And so the days are filled...

25 January 2007

Everything's coming apart

Sometimes it's nice just to unravel things. Recent success in the yarn-reuse category has left me pondering the jumpers in my stash awaiting deconstruction. I got on a big unravelling kick last weekend, spurred on by Fiver's donation to the jumpers-for-unravelling collection of a hemp cardigan. (Over the years, the cardigan had become too "saggy baggy" for wear.) I have been wanting to try knitting with hemp, now here's the perfect opportunity.
I managed to salvage quite a lot of yarn. I haven't gotten the scales out to weigh it, but there's probably almost 1kg here. Unfortunately I couldn't salvage the yarn of the two fronts because it appears they were constructed as one piece, then cut down the middle for insertion of the zip. If you look closely, you can see the rough edges of unravelling stitches along the zip seam. If I unravelled this, it would result in hundreds and thousands of short single strands - for which I know no use, so these fronts will go into the bin once I've salvaged the zip.
I'm sure it has not escaped your attention that this means Fiver's wardrobe is short a cardigan... any suggestions? Cambridge Jacket? The raglan from Last Minute Knitted Gifts? As for the hemp, I have no specific plans, and as I will probably have to use the fine yarn (about a 2ply weight) doubled, there won't be enough here for any substantial garment. Maybe a singlet.

I also finished a rather large and drawn-out unravelling project that's been going for nearly a year now. I snatched up this jumper at a market ages ago for just a couple of dollars, solely for the purpose of unravelling it - the fibre content is mostly angora with a smidge of nylon to hold it all together.
(Don't ask me about the kitchen utensils. My former photographer, Ashley, was having an expressionist phase the day he took this picture.)

Needless to say, angora is not the most unravel-friendly fibre out there, but I felt it was worth persevering. I like the colour combination and might use the yarn doubled in a small stranded colourwork type pattern. Or, I realised recently, the yarn might be suitable for those Wine & Roses mitts from the winter 2006 IK.
The stripes meant I got many many small balls of yarn as the strands of individual colours were not carried along the side but broken off. All put together, I think they look a bit like Easter eggs.
And finally, I bit the bullet and deconstructed my second worst knitting mistake ever. I wonder if I will ever be able to reuse this yarn? (The trauma of the mistake is still raw in my mind and unravelling the vest gave me an almighty allergy attack!) But I'll never reuse it if it's sitting around all knitted up in something I'll never wear. You will be able to see from this 'before' photo below that I accidentally used yarn from two dye lots for this project.
There's even more history behind this albatross in my craft room, which I will save for the date I actually figure out something to make from this yarn. I reckon if I make another garment (there's enough here for a vest like the Provincial Waistcoat from the winter 06 IK), I could group balls of yarn of one dyelot together on the front and the remainder on the back. Or possibly alternate rows with each dyelot? Advice is, as always, welcome!