I've been wanting to give sweater recycling a try for a while. I have this sweater I bought a few years ago in Ireland...very big, very nice, very, very hot. I hardly ever wore it because it was so darned hot. Despite that, I managed to somehow put a hole in it, so I decided this year I'd use it as my test piece for unraveling a sweater and reusing the wool.
Yeah. Well. Clearly, this was not a good choice. I mistook the "Made in Ireland" tag for "HANDMADE in Ireland," and assumed I could just undo the sweater much as I could any sweater I'd knit myself. No. Not happenin'. This one clearly had been serged, because every row unravels into it's own little strand of very curly yarn. :::sigh::: That pile accounts for only half a sleeve.
I'm thinking now how I might be able to be creative with it and still get some use from it. I wonder if the body would felt as is and I could then turn it into a bag or something? The yarn is supposedly 90/10 wool/silk. I don't know if that would felt or not. At this point, it probably can't turn out to be any bigger a mess than what I've already got, right?
Live and learn.
(Wish I'd seen this before I started.)
2 comments:
Felting wool and silk together should work perfectly-- BUT, best to remember that all felting is an experiment.
You know the felting recipe, right? Sweaters, a few pairs of jeans, warm or hot water, soap, low water level and keep rerunning the wash cycle until it starts to thicken considerably.
You can also block the yarn, if you really like it-- (I've never wanted to do that much work, but people do it...)
I made a pair of simple fingerless gloves from handspun that's been sitting around for a year-- knit while watching a soccer game. Very satisfying!
oh no! but i too think the felting should work. good luck!
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