I'm staring at this wool sweater I bought at the thrift store...

[minwifeof4boys]

....So many of you have recycled sweaters...I thought I would try.... I made a very small cut on a seam at the bottom thinking it would just unravel into a nice ball for me... um....its not working at all... no long threads... nothing looking like it wants to unravel on its own...

Help!

[aussiecrocheter]

You need to start unravelling where the work was finished, not where it started. So...... you need to start at the top of a piece, not the bottom, hope this helps.

[natalie058]

Before you can frog a sweater, you need to un-assemble the pieces... a front, back and sleeves will frog much easier apart than together. Hopefully, you got a sweater with "nice" seams, not sergered seams - frogging a piece with sergered seams will give you a bunch of couple yard pieces.

 

Look for little braid-looking things running next to the seam - they'll usually be in a thread the same color as the yarn. You'll want to snip those, not the sweater yarn. Once you get the joining thread undone and the sweater into pieces, it should be a lot easier to tell where to start frogging - there will usually be a bump or knot where they finished off.

 

Good luck!!

[hooklady]

I've been wanting to try this and have been looking at this site for the tutorial:

http://www.neauveau.com/recycledyarn.html

 

Check it out and see if it helps and let me know. Good luck.

 

 

[sjkmaurice]

I frogged a sweater not too long ago. I had to remove the sleeves and neck and then frog from the top. However, the way it was made, the shaping at the neck was in little strands that I almost gave up on until finally one of them kept going and I ended up with a ball of yarn.

[Chatty]

One word of advice in addition to not trying to frog a sweater with serged seams:

 

Do not try to frog a chenille sweater, it will just frustrate you to no end.

[MarvieN]

I've frogged quite a few chenille sweaters. It's what got me started recycling sweaters. I've never had any trouble with them myself. Maybe I've just been lucky?

[Chatty]

You must have been because it hung up on me terribly when I tried to frog it.

[minwifeof4boys]

I removed the sleeves and neck pieces....but the yarn is coming off in just long strands.....are these worth tying together or should the recycled sweater thing just be one continous thread? The wool is very thin but very pretty

[MarvieN]

Often the shoulder areas are like that, but once you get past it, the yarn should be one loooooong piece. Did you pick the side seams apart carefully when you dis-assembled the pieces? If you just cut the seams you can cut the yarn, in which case you'd end up with a lot of shorter pieces. I usually end up having to cut the shoulder seams because those are always serged, but the side seams I pick apart with a seam ripper from my sewing kit.

[minwifeof4boys]

GRRRR...no...I DID cut the side seams...and that is probably why I have a gazillion short pieces.....

 

 

This has been a great learning process though....I'm ready to try again....

[MarvieN]

Yep, that explains it =) So, next time you'll know better

 

If you don't have a seam ripper, you can use small scissors, just be careful that you are snipping the yarn/thread used to seam and not the actual sweater yarn. Sometimes they use the same yarn to seam as to make the sweater, other times it's sewing thread in the same color. Start at the bottom and pull the sides apart a bit, you should be able to see where to snip. Then just work your way up. Do the same thing for the sleeves, starting at the cuff and working up.

 

If you find the right thread, which doesn't always happen for me but is so cool when it does, you can just give it a tug and it'll all come apart without having to snip all the way up. You just end up with one long thread and the seams just fall open =) If you have to snip all the way up you will have to make sure you pick all the thread bits away before you start frogging, otherwise when you hit one you'll have to stop and pick it out before you move on.

 

Now, if you haven't already tossed this sweater, you might be able to salvage it. You can always tie all the ends together, leaving tails, and then crochet away. Like this.

 

If you get stuck or have any questions next time you recycle, feel free to give me a shout =)