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Online How-Tos
How to Unravel a Sweater (excellent tute with pics)
Recycling yarn
Washing the fibers
Making a Sweater Pillow
How to make a recycled felted purse
Sew up mittens from felted ("shrunken") sweaters
Woven Rug from knit strips
Recycled plastic carryall
Make Your Own Wool Leggings!
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3.31.2005
...and yet another new member
Another European knitter reporting for ReKal duty, Sir!
Hi, my name is MJ and I'm from the Netherlands. Because I'm still a very poor student -about to graduate in July!- expensive trips to the LYS are a luxury. That's why I loved learning about recycling yarn and giving hideous old sweaters a new lease on life. I'm 27 yrs old and I live with my two cats, Miles & Mingus.
I started knitting last October, and boy, there's been no way back. So far, I've made the obligatory scarves and simple beanies, and now I'm working on a cardi for my mom, some socks and the French Market Bag. (You can read about my adentures in my blog: the knitting nederlass).
My first ReKal project is an old silk cabled cardi that looks good enough on a hanger, but not on moi. I plan to use it on a Rowan Summer Tweed design, and maybe even give it a little dye job myself.
I studied the wonderful HowTo, but hmmm, the thing is not unraveling... More on that later. ;)
But enough about me, let's talk reKal. Love to hear from you all soon.
MJ
New ReKal-member!
Hi!
Just wanted to write and say "I'm in!"- a true recycling believer from Göteborg, Sweden. I have a blog that is entirely in Swedish: http://www.mia-edvardson.se/stickblogg.htm
Here are some of the pictures I have posted there of this years recycled stuff:
The socks are for my 6-year-old daughter. She hates itchy things, or anything that "feels" at all, and I found a sad but very soft sweater in a second-hand-shop. I ripped it, washed the yarn and made these socks- big success! And there's plenty more yarn left to make her happy. The "mosaic mitts" (pattern from Interweave knits) are made from wool yarn that I bought a long time ago and made a sweater of. The sweater was never sewn together because I hated it before I was done- ugly thing. But now I have a lot of yarn and so far a nice pair of mitts made from it!
I love this KAL, and look forward to hearing from you all soon!
/Mia
3.26.2005
some of my re k.a.l. progress
http://www.geocities.com/seagrrlz
i've posted some pix to my website for some of my re-k.a.l. progress.. i've been dying the wool from a cream sweater and i also knit a bunny for the bunny along and made what i like to call a tampon cozy from a fulled sleeve from a wool sweater..check the pix and et me know what you think.. oh, the wool is being dyed w/ cherry and grape generic koolaid... the pix don;t quite give it justice..i'm planning on making a sweater for myself once it is all done... pink and purple no less, lol
3.21.2005
A ReKAL call for help...
So this weekend I didn't feel like knitting, and I didn't feel like wrestling with my disappointing cashmere sweater (because yes, it was seamed and then trimmed along all the seams. *pout*) so I decided that the 100% cream wool sweater I picked up, and didn't take a picture of, would be a quick frog. I got through the seams pretty easily, got the arms off, and then went looking for the yarn end. The sweater body is all one piece, sort of like a yoke, no seams at the shoulders. The neck looks like it's probably seperate though. Okay, so there were yarn ends at both ribbing sides. I pulled on out, and no unraveling goodness. I pulled it across the bottom, untangling it from the stitches, but still nothing. The same for the other end..side..whatever.
I have absolutely no idea where the magic unraveling end is! Is this some kind of weiredly put together sweater? Has anyone every experienced this before? I'll have to get some pictures so you all can see what I mean. Tonight I'm going to tackle the neck, but I have very little faith, because as I mentioned there are no seems at the shoulders.
So I've found the impossible sweater! If all else fails I may have to take drastic measures and cut a piece off and see if I can get it to unravel after the ribbing.
3.20.2005
Poncho complete
I finally finished knitting the poncho for my daughter! It's a simple garter stitch poncho pattern from Lion Brand Yarns - Downtown Tot poncho. The yarn was relaimed from a sweater I found at Value Village. She decided she didn't want the fringes, so I knit the panels a little longer to compensate.
