Who loves a good stash-buster project? Me, me, me!
I like using up scraps and leftovers—fabric, yarn, orphan socks, old linens, whatever—to make something useful out of materials that would be otherwise disposed. I like the creative problem-solving challenge of taking random pieces, and combining them to create a cohesive whole. These colorful, scrappy placemats fulfill my Make Nine 2024 yarn project prompt.
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| Scrappy yarn placemats. 14" x 18" |
A yarn stash buster
I've included a yarn project in my Make Nine challenge now and again. I get a hankering for knitting or crochet when the weather gets cold at the end of the year... which coincides with setting goals for a new Make Nine. A yarn prompt made it into Make Nine 2024 after being absent in 2023.
For this prompt, I prefer a simple pattern that is easy to pick up and lay down without the stress of remembering where in a pattern I left off. This project also turned out to be another stash buster.
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| Using leftover cotton yarn balls. Mixing the colors. |
Leftover balls of cotton yarn and a few small balls of unidentifiable, abandoned yarns that were a worsted weight were gathered. Even a couple of knit swatches were frogged so the yarn could be recycled for this project.
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| Yarn swatches were unravelled and up-cycled for this stash buster. |
The linen stitch, a perfect stitch for colorwork knitting
The linen stitch is my go-to colorwork pattern. It's an easy two-row repeat. It makes a nice, firm fabric with an interesting texture. And it offers lots of opportunity for playing with color as it employs an alternating slip stitch (which causes the color of the previous row to interact with the color of the working row). I use the linen stitch for the majority of my knitted dishcloths, too.
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| Colorwork with the linen stitch. |
The new placements were put to use this past weekend.
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| Breakfast in th camper on knitted placemats. |
Third Make Nine 2024 finish
This is my third finish for Make Nine 2024. This is the 4th month of the year and 6 more makes to go. Making good progress!
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| Make Nine 2024 tracker. Yarn Project prompt. |
