Purses from Your Stash

Many times when we see a great ball of yarn, we might just pick up one in the hope we can come up with something fun to do with it later. Maybe there was only one of that color, or it was on sale, or it was too expensive to justify buying more than one.

Whatever the reason, those odd balls often sit in our stashes for a long time because we're not quite sure what to do with them. That's where books like One Ball Knits Purses by Fatema, Khadija and Hajera Habibur-Rahman come in. This cute book offers 20 different patterns for bags, five for each season, so you always have something to knit no matter what you're planning to wear.

Of course you can go out and buy the yarn called for if you don't already have it in your stash, but you can also play around with some yarn that's already in your collection for these projects, which will allow you to have a bag that's completely unique.

Another thing that's fun about this book is the liberal use of purse hardware like frames, cool handles, feet and other embellishments. Not only are you getting good knitting patterns, you're opening yourself up to a whole world of finishing options you might not have known about or tried before.