3.15.2005
Flash Your Stash
Why yes, I am cross-posting this everywhere ;)
...April 1st
Yarn Pr0n Day Babies!
Flash Your Stash! Oh yes, and share the pics with the rest of us, of course.Leave a comment I'll add you to the participants list
3.12.2005
Not a great pic, but here's the beginning of Sophie! 
Felted houndstooth swatch.
Apologies in advance if this ends up being a mess - I'm trying to add the REKAL to "hello" so I can post my pics! Anyway, this is what's left of a sweater I got at the Salvation Army - 100% wool, and I am in the process of making a Sophie bag with it. I'm doing a houndstooth pattern on the sides, and have included a pic of a felted swatch... this is fun!
3.11.2005
Hi from another new member!
I really love heading out to thrift stores for potential yarn!
Here are some pictures of my more recent finds.
First is the cashmere sweater I found while thrift store hopping this past weekend.
I'm really excited about this sweater, but I'm afraid it may turn out to have cut seams. We'll see what happens. I haven't gotten very far with it.
These are two more sweaters I found at thrift stores.
First a 100% cotton sweater
and a cotton blend sweater
here's the yarn I got from the blend sweater
My plan is to make the Honeymoon Cami from Knitty.com with this yarn.
I also have a few other sweaters that I don't have pictures of yet, but will take a few when I get ready to take them apart. One I bought for the specific purpose of kool aid dying, so I'll be sure to post my adventures in that!
Well it's great to be here!
3.08.2005
mk: teeny FO
Lily (my Pullip Nomado doll) is a Jay McCarroll fan. I crocheted this poncho, so it's a...reCAL? I worked it flat, with buttonloops in the back. After I sew on buttons, it's getting a good wash and block. Knitting will be happening soon. It's Murder Monday on BBC America and also my day off.
3.07.2005
mk's progress
This ribbon yarn is 100% silk from a never-worn, tags still on sweater I found in a thrift store for $7. I don’t have any photos of the sweater intact, as I started frogging it 5 minutes after I paid for it. No real loss – it looked like a large bag with sleeves. Plain stockinette, no shaping. A fair number of knots – some of the ribbon sections were sewn together but other sections were tied instead. It’s also on the fragile side as I discovered when I tugged too hard a couple of times. There’s a lot of yardage here; I haven’t really been keeping track, but I frogged, skeined, and washed the front section for my KRSPII pal, and the resulting skein looked pretty respectable to me. Skeins from the sleeves were used to experiment with Kool-Aid dying, and the results were uneven in an unappealing way. I’m going to dye them again and see what happens. Swatches done on US#4 needles in garter make a fairly stiff, ruffled fabric. The next swatch will be done on larger needles – I’m thinking scarf and want it to have better draping qualities.
Frogging mohair and mohair blends = pain in the neck. I’m doing it anyway because I want to knit or crochet a poncho for my Pullip doll and don’t see the sense in buying a skein when all I need is right here in this crocheted piece. I have no idea what the piece was crocheted for – I found it in a box of things I left in my parents house several years ago. The box contained a few other swatches, a few oddballs, and one knitting needle. I will find a use for a lone knitting needle and it shall be knitting related!
3.04.2005
Silk blend and wool
Last week my local thrift shop had a sale - all sweaters $.50 each. I bought about 20 sweaters. I have only unravelled 3 so far:
This pretty burgundy yarn is 60% silk and 40% cotton and is worsted weight. It came from a man's loose-fitting long-sleeved pullover, so there's a generous amount of yarn to work with. I think I may have enough yarn here for a woman's cardigan and tank if I add a little bit of a second yarn. Perhaps a furry novelty yarn.
This yarn came from 2 sweaters. One was a dark blue man's shetland wool pullover, the other was a woman's striped virgin wool pullover. The yarns are the same gauge and can be used together. I think I'll make fairisle hats and mittens, maybe chullo hats, out of this. I have family members who live in colder climates who would enjoy them.
I did remember to take photos of the sweaters before frogging them. You can see some of the other sweaters I bought on my blog.