Sunday, May 18, 2008

fun with sweaters

Welcome to my new blog. I figured that some people visiting our family blog might be a little less than interested in my creative efforts, so I needed a new forum to craft blog guilt-free. So there you have it.

Speaking of craftiness, I've discovered a new obsession with sweaters, specifically old sweaters. As a new knitter, I've discovered that good yarn can be very expensive. You can imagine how thrilled I was to find out that thrift store sweaters can be unraveled for some lovely, but inexpensive yarn. My first experiement with this is working out very well. I had a turtleneck sweater in a wonderful raspberry sherbet color, but not so flattering fit-- so I took it apart. I got one sleeve done, but couldn't wait to finish unraveling the whole sweater before I started knitting this beautiful woodland shawl. It's my first all-lace project and I LOVE IT! Here's a close-up of the pattern:


And here's the rest of the sweater that still needs to be unraveled:



For sweaters that are 100% wool, a whole new realm of possibilities opens up: felting. All it takes is a wool sweater, a washing machine and a tiny bit of dish soap, and voila! you've got a thicker, heavier fabric perfect for making bags. I got my inspiration and instructions here. This is my first sweater bag, and I've got a few more in the works.






4 comments:

Angie said...

Oh, my heck. You need to start selling these fabulous things! Or at least give them out as awesome birthday/Christmas gifts! You're too cool, Steph.

Oh, and Todd says, "She's got two blogs now? Well, don't expect me to read them BOTH." Ha ha. What a sass. He doesn't check anyone's blog - he only looks at what I point out.

Britney said...

Steph, just visiting via Shauna's blog. You are so talented! I thought it was cool enough that you knit such cool things, but to know that you actually spend the time taking apart sweaters in order to knit OTHER things -- so cool! (I love the raspberry lace so far!) You need to teach me!

Britney said...

P.S. LOVE LOVE LOVE the sweater bag!!!!!

Steph said...

aw shucks, guys. you're making me feel all bashful...