Making recycled yarn new again

Once we get yarn from our sweater, the challenge is to entangle it

I used a steam technique to make the yarn new again

I put each skein in the vegetable basket of my giant pot

Put some water to steam inside the pot

Steam reach the yarn in the basket

Left the yarn there 3 times 20 minutes, letting the steam reaching all area of the yarn

Put yarn to dry around the umbrella to straight it out

Then put back in skein

Yarn is magically untangled and like new again

2 sweaters into plenty of yarn to unravel, dye and knit again

Went shopping and brough back 2 very large sweaters, none of them I would even wear.

WHAT!!!!

Yes, I don't buy any sweater any more, only if I can reuse the yarn later.

I like to buy sweaters from expensive stores at 80% off and unravel the yarn.

I look for 

- good quality sweaters

- dk weight yarn are my favorite 

- no surger finish, like in this picture otherwise it will be a torture to unravel

- merino blend, 100% is the best but it is hard to find so the highest % is the best

Once you have the right sweater, you just have to find the right threat and pull. 

It will easily separate all parts of the sweater

Once you have your sweater in a few pieces, you can star to unravel

Note thar you usually start to unravel at the top of each pieces not at the ribbing

Little by little make it into a ball

And soon you will a few balls of great yarn

Next we will see how to color, untangle and finally knit it in a new project...

Unravelling stories (part 2)

2nd Banana Republic sweater unravelling

100% cashmere sweater 

This one was a little different,

the front and back was 2 ply where the sleeves and borders were 1 ply

The sweater was a bit dirty so I plan to put the yarn into skeins and
dye the yarn with kool-air or Jacquard dye

What color should I go for?
Maybe a light vintage pink for baby sweater
or a dark teal for a baby overall...

more to come. . . for a little tutorial this time

Unravelling stories (part 1)

I love knitting  with cashmere but it is so expensive that I  can rarely afford to buy some to knit a sweater. 

So I think I might have found a solution to my problem. 

I went shopping for end of the season sales at my local mall and ended up at Banana Republic.

I went (as always) directly into the sales section, trying to find something to wear and 

I ran into a few good things, cashmere sweaters...

Well most of them were either too small, too big or too bulky for California so I started to think differently. 

I couldn't pass on a $30 100% cashmere sweater but couldn't wear it either and suddenly it hits me.

What if I were to unravel the sweater and make a new one for me?

So I did

The first one is a male V-neck sweater, size L which is like a giant for me.

It had some holes in it but the cashmere was super soft and the brown heather color delicious.

It unraveled quite easily, I have to say, you just need to find the right sewing thread.
Quickly I had some small and big balls depending on where the holes were.
It came out as a light fingering weight yarn.

Now, what to do with it?
Sweater, cardigan, ... for me, for the kids?
Do I need to wash it?
Do I need to put it in skeins instead of balls?
I kind of new at it...

...More sweaters to come