Stashbuster Shawl
It’s the age old declaration: “This year I’m going to use up my stash!”
We never quite know how we got here and always have the best intentions. Somehow, that stash just accumulates: the extras from a project that overestimated yardage, the yarn from projects that got pushed aside, that ridiculously gorgeous yarn you HAD to buy with no clue what to make, or even the early days yarn you bought and later regretted. Next thing you know that stash is sitting in the corner of the room, making you feel guilty every time you browse Ravelry and find yet another new project that, shocker, requires yarn you don’t have.
In this case, I have a bin filled with KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Worsted in myriad colors from a pandemic project. I know a lot of people say this is a great budget yarn, but I find it a bit scratchy (albeit warm). Too scratchy for a sweater, but just right for a shawl to keep draped over my office chair.
Yarn colors
I chose green and black to be my main alternating colors, and used the oatmeal color to add more contrast between the two (since they are similar in tone).
The Aurora Heather (green) and Coal (black) had been calling to me as a pairing for as long as I’d had these packs of yarn. I needed to put them together, but hadn’t found the right use yet. Then I stumbled on the Sunday Morning Shawl, a free pattern from Espace Tricot. While beautiful as a solid shawl, the panels broken up by ribbing lent themselves well to color-blocking.
Tip for Alternating colors
Knit the first and last row of the ribbing panel (instead of 1x1 rib) so that the color change is seamless. Purling at color-changing rows will bring the previous color through the front loop, giving a messy appearance.
This pattern is a great mindless knit, and I finished it within a couple weeks! There’s so many ways you could choose to color-block this shawl - you could do it in groups of 2 (stockinette + ribbing panels in MC, next stocking + ribbing panels in CC, etc), have a different color for each stockinette panel, or even do a fade.
And now I have the perfect office chair shawl to throw over me on those cool mornings. Who knows, maybe I’ll make another one with the rest of my Wool of the Andes stash next!
For more info, check out my Ravelry project page.
