In the last couple of weeks of the TAD challenge I have been doing quite a bit of sweater recycling. Over the last two days I decided to use some of those bits of sweater that were left over from the yarn making to make some sweater beads. I originally wanted to felt them - which I tried. But sadly some of the wool knit just doesn't want to felt. But I will continue to try - next stop the tumble dryer!
Today I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves.
If you are interested in details catch me on twitter/facebook or have a peek at my blog.
Eddie
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Twitter: @EddieDuckling
Facebook: Eddie Roued
Blog: Grey Duckling
So what have I been up to today craft wise. Well I tell you - life is catching up on me so I didn't really have time for much, but I did sit down for 15 min and have a look at a new fun little idea of something to do with all this yarn I have been making.
As you may have notices of over the last couple of weeks - I do frog a lot of sweaters to get to the yarn so that I can reuse it. But today I finally got to some of the less fun colours. I already have some colours that I plan to dye but some are too dark for this. So I thought how about mixing two colours. 1) I get a thicker yarn and 2) I get more fun yarn. Because let's face it most sweaters/blouses these days are not exactly made out of fun yarn. Also, since I go through all this trouble of making recycled yarn I might as well add my own little stamp on it.
So today I mixed two types of red cotton that I had and knit a sample square and I did the same to a light teal cashmere and a light blue Ramie/Silk mix. In a way this mixing of colours and fibres reminds me of some experimental yarns I made last year under the name of Rare Breed yarns on Grey Duckling. I really liked the Green merino / undyed soya mix and the red silk / khaki cashmere mix.
I really like the result and I may have some more fun with this tomorrow.
Today I decided to give this pink lambswool blouse a go to make some yarn out of it. The thing is though that this makes for very thin yarn once it is unravelled - 24 st pr inch. So it will have to be 3-plied using the Navaho technique to make it a sports weight yarn that I can use. But I don't have a spinning wheel at my disposal at the moment so this final step will have to wait. If you are interested in spinning and plying have a look at Historic Crafts.
I have great plans for this yarn though - I want to make a toy pig! Yes you heard me. A pig! I adore pigs.
See my other yarns on Grey Duckling where I am also writing a post on making yarn from sweaters. This post is still a work in progress and if you have any questions or suggestions - feel free to add them in the comments.
I also wanted to share with you a picture from my first day in the garden in 2011. I brought down this new knitting project I just began. It is a lace shawl using the AeRang pattern. If you are on Ravelry come on over and have a look at the pattern.
Today I have been rather busy tidying my recycled sweater yarn on Ravelry and adding yarn to Grey Duckling. I have also been preparing this yellow yarn today. The yellow yarn is form a cotton sweater and I am planning to dye it with onion peel to get a more powerful yellow.
I also began writing this post on Grey Duckling about how to make yarn from recycled sweaters. The idea with the post is that it should contain a load of good links that you can use if you want to make or use recycled yarn. if you have any other suggestions or links do let me know. The post is still a work in process.
I have also been doing some more on the green sweater from the other day (TAD day 4). The bit's that can be unraveled into yarn can be cut up and felted.
Today I finally got started on a pair of tester socks I am knitting with the help of Priscilla Gibson-Roberts book 'Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy' (reviewed by Dee on Historic Crafts).
Then as I was walking home I spotted through the door of a charity shop this green sweater. I fell for the colour at once and went straight in to check whether 1) it had the right stitches for unravelling and 2) it was pure wool. It did have the right stitches but it was only 80% lambs wool and 20% Nylon. Any other day I would have walked right away but today I was thinking in terms of socks and people keep telling me that socks wear better if they have a little Nylon mixed in the wool. So I though, why not?
I brought it home and started to take the sweater apart. While pulling it apart I wind it up into a ball on my ball winder. This makes it much easier to use later.
If you are interested in more of my recycling sweater to make yarn projects you can have a look here on the Grey Duckling yarn page. I will write a post on how you do this in the next couple of days so stay tuned and let me know if you are interested.
Also I am very interested in seeing other peoples similar projects so do share.
So I finished the Echo Flower shawl I was knitting for the Historic Crafts knit along (KAL) on Ravelry.
It has really been the most amazing journey. it's the second time I have knitted lace and the first time I have made a shawl and I loved every minute of it. Obviously I didn't knit the whole shawl today - I just finished it off and blocked it today. The thing with lace shawls is that (as you can see in the gallery) when you knit it seems kind of small and scrunched up. But then you block it quite heavily and you get to see all the beautiful patterns.
The Echo flower shawl pattern is a free pattern by Jenny Johnson Johnen. It's on ravelry but you can also download it here.
As my theme for this TAD is recycling I better tell you how this project fits in:
The yarn I used is 100% merino that I salvaged from an old sweater and 3-plied on the spinning wheel (meet the yarn on Grey Duckling)
Now it's the waiting game. The shawl has to dry out while blocked and it should hopefully stay this way. But will I have the patience to wait for it.
I'm gonna begin this TAD challenge on a hearty note. My theme for TAD this february is going to be recycling. I will be using recycled materials and trying to find new and ingenious ways of making them into fun creative objects.
This heart I just made is crochet with a magenta wool (see it on Grey Duckling) that I ripped from a sweater and 3-plyed last year. Later in february I think I will do some more of this yarn making from old sweaters.
The pattern for the heart garland can be found free here on Skip to my Lou!
But why am I making these hearts you may ask? Well let me tell you.
In january my friend Cecile and I came up with this idea to spread the love a bit for Valentines. Actually we want to spreaad it across the world - hence: A World in Love.
The idea behind A World in Love is really simple:
1. Handcraft a heart (anything goes!)
2. Take a picture of this heart in front of a place that means a lot to you
3. Share the image (flickr group, or post in in the Ravelry or the facebook group and it will be uploaded for you onto flickr) and us know where the place is!
4. Tell us about your handcrafted heart and why you took the photo where you did (optional)
The best bit is that all the hearts will be geo-tagged on flickr so that we can see how the love has spread across the world.
So are you going to join us. We hope you will. As of today you have 14 days to craft a heart in one way or another and share it with us.
Happy crafting,
Eddie
