Okay, I did finally get the pictures uploaded :)
I have read about this on other blogs and web pages, but have never had the opportunity to try the process myself. However, when I found a wool/angora/nylon sweater in good shape in the thrift shop last week I couldn’t resist giving it a try.
I was a woman on a mission - I was going to salvage the yarn :)
I’ve been keeping my eye open for suitable candidates for a while now - they are fewer and further between than you might imagine. The garment should be in good shape - you want the yarn to be useable after all. The material should be decent - for my purposes that meant wool or at least mostly wool. Finally, it had to be a garment in which the pieces were knitted separately rather than cut out of a large piece of knitted fabric. This isn’t too tough to determine as cut pieces will have overcast edges to keep them from unraveling. Knitted pieces will have…well…knitted edges.
I noticed this hanging on the rack, my attention first drawn by the yarn itself. It is, I think, the largest scale yarn I have ever seen or handled. I later checked it out and it comes up at 7 wraps/inch - chunky yarn, I think. The sweater was a little pilled - but that’s typical of angora and since there were no stains and the garment was in good shape otherwise, the pills weren’t significant. I checked the seam line - and here, the chunkiness of then yarn was very helpful in seeing that the pieces were indeed knitted separately - the knits and purls were clearly visible along the edges. The item was clean with no tears or stains and I could already see yarn ends where I could begin to frog the yarn. Aside of the funky brand name, this seemed to be a perfect candidate - so I brought it home.
The seams were chain stitched and disassembling the pieces was fairly easy and quick. It was a simple matter of finding the end of the chain, snipping the thread and just pulling it out. To my surprise, the collar was made in two pieces, front and back, knitted up from the neckline of the sweater and seamed at the sides. Taking the thing apart presented no real challenge except for the damned label which I swear was attached with rivets! It took more work and time to get that thing off without damaging the yarn than any other part of the procedure.
Then came the actual frogging. All in all it was maybe two hours work to take the sweater apart and frog the stitches. I wound up with about a pound and a half of lovely feeling, somewhat dense yarn which I separated into four, roughly equal hanks. I wasn’t knocked out by the color but it was pale enough so that over dyeing it wouldn’t be a problem - aha! More fun :)
The next day I retrieved one of the hanks and prepared it for dyeing. I went with mostly grape Kool-aid with a couple of other minor things thrown in to temper the aggressive purple :) Let me tell you, the aroma of fake grape combined with the vinegar in the crock pot was enough to clear sinuses for a 10 block radius! Whew! You can read about this process in A Bubble off Plum over at The Dye Pot (click on the post title or the blog name to go to each respectively).
Then I spent a few impatient days waiting for the stuff to dry (it seemed to take forever!) because I was dying to try knitting with it! But finally it did dry and I wound it up and cast on :) Nothing fancy - just a standard adult watch cap.
The yarn was absolutely delightful to work with - soft and buttery in the fingers and the cap is very comfortable and warm. Not only was this experiment a success, I have another 12 ozs of this delightful stuff to play with! Whee! What a fun thing to do to welcome in the new year :)
Aside of the yarn, a few other things were accomplished which I will go into on Wednesday. A lot of it has to do with socks :) See you then!
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Wow! What fun and what great hat! I’m so happy to witness the fruition of a successful experiment. :-)
Opal - It was a lot of fun and not a lot of work for some absolutely beautiful yarn! Experimenting can be fun :)
Cool! What a great project and was a gorgeous outome! Dang, you’re really getting good at this. Can an Etsy shop by far behind? ;)
Beautiful color, and what fun!
Bron - Horrors! An Esty shop would take all the fun out of things. Besides, Esty shops seem to be fairly trendy and I don’t believe I’m allowed to do trendy - LOL!
Rob - Thanks, it really was a hoot and a half. Sometimes I feel like Scrooge after his enlightenment where he goes around feeling slightly guilty at enjoying himself so much. Surely I shouldn’t be having this much fun?
Trendy? You? Perish the thought, darlin’! You’re right - you’re not allowed! hehehe
What a great way to use something that’s still useable! LOL I love that hat. My Mom asked me to make her a hat, for her walks, imagine that!
Can’t wait to see what you make with the other 12 ounces.
I’ve enjoyed reading your blog in 2006 and enjoyed Knitting Chatters! Hope to remember THURSDAY NIGHTS in 2007 and get back in there to chat with all of you.
Happy New Year!
Sheri in GA
Bron - Heheh :) As they say in Guys and Dolls - makes me feel like I’m playin’ the favorite!
Sheri - Thanks - it was a very gratifying project. It will be gret to see you at Chatters again, whenever you can make it!
now that’s what i call recycling! absolutely fantastic! 
Cyn - I guess I have to admit that I’m approaching it more from a frugality standpoint. However, to the extent that utilizing something that can yet be serviceable (as opposed to thorwing it away) is probably a good thing, I’ll go for the recycling :)
That is so cool..
I have not got to the dying Fun yet.. But I have saved a few swaters from the thrift shop.. They are still wound up waiting for me to play with them…
Penny - The whole thing has been great fun - you know, finding the sweater, frogging for the yarn, washing, dyeing and re-knitting. And you know I went right out and found another sweater to frog! Heheh…
