23 August 2012

Upcycling continues!

Many of you know that I have been really into upcycling commercially-made, thrift store sweaters into yarn.  My first try earlier in the year was a huge failure.  But the second try in June was a huge success, providing me with a large amount of cashmere yarn!

Well, now I have even more upcycled yarn to show you!  I sadly forgot to take a photo of the sweater before it was unraveled, but it was a XL men's sweater and according to the tag the fiber content was 100% lambs wool.  I payed a little over $3.00 for it. 


I have my mother to thank for the unraveling this time as well (thank you!), she just does such a great job of it and she likes to work on these kinds of projects during trips.  

I decided not to ply the yarn because I liked how it looked as a 2 ply yarn.  I'm not sure how much I have here because I don't have a scale and I'm too lazy to measure the yardage, but I would guess that I have at least 800 yards of DK weight yarn.


My mother would like for me to knit her a sweater from this yarn, but before I do that, I plan on dyeing it a more pleasant brown.  So yet again, another successful upcycling project (and believe me, I have more where this came from!).

17 comments:

  1. what a bargain. Our charity shop never seems to have much knitwear, either that or someone else gets to it before me! Agree it will look better dyed but you look to have plenty for another sweater

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  2. I love to ravel thrift shop wool sweaters, too. I've reknit them into mittens, sweater vests, sweaters, socks, etc. for charities that require wool products.

    I've learned a lot about the process, too, and have many more sweaters to ravel. Someday, I will try over-dyeing. What method do you use?

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  3. Lucky! I love your upcycling, you always do such a great job :) Can't wait to see it overdyed.

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  4. Totally awesome! I think you mom deserves a sweater as a reward for all her hard work. I hope that you'll share your adventures in dyeing. Both activities are on my "to do" list. Seeing your success makes me eager to give it a go...

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  5. I'm looking forward to seeing how your upcycled yarn knits up!!

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  6. This is so cool!!! I've been wanting to try this too. Can't wait to see what you knit with it and how the redyeing works. With the cost of things these days...this is brilliant!

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  7. It looks so gorgeous! I can't wait to see it all knit up!

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  8. Oh you are so clever! I haven't manafed to find any that would be worth salvaging yet, but you definitely motivate me to look!

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  9. I love it, I love how you're upcycling. I really need to devote more time to going to thrift stores, looks like I'm missing out on the chance to find some true gems of potential yarn. Hope grad school is going well!

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  10. I'm really jealous of your charity shops! I got dragged through a load a couple of weeks ago, by my mother in law, and I didn't find a single wool jumper in any of them! :)

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  11. Awesome haul! Good luck dyeing all of it. I'm sure it will make a gorgeous sweater the second time around.

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  12. I really have to try this and maybe I can get my mom to help like you got yours to! Can't wait to see the pattern you choose to knit.

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  13. Wow! It's so amazing at how many cakes you got out of that sweater.

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  14. You have more patience than I. Can't wait to see the finished dye job.

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  15. Awesome!!! Your mom will be so happy! :)

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  16. I look forward to seeing it knitted again! Have fun!

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  17. lucky you that's a lot of yarn! ;)

    I have done the same! by unraveling machine made sweaters you can get some times quality yarn very cheap or for free! where I live there are no thrift stores or anything of the like, but whenever a hand-me-down sweater that nobody wants to wear falls into my hands.. I just think of the possibilities! :D

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