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.
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4 comments:
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.
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!
P.S. LOVE LOVE LOVE the sweater bag!!!!!
aw shucks, guys. you're making me feel all bashful...
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