Whatever your craft, specialist tools and materials are essential. Quilters need thread, fabric, cutting tools; card makers need paper, scissors, knives, adhesives; and knitters need yarn and needles. Some knitters are focussed on each pattern or project, buy just the yarn required for the project and use it all up, leaving no “waste”. Others, like me, buy yarn without a thought as to its purpose, other than “ooh that would look lovely as a shawl”. Consequently, I have a lot of yarn – and I do mean a lot – sitting in storage boxes and chests of drawers, just waiting for the perfect project to come along.
For the last couple of years I have been making a conscious effort to use only stash yarn for anything I want to make. I have a queue of patterns waiting to be made and I promised myself I would make only those I could find yarn for in my stash. The results so far are mixed! Some patterns, like Ranunculus, instantly lent themselves to being made in a couple of balls of yarn from the depths of my stash. Others, such as The Weekender, I eventually had to buy yarn for.
But all is not lost, because making these patterns in the yarns I chose gave me a renewed interest in the yarns themselves, leading to ideas for using yarn from stash to make meaningful knitted objects. These cowls represent some of the ideas generated by the deepest of stash, yarns I have been hoarding for well over ten years, waiting for the chance to make them shine.
I love Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweeds yarns, in both Aran weight and 4ply. With its rich colours and fabulous flecks, a lot of it has found its way into my stash over the years. I have used both weights in these cowl designs, but you don’t have to – anything you have in your stash of the appropriate weight can be used.
Similarly, for the laceweight fluffy yarn, I have used several types to illustrate their value to these designs. I very much like the Silk-Alpaca laceweight by Kremke Soul Wool; it feels so soft and doesn’t shed all over your clothes as you work with it! Modern day silk-mohair yarns similarly are easy and pleasant to work with. I used both Rowan Kidsilk Haze and Debbie Bliss Angel in the designs below. A little of these yarns goes a very long way when working at a large gauge, making the cowls economical and quick to knit.
All four patterns feature resizeable options and ideas for adapting to your yarn quantities. All four are available individually and as a collection on both Ravelry and Payhip.
Airy
The first of my experiments in stashbusting designs is Airy, a cowl that uses both a standard 4ply/fingering weight yarn for strength and a fluffy laceweight silk mohair yarn for warmth and texture. Airy is very simple, can be made in any 4ply/sock/fingering/light fingering yarn, with the addition of a little silk-mohair or other fluffy laceweight. The effect is stylish, light and airy (as the name implies), great for spring or autumn days to give a little extra warmth, and knits up to any size you want quickly.
See the Airy Cowl on Ravelry or Payhip.
Toasty
Toasty is another great stashbusting cowl, warm and cosy, and is even quicker to knit than Airy. It is a funnel-neck cowl, knit in Aran weight/worsted weight yarn held double with the silk mohair laceweight. I used silk-alpaca laceweight for one of my samples and it is dreamily soft. Two sizes are given in the pattern, depending on whether you like your funnel-neck to be close or more relaxed.
See the Toasty Cowl on Ravelry or Payhip.
Dotty
Another 4ply/fingering cowl, this time using a simple mosaic pattern to create a bubbly texture of silk mohair lace framed by the 4ply yarn. Another cowl that is easy to resize and make in any length, from short neck covering to long snood.
See the Dotty Cowl on Ravelry or Payhip.
Wavy
I love the Old Shale pattern (known in the US as Feather and Fan), and very much wanted to use it in a cowl. Wavy is the result. It can be made in any weight yarn, although 4ply + laceweight looks and feels most appealing to me.
