Repurposing Yarn

Over the holidays, I thought it would be fun to try repurposing yarn like I've seen on a couple of blogs. Sock yarn (its thin and stretchy) is way expensive so I thought this might be a way to get some.

When I originally went to DI for old sweaters, they were all pretty expensive for what I was going to do with them.  Then, after talking to my wonderful ward friends, I looked at the specials and took advantage of them.  I probably could have gotten even better deals with more research, but since I was just practicing it didn't matter as much.

It is very fun to pull apart work that isn't urs.

We used lots of different things to wrap the hanks of yarn around. Hannah was a good helper.

I had everybody going for a little while...  did this old kinda ugly green one first for practice.

Our basket of green noodles.

Hannah had some trouble taking a picture of me...

We washed it in the tub... Hannah was a very enthusiastic washer.

Then we hung it to dry.

Partly because of the enthusiasm of the washer but mostly because I should have tied the hanks together more often, it ended up in big clumps.

It could do with being respun... Emily said she'd take care of it, if I could just get her a spinning wheel. Not quite sure how respinning works but Emily is pretty smart... I'm sure she'd figure it out :)

I ended up unraveling 2 more sweaters with the help of the family although some of the interest had wained.  I tied the hanks together much better so it didn't end up in clumps after washing.

I was worried about the really small yarn because it kept breaking as it was unraveled.  I was afraid it wouldn't be knitable... kinda defeats the purpose of getting cheap usable sock yarn.

Tried taking a picture of one set while knitting on my bed.

 Heres a better picture of some of the socks I knitted off of the yarn...

 For comparison, here is a pair of socks I knitted from real sock yarn (did you see above how I've learned short row heels?  SO much easier and faster! I love the internet and utube videos).

Each sock took about one ball of yarn at 5 dollars each (total of 10 dollars)...

I've made 4 pairs of socks from the tan yarn and look at all this yarn I still have left from those 5 dollar sweaters!

Definitely cheaper...

Most of the green in the unraveling pictures I gave to Hannah since she helped so much and is into knitting... I think I gave alot of the red/pink stuff to the Dietrichs as well.  Its three strands that are pretty unravelry so its harder to work with.  Its not stretchy like the tan stuff so it really doesn't make great socks.

I need to live in a colder climate where everyone needs more than one pair of gloves, scarves, hats, and lots and lots of warmy sockys.

PS. Unfortunately in Vegas there isn't a very great selection of sweaters at the local DI/Goodwill.  For those of you in colder climates, if you happen to be in a second hand store, see a good sweater to unravel for sock yarn which you then send to me, I would definitely pay you back for ur efforts! :)...