Does anyone 'resue' yarn?

For many years I could not afford to shop for balls of yarn - instead I would go to thrift stores, and find sweaters hand made of attractive yarn, and dissasemble them...

I've rescued many 2.00 sweaters that became socks and mittens and slippers and scarves over the years ;-)

Could not have kept my kids in layers without it!

Sandra Rose

Reply to
Sandra Rose
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I haven't personally taken a sweater apart to reuse the yarn (umm, except the sweater that I had *just* made without a pattern and wasn't wild about how big it turned out, but I took it apart almost immediately and wound the yarn into balls and reused the yarn), but I remember reading about a couple of other people here on the group who have done it. I would like to do it sometime... but I'd have to find a sweater (or something) that I liked the yarn and didn't care for the sweater to be able to bring myself to take it apart. Does that make sense? LOL

Gem

Reply to
MRH

would go to thrift stores, and find sweaters hand made of

slippers and scarves over the years ;-)

Oh yes, my mother did, during the depression and WW II, even after the war. It is a chalange and lots of fun to be able to come up with a totally new item.

I can tell you as an immigrant in Canada, during the fifties and sixties, and Otto only making $35 per week, that I took the old winter coats from my family and took these apart and turned them, and made nice new winter coats for our youngsters. I often used applications or embroidery to make each jacket or coat different and special. I loved the chalange to be original and that it did cost next to nothing and the kids still looked great. At that time it was saving pennies, one by one....LOL

Els

Reply to
Els van Dam

During WW11 my family collected every knitted item they could find, unravelled it and made "new" items. A couple of my aunts were master knitters and could make something beautiful our of old yarn.

Reply to
westernnord

I remember being about 6 years old and sitting with my mother watching a neighbor pluck her angora rabbit she had in her lap and spin the yarn. My mother made me a hat and mittens with that yarn. I pulled it apart and washed it and remade it for my niece who is now 40 something and did the same again for my daughter, and now I have the yarn again waiting until possibly next year to made a set for my granddaughter. Each time I wash the yarn it looks as new and fluffy as it did the first time.

Chex

Reply to
CHEX

OMGosh, YES! There's even a re-KAL group on either yahoogroups or smartgroups! I believe it's sponsored by my good friend Wendy, in Italy, who runs the Knitters in Europe webring. Noreen

Reply to
The YARNWRIGHT

Sandra Rose , for many years i ripped my childrens sweaters when they grew out of it and remade them into bigger sweaters ,, my daughter had a sweater , that started as my dress [when i was a teenager , than it was reknitted as a sweter for her and reknitted again + 2 other Ex old sweaters into a one fitting her as teen ager ... mirjam

go to thrift stores, and find sweaters hand made of

scarves over the years ;-)

Reply to
Mirjam Bruck-Cohen

Elsje i think this is very Dutch , to do so ,,, i too sewed for my kids when we were a young coulple with a small income ,,,, I think we all were Reusers , now it is called recyclers , i still do recycle a lot of my stuff ,,, In fact last week i turned to old [hand knitted ] socks into legwarmers , i have had enough of it as socks ,,,, mirjam

Reply to
Mirjam Bruck-Cohen

You know, it's really like I found my long lost family here! LoL! Ahhh - I'm feeling quite at home with you guys :-)

Sandra Rose

go to thrift stores, and find sweaters hand made of

scarves over the years ;-)

Reply to
Sandra Rose

Psstt... Sandra Rose. is your kettle on ??? I am just in need of a 2nd cup of coffee ??? you might join mine !!! mirjam

Reply to
Mirjam Bruck-Cohen

:o) I knew you'd fit right in here! And I'm sure Maggie will too when she gets here! :o)

*hug* Gem
Reply to
MRH

thats the one good thing about bunny fur, it goes on forever, I have never done anything yet with mine, spun up singles for a friend who crochets, but singles won't be good for knitting, as it will slope to the way of the twist, but I do have another three boxes of the stuff in my stash waiting to be spun. A must do for the new year, spin and ply and knit something with it. It is so soft.

cheers........cher

Reply to
spinninglilac

Huh! I had no idea about the yarn causing it 'slope' - well you learn something everyday!

I've always been interested in spinning - it seems a very satisfying endeavor. From mere fibers to threads... :-)

Do you use a wheel or a 'spindle'? I am probably not even using the correct terms! I really know nothing about spinning. But I'm interested ;-)

Sandra Rose

cheers........cher

Reply to
Sandra Rose

It's sunday morning, and I've got the coffee on ;-) Time for a little visit with some freinds!

Sandra Rose

Reply to
Sandra Rose

;-) You'll have a cup too Gem? (-; SR

*hug* Gem
Reply to
Sandra Rose

Tea? Yes, please! :o) If you put coffee in front of me I will be happy to sit and smell it, but I don't like the taste of the stuff. ;o)

Gem

Reply to
MRH

Cher, could you please elaborate a bit about this for a non-spinner like me? Does singles mean single ply yarn or something else? Why do they cause a knitted piece to slope? Thanks.

Reply to
The Jonathan Lady

On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 19:13:00 GMT, "The Jonathan Lady" spewed forth :

A yarn referred to as "singles" is indeed a single strand of unplied wool. It biases when knitted up because the individual wool fibers don't want to be twisted up - they're trying to revert to their lazy untwisted condition, so the fabric biases in the direction they're attempting to untwist toward.

Plied yarn hangs together because the different singles in the yarn are twisting against each other.

It is possible to "set" a singles yarn so that it is somewhat less kinky and biasing, but I've not had much luck with that. You can try carrying two singles together, one twisted one direction, one twisted the other; sometimes they'll cancel each other's tendency to bias.

Or, give it away and buy something else ;)

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Reply to the list as I do not publish an email address to USENET. This practice has cut my spam by more than 95%. Of course, I did have to abandon a perfectly good email account...

Reply to
Wooly

Thank you Sandra ,,, we all here are coffee gulpers ... :>:>:> Think it goes with knitting ., crocheting and weaving ,,,When i teach it i usuall add Coffee Thermos to the list of needed stuff ... mirjam

Reply to
Mirjam Bruck-Cohen

Sorry Gemini .. i have some nice teas as well ,,,, just give a shout before you enter !!! mirjam

Reply to
Mirjam Bruck-Cohen

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