March 7, 2007

Yarn-cycling

I didn't get a whole lot of knitting done yesterday as housecleaning rudely interrupted my life. We cleaned out the linen closet yesterday and got rid of a bunch of half sets of sheets, extra pillow cases, etc.

My son and I took them too the local resale shop and of course had to brouse around. Saw the sweaters and thought, "Hmmmm, wonder if there is anything there I could recycle for the yarn?" Well, I found a nice lavendar sweater made from Shetland wool. It was kinda scratchy, but I thought a good wash with some hair conditioner in the final rinse would get rid of the scratchies from all the dry cleaning.

I spent all afternoon, picking out seams, trying not to clip the the yarns. I succeed relatively well. To my great dismay, though, the front of the sweater, a cardigan, had not been knit to size. It was cut and a ribbon sewn in as a facing. However, the sleeves and back were knit as one piece. I got the ribbed collar off and started unravelling. I put it right on the swift.

I got 163 gm/5.75 oz of fingering weight lavendar Shetland yarn for $4.99 and some of my time. Was it a good investment? Probably for the amount of money I spent and my time is my own investment. Would I do it again? Possibly if I found a really pretty color, or very nice yarn. Should you do it? Most definately if only for the experience of knowing how to do it. OH, and the wash and hair conditioner did make it nice and soft!

I did get far enough on my sock to start the cuff, so I have about two rows of cuff done now. Maybe I can work on it in bits and pieces today. We're going to see Ghost Rider today. I like Nick Cage and am not adverse to comic book hero movies.