more kits, baby style, all free, all good

August 04, 2014




Since I had so much fun organizing my stash into homemade kits, I thought I'd do the same for my wee bits of stash I'd been hanging on to.  With this project I was able to use even the tiniest leftovers. I love baby knits, they fly off the needles in record time.  I also like using the last bits of leftover yarn from long-ago projects.  Putting these two together with a free pattern seemed perfect.  I find that the most forgiving patterns for using odd bits of yarn are top down cardigans as they stripe up easily and can look good with a tame or a wild mix of yarn.

My first step was to print out these FREE patterns:

For fingering weight or sport weight I like the
Baby's Raglan, No Seams by Carole Barenys
 
For DK weight yarn you can use
the Fuss Free Baby Cardigan by Louise Tilbrook
or the Basic Raglan Baby Cardigan by Keya Kuhn

With worsted weight try the
Little Coffee Bean by Elizabeth Smith

Here's one for aran weight:
Rainbow Cardigan by Clara Falk

Next is to get out all the stash, especially the small bits and even the odd bits that have no name. The last few years I have carefully labeled each leftover bit, no matter how teensy, but I unfortunately have many scraps from years past that have no label.  I then have to guess at the weight but it's not too hard to get it mostly right. I make sure I only add the ones I'm fairly certain are machine washable.  Making your baby garment machine washable is the only way you can guarantee it will be worn.  Give something to a new mother and whisper "hand wash only" and she will carefully pack it up and put it in the deepest corner of the closet.  This is also a good time to use up those one skein purchases that you just had to have so you could try out the yarn.  Hmm, I seem to have quite a few of those. Toss them into the mix too, they're perfect for this!

Next step is to make your kits choosing colors that coordinate making sure the weights match.  I mostly go tame with my combos, but I know mothers love the wild look for baby.  Don't worry too much about making sure you have enough of one color.  As long as you have coordinating colors you'll make it work as you go along.  You'll need about 300 yards per project for 0-3 months and up from there for the larger sizes.  Kit them up into zip lock bags and next time you need a baby gift, a quick travel project, or instant gratification, you've got a few kitted up and ready to go.  And they are free.  Yay for that!  I now have 5 kits, 2 with pinks and 3 that can go either boy or girl.  I feel so clever, so prepared!

In early spring I made this for a new second cousin.  I loved the colors and how it turned out. At the sleeves I ran out of gray so switched to green and it looks like it was planned that way.




 


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4 Comments

  1. Very clever idea!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a beautiful little cardigan and what a lovely way to use up left over yarn, makes me wish I had my 'big' babies small again!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for all this info. I loved the stripes from jacklukemama, very original and harmonious. And yours is classic. So much more interesting than the original that you had planned. That's what's so great about knitting! Chloe

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wonderful idea for how to use up odd balls of yarn, I love this post!

    ReplyDelete

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