Recycling a Sweater

Since I’ve gotten back into knitting, I kept building up the complexity of the projects I was doing – to see what I could do. Once I got the the gloves/mittens, I got the urge to start a sweater. If I can do those, and socks, I can handle a sweater. (The sewing and seaming at the end might be annoying and it may not look perfect, but I can do it!) The problem with wanting to make my own sweater, however, is that good yarn is expensive! It doesn’t make sense why making your own sweater should be more expensive than buying one, but depending on the material you choose, it can be. So, when I ran into the concept of recycling a sweater to re-use its yarn, I was intrigued.

I had this long, red sweater jacket that I liked but it didn’t really fit my needs. It was a bit big, didn’t have pockets, only had one button, etc. I decided that it would be great to recycle this sweater into something I’d wear more often, and would fit me (and my needs) better. So, following the directions at My Virtual Sanity, I took the plunge.

After taking off the labels, I start taking apart the seams one by one.

The collar was connected to the button band. And then the sleeves came off.

Then the pieces were all separate, and I could unravel them! I used the keyboard tray on my desk to wind the yarn as it came off. This took awhile.

I got a lot of yarn out of it, ready for washing and drying to get rid of the kinks. Didn’t take pictures of that, but most of the skeins are hanging in my closet. I’ll wind them as I need them.

Last night I finally cast on for my sweater. I’m excited about it. The pattern is BPT, a nice hoodies, and I plan on adding some pockets too. I wonder how long this is going to take.