Sunday, February 14, 2010

Upcycled Knitting Projects

This post was created especially for Etsy customers of TaddieBeeKnitting. Here, you can see how unraveled yarn knits up beautifully at a fraction of the cost of new yarn.
                                          
This Talbot's sweater was 100% wool. Name brand sweaters often give the best results. Even though this yarn became slightly un-plied when unraveled, it was easy to work with and the finished projects turned out great! From this sweater, I made a hat, a child's scarf and a pair of socks.

(See how the seam above is sewn together? If you're unraveling your own sweaters, that's the kind of seam you need to look for. Serged seams are cut and will unravel only one row at a time, leaving lengths of yarn only as long as the width of the sweater.)

Irish Hiking Hat

Child's Honeycomb Scarf

The Venezia Worsted yarn for this cabled blanket was pricey, but I saved plenty by knitting the Vine Lace hat with 100% cashmere unraveled from a J.Crew Sweater.

This sundress was made from 100% cotton sweater.
This little brown bear with its matching sundress was made from a 100% wool sweater.

The blue wool of these slippers are from a pricey store-bought wool, but the white cuffs are a rustic 100% lambswool from a GAP sweater.


I dyed a peach-colored wool cardigan to make several children's specialty items. My two-week old grand-nephew wore this Pittsburgh Steelers hat while he watched them win the Super Bowl in 2009!

My granddaughter Allie's favorite food is watermelon. So, of course, I wanted her to have a watermelon hat!

Some of the peach yarn was dyed with strawberry Kool-Aid to make this Hello Kitty ensemble.

These "Fetching" fingerless gloves were knit from a non name-brand sweater (Canyon River Blues) but the fiber blend was lovely and they knit up beautiful, soft and warm. 
(75% silk, 15% angora, 10% nylon)

One of my favorite fibers is cashmere. The yarn for these socks was a 100% cashmere Bloomingdales sweater. It knit up beautifully.

Since cashmere is so soft, I reinforced the heels and toes with Lang Jawoll reinforcement thread.

When I gift knitted items, I like to attach the yarn tag so that the recipient will know fiber content and washing instructions. It's fun to create your own tags when you upcycle yarn. I named this colorway, "Cashmere Chill" because the sweater came from a thrift store in Lincoln Park (and a nickname for Chicago is The Chill).

Don't be afraid to use yarn from unraveled sweaters! It's fun! It's less expensive than new yarn! And it's good for the planet!

Please visit my ETSY store for luxury upcylced yarn.


                                                                                                                                   

5 comments:

  1. Love the recycled yarns! You have certainly turned me on the using recycled yarns. No need to cut back on knitting when you can knit with nice, recycled yarns! Now, the hunt for cashmere sweaters, angora sweaters, virgin wool sweaters or even acrylic-blend sweaters to recycle for the kids.
    Haven't tried dying yarn with Kool-Aid yet but hope to do so soon. Thanks for sharing and inspiring!

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  2. Thanks for the reminder that I don't necessary have to like the colors of the yarn that I upcycle; that it can be dyed. Love the funky-colored socks with the solid heels and toes.

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  3. Love the items knit from recycled yarn! Great job!

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  4. I've never known this technique until just today. Brilliant minds & necessity.......! I would take my hat off to you, but you might just upcycle it away from me ;)

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  5. Haha, you're right Scoochy! ....my daughter doesn't like it when she sees me eying her sweaters!

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