Balls to the Shawl

So my stash was looking pretty good.  Everything fit in the two baskets and the level was going down slowly but steadily.  Then I started finding hidden bags and drawers of yarn all over the place.  Stash overfloweth.

So I gathered a bunch of yarn and noticed (because I have a problem with throwing stuff away) that I had a lot of balls of similarly colored yarn.  Thus the All Balls Shawl was born!

 

It was a great project to work on while watching TV - all garter stitch.  Seeing as Ella is still on timeout for wrongful decreasing and I really have to pay attention to my friend, The Sock, it made perfect sense to work on All Balls when I needed to pay attention to something else.

It's not even a pattern really.  So simple even the most beginning-est of knitters can make one.

Take a bunch of balls of yawn that you like well together.  For me, it's easiest if they are wound in balls so you can compare them to each other.  But do what you like.

Grab some 29" or 40" circs.  Cast on the desired number of stitches.  I did 221 for this shawl.  An easy formula is to take the cast on yarn (from one of the larger balls) and spread it around your shoulders marking how long you want your shawl to be.  Quadruple that length and start casting on.  It's not necessary to count the stitches.  Leaving a 6" tail, cast on in the first yarn.

After you cast on cut the yarn with about a 6" tail.  Attach another yarn to that tail (knot) and knit across.  When you come to the end attach the next yarn with a knot and knit back across.  Attach a new yarn at the end of each row - this way you're making your fringe at the same time.

Don't spend a lot of time thinking out your next yarn choice.  All you really should be concious of is using the bigger balls of yarn more than the smaller ones.  Don't be afraid to use squidgy bits of yarn you're only going to get one row out of - use those toward the center.  Whenever I stop knitting I attach the next row's yarn because I think I will make a better choice at that time than if I come back to it three days later when my hands have forgotten the texture.

Keep knitting back and forth until you start to run out of yarn.  Bind off and enjoy!

Comments

[Stefani]

Beautiful work - looks great!

[Vera]

That's a great way to use stash.