Stashbuster Knits: Tips, Tricks, and 21 Beautiful Projects for Using Your Favorite Leftover Yarn Author: Visit Amazon's Melissa Leapman Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0307586634 | Format: EPUB
Stashbuster Knits: Tips, Tricks, and 21 Beautiful Projects for Using Your Favorite Leftover Yarn Description
Review
"With 11 published books, Melissa is a very well-known and respected designer in the knitting world." -
-Love of Knitting Magazine
About the Author
Melissa Leapman is a widely published sweater designer whose patterns have appeared in
Vogue Knitting,
Knitter’s,
McCall’s,
Family Circle,
Better Homes and Gardens,
Knit It!, and
Interweave Knits magazines. Leapman has worked as a freelance designer for many leading ready-to-wear manufacturers, noted design houses, and major yarn companies. In addition, her knitting, crochet, and design workshops are extremely popular with crafters at all skill levels. She lives in New York City.
- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: Potter Craft (November 15, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0307586634
- ISBN-13: 978-0307586636
- Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 8.7 x 0.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Melissa Leapman has put together another good book with some very refreshing and good ways to deal with your left-over stash. The book contains 21 patterns and the patterns are divided by type of yarn - lightweight, worsted, and thick. Ms. Leapman reconstructs what we think about our 'stash' - "It's not just a stash, it's a personalized yarn collection". I agree with her. It's just that I often don't know what to do with my stash or exactly what's in it. Her book addresses these concerns and gives me lots of ideas. The first section discusses the need to get your yarn together and know what you have in your stash. You can't really make good use of it until you're familiar with what you have. She suggests separating the yarn by weight and if the yarn has no label, then use wraps per inch. She suggests 4 piles: super fine, light, medium, bulky and super bulky. She offers wonderful tips. For instance, multi-stranded yarn can be separated for a lighter weight yarn. Finer weight yarns can be combined for a bulkier weight yarn. She suggests cataloguing the yarn and recommends that knitters all utilize ravelry.com, a wonderful website that has a feature to help with cataloguing. She also suggests using a yarn notebook to list every yarn you own. Personally, I'd need several notebooks! Also, it's very important to store the yarn carefully so that it doesn't get ruined.
There is a nice section on color combinations. She explains the theory of color and provides different color combinations that go together. She discusses the Magic Ball Technique to get random color patterns. One cuts random lengths of yarn from one ball and a different length from a second ball. Then continue adding lengths from different yarns and wind them all together. Attach the lengths with knots.
Partial skeins and balls, left over from larger projects, are the bane of every knitter's existence. The yarn is too good to throw out, but there's not enough to actually make anything. However, this book solves the problem, with its many patterns for projects so well designed that, as author Melissa Leapman says, "no one will ever know these projects were made from leftovers!"
The attractive projects include (1) a charted "jigsaw puzzle piece" baby blanket; (2) geometrically-patterned bangle bracelets; (3) striped mittens, scarves, shawls, throws, and sweaters; (4) striped and patterned shopping, sample, and tote bags; (5) a Fair Isle yoked sweater and a Fair Isle vest; and (6) many single-color hats. The projects are grouped in the book according to the yarn weights used: fine, lightweight, worsted, or chunky.
What I really like about this book is the lengthy introduction that discusses sorting yarns leftovers by weight and color, to ensure the best possible combinations for successful knitted fabrics. Several pages, illustrated with color wheels, explain the scientific theory of color--including how to get good results from monochromatic color combinations, and from combinations of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 colors. The book also includes explanations of how to join yarns together using standard knitting techniques, or using the "Russian join" (which uses a tapestry needle). There is a nice discussion of how to put together a "Magic Ball" of short lengths of leftover yarns of different colors and textures (the ball is knitted up like regular yarn); as well as some discussion of yarn storage.
Nearly all of the projects are fairly easy to knit.
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