I have been slowly accumulating leftover yarns again since my ultimate stash busting projects a couple years ago. I love saving up enough yarn leftovers to be able to knit something scrappy.
My past scrap projects:
- Rainbow Fantastitch
- Briochevron Blanket
- Scrapbuster Satchel
- Brioband + Fantastitch Combination Shawl
It’s great combining all my beautiful yarns from previous projects, and giving them new life in a marled scrap design. It feels nice to put all my yarns to use and I usually really enjoy knitting those projects because it’s more “relaxed” and fluid. A lot of times, I feel stressed trying to *find the perfect yarn* for a new project. But scrap projects are so much more freeing because I don’t have to be so precious with the yarns I use.
WESTKNITS WORKSHOP
I bought a stitch dictionary to practice different stitches and incorporate them into new projects. There are a lot of beautiful stitches that I’d never seen before.
I got really excited to knit something with these new stitches, so I bought the Top-Down Shawl Design Westknits Workshop. I had been considering this workshop for over a year, and finally decided to buy it during a sale. I enjoyed the workshop; the increase logic for changing or maintaining a shawl’s shape was super helpful. I wish there was an “advanced” class though because a lot of the workshop was more beginner-friendly and inspirational. I kind of suspected that from the teaser video which is partly why it took me so long to buy it.
With my stitch dictionary and my newfound understanding of shawl shaping, I attempted to create my first shawl! I had modified shawls, and cobbled elements of my favorite shawls into new shawls — but never created my own shawl from nothing.
Here’s a look at my cutie shawl swatch:
I used leftover yarns and new-to-me stitches from my dictionary to create this little beginning of a shawl. But I wasn’t loving the colors, and I realized that I was changing stitch patterns too frequently for the shawl to be balanced. So, I did an icord bind off and decided to plan a little more before my next shawl attempt.
TRINITY STITCH
Even though my shawl wasn’t what I envisioned, I fell in love with the trinity stitch. Its cute little bobbles and easy to memorize pattern made it really fun for me. I knit lots of little trinity stitch swatches for fun or to give to my niece as blankets for her toys.
The trinity stitch is a little bit purl heavy. I’m ok with purling, but I wanted to try out what it would look like to ‘reverse’ the knits and purls to see if I could tell a difference. I’m not sure if it was because I so used to the original way, but I could tell a slight difference. The bobbles on the ‘reversed’ way seem a little flatter/wider, but not by much. So if you aren’t a fan of purling, you may want to experiment with making that change.
RAINBOW TRINITY BLANKET
When my yarn leftover bag started to fill up, I thought that this would be the perfect time to combine all my scraps into a fun marled trinity stitch blanket. I mapped out a quick pattern to basically knit a large version of the swatches I had been knitting.
To get started, I rewound a lot of my leftovers into center-pull balls. That way I would be able to knit from both ends if I wanted to knit a few rows with a single color. I arranged all my yarns into a rainbow order and cast on for a mini blanket size. I wasn’t really sure what size blanket I could knit since I would be holding my yarn double/triple and had ~3,000 total yards, but I was excited to knit this stash-busting project.
Cast On
I used fingering weight yarn held double to cast on three stitches with a US 8 DPN on and knit an icord 154 stitches long. It’s easier to use a DPN to do the icord so you can slide the stitches over instead of passing the stitches back to the left needle each row.
Then I transferred to a US 8 needle on a 30″ cable to pick up and knit into both legs of the icord edge 154 times. Then I picked up three stitches along the cast on edge. I share all the pattern specifics near the end of this post.
Trinity Stitch
After the set-up row, you start the trinity stitch. My stitch dictionary called it the trinity stitch, but when I was researching more about it, I found out it is also known as: bramble stitch, cluster stitch, and raspberry stitch.
This stitch is a four-row repeat knit flat. It’s really fun to knit and easy to read your stitches, so you can pick up your work and continue knitting easily. I think the trickiest part at first is remembering that the ‘k/p/k’ is all into the “next stitch”. So you are increasing by two stitches each time, and then immediately decreasing with the p3tog.
Marling + Color Changes
Throughout the entire blanket, I held yarn double to marl my yarns together and soften the color transitions. If I was using a mohair yarn, I held it double along with another yarn to keep a similar gauge throughout.
I was mainly trying to use up my leftover yarns, so I would use a color until it ran out completely and then just joined in a new color. So even if the color ran out in the middle of the row, I would just add the new color and continue. I did leave longer tails (of the ending, and joining colors) to make it easy to weave in the ends.
There were some sections where I didn’t want to knit with the same color anymore, so I just moved on to the next color. Or like with the melted baby suri, the yarn was really thick and it was uncomfortable to knit with two held together so I ended that color early. So I still have a few small balls of leftovers, but I’m happy to carry those with me until my next leftovers project.
Bind-Off + Blocking
Once you reach the desired length, complete a Row 2 or 4 and then do an icord bind off. While I was knitting my final row, I was worried that I would run out of the black yarn I was using but I ended up having enough!
My blanket was 28.5″ x 45″ before blocking. I loved the look and feel, but I knew that it would look so much better when the stitch pattern opened up and the edges were even. So I soaked my little blanket in cool water with a color catcher and soap. I used my rainbow blocking pins to block it on my mats.
After blocking, the finished dimensions were: 37.5″ x 48.5″. The texture really opened up and it has a nice drape. Once my blanket was dry, I used a darning needle to weave in all the ends.
Final Thoughts
I am super happy with this rainbow blanket. It was a fun, fast knit, and I loved getting to use up most of my leftover yarns.
This blanket is the perfect desk-working/lap blanket size. It’s cute and cozy. I love the little stripes of fuzzy softness mixed in with the bumpy bobble texture.
This blanket is extra special because this is the first time in a while where I wanted to knit something, and just made it. I know it’s not super complicated or technical, but I’m really proud of it. It’s nice to not feel like you need a pattern to create something.
Speaking of patterns — here’s what I did to create this blanket:
RAINBOW TRINITY PATTERN
RAINBOW TRINITY PATTERN
MATERIALS
US 8 (5mm) needles, 30″ cable
fingering and lace weight leftover yarns/scraps
SIZE
Finished Dimensions: 37.5″ wide x 48.5″ long
NOTE: yarn held double throughout
- K – knit
- P – purl
- sl3wyif – slip three stitches with yarn in front
- P3tog – purl three stitches together
- K2togtbl – knit two together through the back loop
PATTERN
Cast on 3 stitches
*Slip 3 stitches back to left hand needle, K3* 154 more times.
Pick up and knit through both legs along the icord edge 154 times, then pick up and knit 3 stitches from the cast on edge. (160 stitches)
SETUP ROW (WS): K3, Purl until last 3 stitches, sl3wyif
PATTERN REPEAT
ROW 1 (RS): K3, Purl until last three stitches, sl3wyif
ROW 2 (WS): K4, *(K1,P1,K1) into the next stitch, P3tog* until last four stitches, K1, sl3wyif
ROW 3 (RS): K3, Purl until last three stitches, sl3wyif
ROW 4 (WS): K4 * P3tog, (K1,P1,K1) into the next stitch* until last four stitches, K1, sl3wyif
Repeat rows 1-4 until work measures 28” or until desired length, ending after either Row 2 or Row 4.
BIND OFF
Next Row (RS): *K2, k2togtbl, sl3 sts onto left needle; repeat from * until six total sts remain.
Graft 6 stitches together using Kitchener stitch.BLOCK + WEAVE IN ENDS
I hope this post was helpful and encourages you to create something fun! Check out my Ravelry page to see my other projects and what I’m working on next.
