Onslaught of finished projects

I debated with myself about whether I wanted to blog about some of the projects I've finished so far this year.  I settled on a few that I really wanted to share because I enjoyed them so much!  Also, I must apologize in advance for looking so melancholy in these photos, I have no idea why!

I have been wanting to knit another Gemini for ages, I knit one two years ago and I loved both the process of knitting it and the finished product so much.

The pattern is Gemini by Jane Richmond, published in Knitty, Spring + Summer 2012 and there's something about the simplicity of this pattern that makes it so appealing to me.

The yarn for this top was some that I have treasured for a while now, it was some upcycled cashmere yarn that me and my mother worked together to save.  It was a wonderful process that I detail a little more in a previous post (I estimated that I saved at least $43 a skein by upcycling!).  Knitting this old favorite with such a special yarn made this project particularly memorable.

I also really enjoyed knitting this Rockfall Sweater, which I finished in April.  I love sweaters with an interesting construction and detail, this one is definitely following one of my favorite fashion trends, strategically placed mesh and lace.

The pattern is Rockfall Sweater by Mari Chiba, published in Knitscene, Spring 2013.

Although I love the end product and this was a fun pattern to knit, I was frustrated by a couple aspects of this project.  For one, I think the sizing runs a little small, if I were to knit this again, I would go up a size for sure.  Secondly, the neckline instructions were vague in places and made it very frustrating.  I ended up having to frog, rewrite, and knit the section several times to make it look right.  I would definitely recommend planning out the neckline before you start on it.

Berroco Vintage dk

Both of these projects turned out so wonderfully and I'm looking forward to Fall when I can start wearing my new Rockfall sweater!

Upcycled yarn surprise!

The other day I was digging through my large craft box and rediscovered some more upcycled yarn that my mother helped me unravel last summer.  Yet another forgotten project to be rediscovered there, maybe I should clean this mystical, bottomless bin out?

Both sweaters were thrifted for under $3 and I remember one being cashmere and the other cotton.  Even better, they are both a blank canvas for more dyeing experiments.  One downside, I cannot get the thrift store smell out of them, it is so sickly sweet, ick.

I'm not really sure what I want to do with the cotton yarn yet, but I decided to ply the cashmere yarn.  It definitely needed to be plied because it was a little weak and prone to snapping.  It looks more attractive and easy to work with than it was before.

There wasn't a sweater's worth of yarn here, I'm thinking that some of the sweater is hiding somewhere in my parent's house.  If I had to estimate yardage, I would say: ~675 yards (an awkward amount to have).

 

It looks a lot like the cashmere sweater I upcycled last year.  I didn't estimate the cost and savings this time but I can imagine that it was a bargin considering it is a fairly good quality cashmere.  As with most of the yarn I spin or upcycle, I haven't really put much thought into what I'll use it for.

Thrift Store Sweater Into Cashmere Yarn

I'm very excited to show the results of my second upcycled sweater project!  Some of you may recall that the first one did not go too well because I had inadvertently picked out the wrong sweater for this kind of project.  The second attempt was definitely not a failure!

This whole adventure came about as a result of my going to Goodwill (or Mennonite thrift stores, those people know what quality is) and happening to stumble across a large, men's L size, 100% cashmere sweater for $4.28 (includes tax).

Let me share this little secret, if you want good sweaters to upcycle, don't even bother with the women's section because the men's section is where it's at.  As a whole the sweaters are often cheaper, larger, and usually hardly worn (why don't American men know that sweaters are sexy?).

My mother and I had a nice time unraveling this one and then I plyed, and plyed, and plyed, which is why I'm contemplating building an Arduino microcontroller based e-spinner (don't worry, I would continue to spin my handspun by spindle, I love the process so much).  I plyed the yarn together because on it's own, it was brittle and unbalanced.

This ended up as a 4-ply, 100% cashmere (assuming average quality), worsted weight yarn in a pretty gray color that I don't think I will dye simply because it is a color I don't see a whole lot in yarn colorways.  I ended up with 265 grams and ~ 1,100 yards of yarn total.  I wish that I had kept track of how many hours this project took with the unraveling and plying, but sadly I did not.

I was interested to see how much money I likely saved by doing it this way (not counting labor), and so I did some rough calculations against what I'm assuming is a comparable yarn: Jade Sapphire Mongolian 6-Ply (which I haven't tried, but am definitely tempted to if only the price weren't out of my reach).

New, store bought cashmere yarn: 150 yards, 55 grams -->   $45.00 a skein (before tax)

Upcycled thrift store cashmere yarn: 220 yards, 55 grams -->   $1.13 a skein (including tax)

Even if the resulting yarn is not of comparable quality (which I can kind of sense by touch), that is a huge savings and allows me to knit with a luxury fiber!  This is a really fun and rewarding process and I would highly recommend it, just be sure to follow my upcycled sweater rules.

Upcycling Adventures Part 2

Earlier this year I attempted to upcycle a thrift store sweater with disastrous results after which I was not really interested in attempting to try it again.  Then my mother found this beauty for $4 at Goodwill last week:

This gently worn men's sweater is 100% 2-ply cashmere, a treasure to be sure.  So, I decided to put aside my past experience with upcycling and give it another try.  My mother was intrigued and decided to help me with the unraveling process, before long she was completely hooked and we were able to wind about a third of the sweater that morning.

The resulting fiber is fingering weight and a little frail, so I'll likely end up plying it for strength.  Honestly, I'm just enjoying the process of working with pure cashmere for the very first time!

I'm not sure how much yarn I'll get out of this, but I think that it will result in a lot of luxury fiber for very little cost.

Who knew a sweater could result in so much quality mother/daughter time?

The next obvious question is: what should this yarn be in its next stage of life?