I knit the Starflanket blanket using mostly stash and leftover yarns. This project is large and a was lot of fun. Keep reading for my experience knitting the Starflanket:
I had recently finished my Monday Sweater by Petite Knit when I saw that Stephen West was hosting a Stashbustalong — a knit along event that prioritized using yarn in your stash.
I have worked through a lot of my stash this last year but I still had some single skeins that I was no longer excited about, and was feeling bad holding on to for so long. I want the yarn in my stash to inspire me to create fun things, not feel like a burden or obligation. A lot of the skeins I was holding on to are beautiful and I love them, but I was never reaching for them when it was time to start a new project. I was so excited for this Stashbustalong because I didn’t have to be so precious or restricted with these single skeins; I was free to use up what I had, in whatever way I wanted.
During the beginning of the event, Stephen West had a 25% discount on his library of patterns and ebooks. I bought the Starflanket pattern because I read that it was sufficiently different from the Starflake Shawl (which I loved and knit twice). I thought the Starflanket would be fun, familiar, and also practical because blankets are some of my most-used knits. I was super excited to start winding up my stash skeins and incorporate them into a beautiful blanket.
YARN
The Starflanket blanket is large and calls for 14 skeins of DK weight yarn. My stash yarns are mostly fingering, so I planned on holding my yarns double throughout to get gauge. I didn’t think much about the yarn requirements; I just used my swift and winder to get my stash into cakes so I could pull from the center and the outside of each color.
Here’s a look at the yarns I started with. Some full skeins, and some leftover yarns from my recent projects:
I mostly had fingering weight merino, some fingering/lace suri + silk, and some sport/DK suri + merino + silk. All my yarn together wound up made me really happy. I was excited to finally be giving new life to skeins that I’ve had for 2 – 3 years.
STARFLANKET
Parallelograms
I cast on the first parallelogram with my US 7 needles on a 50″ cable. Such a long cable isn’t really necessary at this point, but I didn’t mind it. I followed the pattern and was excited to be knitting this familiar pattern again. Because I’d knit the Starflake Shawl before, I felt like I already understood this pattern and what needed to happen.
I decided to knit each parallelogram in a different color to just make it feel extra relaxed. Sometimes I overthink selecting the “right” colors and it takes away some of the joy of knitting. Especially with a stash/scrappy project, I wanted to feel like I didn’t have to stress about the perfect colors.
I joined my parallelograms as I knit, but I think I didn’t quite get the best stitches when picking up in the center at the first WS rows. It’s not a perfect join, but I think it’s not really the most noticeable now that the blanket is done. When my parallelograms were finally all joined, I was pretty happy with my little starburst.
Stripes
Once I started knitting the stripes in the Starflanket, I realized that my stash yarns might not be enough to complete this blanket. Each stripe was eating up tons of yarn. I was happy that my stash was being put to good use, but I thought I might need to supplement with other/new yarn if I was going to finish the pattern.
At this time I was also trying to keep the knitted stripe as regular fingering yarns, and the purl stripe as a fluffy + fingering held together. I quickly realized that I had more fluffy colors than regular fingering. I was also still knitting on my 50″ cable and after the 4th stripe, it started to get a lot easier to work the stitches around my needles.
New Yarn | Stephen & Penelope
We went Amsterdam and I was able to visit Stephen & Penelope before they moved to the new location.
While I was there, I bought two souvenir skeins to incorporate into my Starflanket. I Got West Wool – Tricycle in Royal and Bianca. I was happy to buy yarn with an immediate purpose.
Brioche
I continued my Starflanket in brioche. I chose a combination of bright orange fingering held together with an orange suri, and a sport-weight suri as the contrast color. These were some of the yarns I was holding onto for years, so I was really happy to use them all up in this section.
Short Row Wedges + Stripes
I incorporated my new West Wool colors into the smaller stripes sections. I really enjoyed these colors and immediately using these skeins into my Starflanket. I loved knitting these long rows as a break from the brioche.
Blocking
Once my blanket was done, I was ready to block. I soaked my Starflanket and some soap in my washing machine on the “pre-soak” setting. Then I ran a “rinse and spin” cycle. I like using the washing machine for really large items, like blankets, because it can fully soak the piece and also get that water out.
Then I laid my blanket out over three sets of blocking mats. I didn’t use any blocking pins. I just smoothed it out and let it dry.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This blanket was my only project for these two months and it was a lot of fun to knit. I always have fun using up my stash and leftovers. It’s an extra layer of enjoyment because I know I’m cleaning up my stash. Of course I didn’t need this Stashbustalong event for “permission” to use my stash, but it was the perfect project for me at the time.
My blanket is the perfect size and it’s so soft with all the fluffy yarns I used. I would love to use this pattern again for another stashbusting project in the future.
Check out my Ravelry to see my other projects or what I’m working on next!
