Kitty Knits, Kitty Crochets

yarnlass:

AW MAN I LOVE LONG WEEKENDS

I cooked, I read, I watched 30 Rock and mostly knit

THIS

AND I’M GLAD IT’S FINALLY FINISHED

starcr:

Almost immediately after posting the link about recycling yarn from thrift-store sweaters, I took it into my head to try that very thing for myself. Fortunately for me, thrift stores are not subject to the same seasonal trends as other retail outlets, and therefore I had no problems finding suitable candidates. I chose two: a purple-and-black-twist acrylic/wool/polyester blend made with a fairly chunky yarn ($2.15) because it seemed like it would be good practice, and a red children’s sweater made of a lighter-weight lambswool ($1.00) for advanced practice once I’d gotten a feel for the process. And then I got to work.

Taking the sweater apart was not bad once I got the hang of it, although I did manage to partially or completely break the yarn in a few places trying to get the seam undone. The actual unraveling was tedious, and a little frustrating at first, but then I figured out the yarn had been held double and I was dealing with two strands instead of one, and that cleared it right up. It was pretty satisfying to watch it build up, row by row, ball by ball.

It was after that things got actually painful. Winding all that yarn into two-yard-loop hanks using two back-to-back chairs turns out to involve a lot of repetitive motion and an angle of the spine that is not exactly comfy. Washing it mostly is a question of finding something big enough (bathtub!), but then there’s the drying. When reviewing the procedure the first time, I had missed a step. Rinse it out, squeeze (don’t wring) it out, wrap it up in a towel and stomp a little more moisture out. And then the part I missed:

After drying, to get the yarn all even and help with the kinks, whip each hank in the air or against your leg, or spin quickly over your head, and repeat a few times holding the hank in different spots.

If you are in halfway decent shape and/or have been regularly exercising your core and upper body, this might not be so bad. Neither of those things describe me, however. Swinging that yarn around “quickly” requires some endurance in the forearms, even if only doing a few swings per holding position. Then, particularly when holding the hank at the very end and swinging the whole length of it, you need some core stability to keep you from just wobbling all over the place. Not bad for a single hank, but I had twelve to go through, ranging from 12 to 86 yards each, and I haven’t been exercising much lately. It was a small workout.

And then the kinks didn’t even get all the way out. My current theory is that this has to do with the fiber content—it’s mostly acrylic, which I don’t think is as good at bouncing back as natural fibers. It doesn’t bother me much, though; the worst of the “wobbliness” (as Natalie calls it) is out, and I think it will still be quite usable.

Is it worth it? $2.15 for 624 yards of approximately worsted-weight yarn, time and labor intensive, but involving a workout I needed anyway. Overall, I’d call it a win.

Now. What am I going to DO with this stuff?

This is the other option, the one I was leaning towards since I should probably go simple for my first sweater. I’m definitely changing the colors because I really don’t like these colors, but you get the general idea. 

The pattern can be found here (need Gmail account to access). 

What are your thoughts? 

I think I found the pattern I want to do! I found this on Knitty.com and I really like it. However, I think I’m going to change the colors. 

The pattern can be found here. 

What do you think? I do have other options, but this is one of them. 

bluetoothtoasteryarns:

Merlin Sock Yarn - Guinevere on Sparkle Sock

Available here.