Knitters, we all have that box stuffed away in the back of a closet. You know the one, it has all of the odds and ends from the projects we spent hours and hours slogging away on and just can’t bring ourselves to throw away. There’s that ball of yarn from the scarf we knit our aunt when we were first learning to knit, or that leftover piece from the baby sweater we made for our wee munchkin when he was still wee, or those scraps that we know we will surely find the time to turn into the best cat toys ever. You know, that box.

Buster, the Stashbusting Pillow, promises to help you do something with that box of scrap yarn. Buster is a quick way to take all of these past memories and combine them into one memorable item. You can use as many or as few pieces of scrap yarn as you want, this is a project that is all about you and your knitting adventures!

This project is knit entirely using the linen stitch. For me, linen stitch is at its finest when you change the color after every other row. This creates the gorgeous multi-colored fabric that is featured on Buster’s front.

If you tend to hoard haberdashery items as well (it’s okay, I do too), you can use this project as an excuse to use up other items in your crafting stash. Buster really began life years ago as a way to use a small pillow form that I inherited from my late grandmother, from whom I inherited my love of crafting. I also dove into my spare buttons jar and grabbed two to fasten the back flap of my Buster.

This design involves some light sewing. The pillowcase has a 0.25” selvedge.

Materials: Approximately 58 lengths of 3 yards of yarn in various weights, 12”x12” pillow form, 2 7/8” buttons