Stash Buster Ideas

At the start of every new year, we always make resolutions to do something, change something. As a crafter, one of my more common resolutions is do something about all the little balls of yarn that have accumulated over my three-decade love of crochet. Oh yes, I still can find leftovers from projects I made back in the 80′s! I could never throw it out. What if years later I needed just a little bit of that special color for a new project?

But this year, I’ve finally decided, I’m never going to “need” these little balls for anything, but throwing them out is not an option either (gasp! What a waste!), so I’ve vowed to use them. Somehow. And these are some projects I plan to use them on.

Pattern: “Flippy the Fish” by Kj Hay, Crochet Today (J/A 2009)

Amigurumi – little by nature, they don’t require much yarn, so my little stash balls should be perfect. And I’ve got so many I could make a whole army of amigurumi. The hard part? Trying to decide which of hundreds of adorable patterns to make! Here are a few free crochet patterns at Lion Brand to get you started. If you aren’t already a registered Lion Brand customer, it’s free to sign up and view the patterns.

Elephant Pillow
Pumpkin Ornament
Amigurumi Parrot
Gingerbread Man

or take a look at what Craftsy now offers in its new Patterns section. SO cute!

Pattern Book: Red Heart “Crochet Cutie Patooties,” 2007

Stuffed Animals – Generally larger than amigurumi, but still smaller than a sweater of afghan, stuffed animals are great stash busters. Pick a colorful animal, such as a fish or bird, or make up your own mystical monster creature, and you won’t need too much of any one color. What better way to use up all those little balls of yarn? And the best part – in the end you have a toy you could give as a gift or donate to a charity for a child to enjoy.

Multi-colored granny squares – This I think is the perfect way to use your leftovers to make a blanket. You always think of blankets as something that takes a lot of yarn (and generally why I make things other than blankets or afghans), but the crochet granny square is the perfect stash buster. Every round only used a little bit of yarn, and they’re begging to be multi-colored. The more colors the better.

Here’s my granny square stash busting strategy: take all your little balls of leftovers and line them up, make a granny square center from each color, then mix up all the centers in a pile and randomly apply a new color for rnd 2 on each square, again using each color only once. Repeat until the granny squares are 3 or 4 rounds wide and sew them together in grid shape—instant lap rub, blanket, shawl, you name it, you just made it! And you cleaned out your leftover stash as well.

Here are some more tips for managing your stash from Knitting Daily.

Happy crafting!

Katelyn