Stash Busting Magic

A few months ago I was introduced to the idea of "magic ball" yarn. A friend of mine had bought some yarn for her daughter that was made of various types of yarn tied together and rolled into a ball. It was an interesting idea. Shortly after that someone showed me a project she's working on where she had gathered various types of yarns in coordinating colors of greens and purples, tied them together in various lengths, and is knitting a sweater. She's even changing up the stitches here and there for more interest and texture. It is turning out beautiful! I shared this "magic ball" idea with some of my knitting friends and they got to see that beautiful WIP sweater on a knit shop run. We all got excited and quickly planned a stash busting, magic ball making party.

We each gathered yarns from our stashes for a yarn swap, got together, and poured them out onto the floor. I didn't have much to add because I have a small stash and I'm not sure how much each of the other ladies brought but all together it was quite a selection. We started mixing and matching to find combinations of color and texture that we liked and got started to create "magic". It was fun to see how we all went about it in slightly different ways... One person cut her yarns into two yard lengths. Another held several yarns together and started winding a ball. One of the ladies was a magic ball making machine and made several. I made mine with various lengths of yarn and very random. Sometimes I held two or three yarns together and other times it was a single strand. It turned into a beautiful ball...


From the start I wanted to make a shawl. I was going to knit it but thought it would be fun and quick to crochet. However, I wasn't getting the results I was hoping for. When I saw the shawl Debbie made with her magic ball I knew I had to knit it. (Thanks, Debbie, for the inspiration!). Debbie's shawl is gorgeous! It's fun to see the unique magic we each create. I love the beautiful, rich colors in her shawl. Mine is made with blues, greens, turqouise, white and even tiny touches of yellow. Here's how mine turned out...




I knitted it with a size 11 circular neede and cast on five, knit the first row, and each row after that was K1, K in the front and back of the second stitch, knit across to the last two stitches, knit in the front and back of the next stitch, K1. I continued that until I was nearing the end of the yarn ball and then I knit several rows without increasing and bound off. Simple and fun.

I pushed all the tied ends to one side. I'm thinking of tying on some shiny beads or little shells. The other side is more smooth. It makes it a double sided shawl. Debbie clipped the ends on hers and they blend in very nicely.


I couldn't resist taking a picture of it with shells because it makes me think of the sea. I love the gorgeous blues and greens. So pretty!


This was a fun project from the moment of inspiration to the completed project. I'm anxious to create a little more magic!