Recycled yarn

[CraftyChristine]

<span style="font-family:comic sans ms; color:purple;">I picked up five sweaters at a thrift shop this afternoon for $5.00. There was an alpaca sweater, a cotton one, a chenille one and a couple acrylic/wool blends. I'm almost finished with the cotton one and look at how much yarn there is!

 

<img border=0 src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/craftychristine/bluesweaterrecycled.jpg" />

 

That's just the sleeves and the front...I'm working on the back right now.

 

I'm psyched, though a little worried about doing the alpaca and chenille one.</span>

[DawnsRays]

Wow, that is awesome!

 

How is the ripping going? I've not done this with bought sweaters before and was wondering about your experience so far.

 

Do you have plans for the yarn yet?

 

~ DAWN

[Yarnmistress]

What a great idea! I can't believe I never thought of doing that before. I have seen some pretty cool sweaters at the thrift store and for one to five bucks you can't beat that.

[threeolivemartini]

i tired it.. i hated it.. too time consumng.. but ihave the patience of an ant

[natalie058]

I too hit the 5 for $5 sweater jackpot earlier this week, so far I have one and a half sweaters frogged... I love that I can get nice, expensive yarn for cheap, and I don't mind the frogging/winding, it's pretty brainless and relaxing for me, like to do it while watching TV... Check out this thread for a bunch of pics...

[Figmint77]

I've been frogging a thrift store sweater. I didn't take pictures as the camera was temporary unavailable, but it's going much smoother than I thought it would. The sweater is a very soft ribbon type made of polyester. I'm not sure what to make just yet, but for some reason a bag with flower motifs comes to mind.

 

~Tricia

[Guest LORFML]

Question- Does it matter if the sweater has pilled? I have quite a few sweaters between my daughters and I that we no longer wear. I would never of thought of tearing them apart.

[CraftyChristine]

<span style="font-family:comic sans ms; color:purple;">I found <a href="http://www.thekittyzoo.com/recycledyarn.html" target="_new">this</a> link through a blog I was reading. It shows step by step (with pics!) how to frog a store bought sweater.

 

This is the first time I've tried it and though it is time consuming, I really don't mind doing it. Hubbie and I are on a very very tight budget right now, so to get quality yarn for such a cheap price, I'm willing to spend a little extra time on it.

 

The thing that takes the longest is actually pulling the seams out. After that, you cut the braiding that's holding the loops closed at the top of the piece you're working on and once you actually start unravelling it, it goes very quick. I've done the chenille one since my last post and it was wonderful! I found the start of the seam and when I pulled it, all of the seams just came out like butter!

 

I'm thinking that I'm going to start doing this regularly. I don't have plans for the yarn yet, but there's so much, I'm sure I can do something nifty with it!</span>

[threeolivemartini]

i wasnt that fortunate.. my sweater was terrible.. i got all kinds of little pieces nothing over a yarn long ..

[CraftyChristine]

<span style="font-family:comic sans ms; color:purple;"><img border=0 src="http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/frown.gif" /> I've heard that some manufacturers actually knit huge amounts, cut the knit and sew it into sweaters before it unravels. Sounds like that's what you ran in to, which sucks!

 

In the tutorial I found, it says that Gap sweaters unravel really easily. </span>

[natalie058]

Usually nice, expensive sweaters (Banana Repub., J. Crew, LL Bean, GAP, etc) have the "good" seams, you can tell because they are thicker than the "bad" seams...