Sunday, January 24, 2010

First Blog Post


So, I have finally decided, after admiring all the pretty knitting blogs that I frequent, that I am finally going to take the plunge myself.  I suppose that I'll try to maintain this as primarily a knitting blog and a step towards designing my own pieces, but I'm sure some of my non-knitting life will seep in.  So here we go...


Right now I have several projects on the needles, including a half finished hat that I am attempting to design, but I am refusing to allow myself to work on any of them until after I've taken the LSATs.  I tend to be the type of knitter that MUST finish a project once I've started it, to the detriment of everything else that might be going on in my life.  Being that the LSATs are about 75% of how you get into law school, and knitting accomplishments are about, well, zero, I have had to painfully triage my daily activities to not include my "slightly" unhealthy addiction.

In order to fill the void with something fiber related, I have busied my spare moment unraveling sweaters for future knitting use.  It makes me feel like I've accomplished something knitting related, and when I need to stop to study, it is far easier to walk away from a half unraveled sweater then from a half finished hat, (just...a...few...more...rows!)  Here is a 100% wool XXL mens sweater that I have just finished pulling apart and hanked up:



It still needs of washed to remove the kinkiness, and I'm thinking about trying my hand at dyeing!  That should be a new adventure, but the beautiful world of internet knitters seems to have endless resources on how to do this.  (Methinks I foresee a future post.)

For any out there who doubt the ability of mere reclaimed thrift store sweaters to produce FOs as pretty as store bought yarn, allow me to enlighten you:









The beautiful thing about reclaimed yarn, is not only the whole tree hugging, carbon footprint, anti-consumption part of it, (though that is a nice plus,)  but also the money saving side.  All the pieces above are made of 100% natural fibers.  That amount and quality of yarn would have been out of the question on my miniscule college student budget.  I don't mind using acrylics for projects that warrant them (like baby clothes or things for people that I know will not have the patience to hand wash them), but if I can throw down 5 bucks at a thrift store, spend a couple hours taking it a part, and get several skeins of 100% merino, why not!

If anyone is interesting in reclaiming thrift store sweaters, Dawn Prickett's "My Virtual Insanity" blog has the best tutorial I've found, and it is defiantly better then anything I could come up with:  Recycling Sweaters For Yarn.

4 comments:

  1. Recycling sweaters sounds great, especially since I'm not letting myself buy new yarn for the moment.


    (You also inspired me to finally start my own yarn blog!)

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  2. Just dropping by from Ravelry to send you good wishes for your new blog and a 99.9 percentile score (do they still call it that?) on your LSAT!

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  3. I found your blog through ravelry, looking at posts about the Swallowtail shawl. I am fascinated by the notion of dismanteling sweaters and reusing the yarn. It's summer here, so the thrift stores are a bit short on wollens, but I have started combing the nearby stores ready for that elusive wool. Good luck with your LSATs!

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  4. It's taken me a while to get around to responding to these, but thank you! :)
    The LSATs when great

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