Sometime last year I caught the bug of sweater recycling. I am not sure if I saw it in a blog or Pinterest but I thought it sounded really fun. You take thrift store sweater and frog the whole thing just for the yarn. So off I went to my local thrift store and less than $10 later I had a pile of sweaters! All you need is small sharp scissors and time on your hands. Some call it up cycling, recycling, or reclaiming a sweater.

Some times they turn out great! Here is a lovely wool blanket I made after up cycling a black wool sweater made if extra fine merino bulky wool. Ravelry link for project details.

Sometimes the process doesn’t work so hot. Here is a orange cotton sweater from J Crew. The yarn came completely unplied as I frogged it. The seams were so tiny that I ended up snipping bits of the knitting creating lots of short strings instead if one long string.

The yarn was a complete loss. But I prefer to look at the bright side. Deconstructing a sweater has taught me a lot about how sweaters are put together and how patterns work. Even though the yarn can’t be saved there is satisfaction in learning. You can tell a lot about quality by how a sweater is made. I have found that a pretty appearance does not always mean quality. And perhaps a bit of the glee is just due to the destruction itself, hehehehe.

It’s a very messy process that takes anywhere from minutes to hours. Sometimes you get a pile of crap but sometimes you get wonderful skeins of cheap quality yarn. I love love my soft wool blanket. And you get to learn something while causing absolute destruction!! The key is to pick a quality made garment made of natural fibers and without too many surged seams.

I have a couple more sweaters in my stash to tear apart. I hope to find some good yarn so I can show you what happens after the destruction!!

Happy Knitting!