Along knitting comes the fact that you have to pay so much for yarn, I have come to find. Sheesh, the last time I purchased yarn, it didn't cost that much! $7 for a skein of synthetic yarn with enough to make a scarf? Wow! So, I did what every other frugal chic does: I got online to look for an alternative. The answer? Reclaimed yarn a.k.a., yarn reclaimed from old sweaters.
Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that reclaiming yarn is going to be very time consuming. Therefore, I have resolved to reclaim only higher-end yarns like wools and such. But, first, I need to learn how to do it. So, I retreated to my closet to grab a sweater I haven't worn in over a year:
A nice soft cotton.
First, I disassembled the knitted pieces:
Then came the unraveling process. Wow...talk about time consuming! Here is some yarn wrapped around the legs of a chair into hanks:
At one point, Tayelor came in the room and saw me having so much fun (yea, right), she asked to join in! So, she unraveled and I wrapped the unraveled yarn in hanks around the legs of a table chair.
Here's the hanks I got from the sweater:
The next step is to wash it:
I let it soak for about an hour. Then, the hanks were hung to dry. I really wanted to weight them down, but I don't know if I am actually going to use this yarn, so straight yarn was not my priority. This whole undertaking was to learn how to reclaim yarn on a garment that I cannot ruin the yarn, remember. Now, I do know that when I wash the wool, it has to be done a certain way so that it doesn't felt, and when choosing the garment to reclaim the yarn, I have to inspect closely for any felting. If there is any felting in the piece, you cannot reclaim the yarn because it will not unravel.
The fruit of my labor? The first picture I started with! I don't know how much yarn I got as I didn't hank it in 3' pieces. I really didn't care how much I got. I just wanted to practice!
So, what tedious undertaking have you done recently? Did you regret it or did it help you learn something?
