Fingering Weight Yarn

In one of  my Ravelry groups, the one about using stash yarn (even though the name says 2017, it will be changed to 2018 and will probably go on forever), a discussion has developed about how much fingering weight yarn we all have. It seems that many of us started out knitting socks and bought way too much fingering weight yarn.

For those who remember my fabric buying during my quilting days, for several years I said I was going to stop buying fabric and then I finally did it . . stopped completely. I think it’s the same way with my knitting and yarn buying. I’ve said for more than several years that I was going to stop buying yarn but I think I’m serious now. I’m not saying I will not buy any yarn (or fabric). If there’s something I really want to make and don’t have the yarn, or something I really can’t live without, or, as Addie says . . something I’ve always wanted, I’ll buy it but the willy nilly buying has come to an end. I’ve been proud of myself. While visiting with family or even sitting alone in a hotel room, I’ve wandered through yarn sites, added yarn to my cart, then closed out the pages.  Of course, that could be because I knew the yarn would arrive before I got home and Vince would intercept the package and . . well . . that wouldn’t be good.  🙂

I’ve gone through my Ravelry library (patterns I’ve purchased) and come up with a list of patterns I would like to make and all these can be made from stash fingering/sock weight yarn. I did not include patterns by Andrea Mowry, Melanie Berg, Ambah O’Brien but I may have one by Cassapinka. They all have many patterns that include multiple skeins of fingering weight yarn.

The list is truly enough to keep me busy for the entire year of 2018, even if I don’t make anything else. That won’t happen! I won’t make all of them but one of my goals is going to be to make at least two projects each month from the stash. It can be small (hats, mitts, short socks) or it can be a large shawl or whatever but . . two projects per month from the stash in 2018. I’m going to add that to my Friday knitting report so you all can hold me accountable.

If you’re a knitter and have a stash you’d like to use, I encourage you to join the Ravelry group mentioned above and you’re welcome to join me with my challenge to myself for 2018. You can commit to knitting one item per month, one item every two months, one item every six months . . whatever works for you.

Patterns that Use Multiple Fingering Weight Yarns:

• Alliteration – This pattern suggests scraps. I have some scraps but I would also not mind using some yarn off new skeins because there are several scrappy fingering weight projects I’d like to make.
• Faded Beanie – I love having new, not yet used hats with me in the winter to hand out to someone who looks like they could use one. This pattern looks easy and mindless and as of now, it’s free.
• All Points South – This is a pulllover shawl and I think I would enjoy wearing that.
• Sporadic Stripes – This calls for sport but could easily be done using fingering weight. In fact, the only one shown in the projects using fingering weight. Since she used fingering weight yarn, she added a few more repeats of some sections but didn’t mention if she made it any wider. Also, she used four colors but only used 153 grams so it could easily be made with three – 100 gram skeins of fingering weight yarn. Her notes are on her project page.
• Miss Grace – Free at this time. You can see my Miss Grace here but I would definitely make that one again. I used fingering weight for the first one and would use it again.
• Butterfly/Papillon – Very similar to Miss grace. 
• Plaid is the New Fad – This looks fun and pretty!
• Rings of Rings Cowl – Another mindless knit.
• Arlequin Shawl – This is fairly small but could be made larger. It looks easy and like a pretty good stash project.
• Colorful Lines Shawl – This one is a bit different as the color changes are not done along the edges. It’s a bit more interesting but still looks very easy.
• Magic Spring Shawl – Another one in the “fade” category.
• Labyrinth – This looks very wearable and easy to knit.
• Outline – Currently free. When you look at the projects, you see that you can use as many colors as you’d like.
• Fox Paws – This may be something I cast on very soon. It looks like a project I would love knitting.

If you know of more patterns that use several different fingering weight yarns, feel free to list them in your comments. In a day or so, I will go back and add them to this list so we can have one place to find all the patterns.