What can I make with this?

I hope that you all have had a lovely Christmas and have got through the last of the turkey leftovers by now too. Knowing you, I bet there was some yarn under the tree (I hope there was!)

I find myself, that often when you recieve yarn as a gift, it may be something that you've not knitted with before. Perhaps a different weight, colour or even fibre mix than you're used to. But don't be shy: be brave! Strike out and try to make something fabulous with it. It is sure to be a great learning experience.

So, thinking that you've probably got something new that you'd like to try, I've put together a few patterns that might work for both different yarn weights and skill-sets from the Arbour House Publishing collection.

4ply Yarns

Image copyright Arbour House Publishing

Beginner: Sun Ray Ribbing, a lovely, flattering 1930s style jumper from A Stitch in Time, Vol 1 is a very good first sweater project and knits up surprisingly quickly too.

Image copyright Arbour House Publishing

Intermediate/New technique: Elegant Coat Gloves by Susan Crawford from Vintage Gifts to Knit uses small amounts of different colour yarns to make a longer pair of winter gloves.You can learn or practice your Fair Isle technique with these.

Double Knitting Yarns

Image copyright Arbour House Publishing

Beginner Lady's Gauntlets by Just call me Ruby. These lovely fingerless gloves are knitted sideways, entirely in garter stitch and make a brilliant beginner project - so much more interesting than a scarf. The pattern is available in kit form too!

Image copyright Arbour House Publishing

Intermediate/New technique Town and City Tufted Cape from Vintage Gifts to Knit is a lovely little cover-up, knitted with a clever 'tuft' stitch. The pattern is adjustable to fit many sizes and different lengths.


Aran Weight

Image copyright Woolly Wormhead

Beginner: Elfin by Woolly Wormhead is a great little pixie-head hat for children from her brilliant book, Wee Woolly Toppers. It is knitted in the round, knits up really quickly and ends in a pointy topknot.


Intermediate/New technique: Oscar is one of the lovely traditional teddy bears from Sandra Polley's book Knitted Toys. He stands at about 45cm or 18" tall and has a charming waistcoat to wear too. Sandra's book is a good one to dip into for lots of other projects that take just an oddment or two of yarn as well, so a good one if you have just one skein of something.

I do hope that you find something interesting to knit with any Christmas yarn, and let us know what it was!

Happy knitting,
Ingrid x