urban Knitster Soucy Hat came from this book and it's now one of my favorites.
But now I have to get back to my knitting. Catch ya later knitsters!!
