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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!
Archives
December 2004
January 2005
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August 2005
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September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
March 2007
7.30.2005
New Project
I was so excited about recycling last December that I bought three sweaters, ripped them apart and let the yarn sit. And sit. And sit. 
Well, I've just finished my last project and decided that it was time for some knitting with recycled fiber. This was an extra large August Silk sweater. It's incredibly soft and the gauge is incredibly small. 28st per 4" on a size 3. I've started in on Rowan's Hobo and I'm hoping that it turns out well. We'll see!
7.28.2005
Finished Object!
Front view of the finished Professor Vest. The buttons cost more than the yarn!
7.25.2005
Brooks Bros Recycled Update
here is the nearly complete button-down vest from last week. It's hard to get the texture to really show, but I'm quite pleased with it.
7.17.2005
Ugliest sweater unravelled
Here I present a strong candidate for the title of World's Ugliest Sweater. 
It's bright orange with those interesting white fair isle accents. The previous owner had slightly felted it, causing the strands of white to pull in. After I unravelled it, and saw that it was 4 fine strands of wool knit together, I decided to separate them and make 2 strand yarn. I was hoping to stretch the bulky weight into enough yarn to make a sweater for me and making twice as much lighter weight yarn seemed like a good idea. Before I got to that point, though, I had overdyed the yarn with grape Kool-aid, which made it want to stick together and prone to breaking. The important lesson from that was that if you do want to separate the strands, do that before you do any other washing or dyeing. They will come apart much easier.
Here is the yarn I ended up with. Just under a pound. It is very soft lambswool: it could go right against the most sensitive skin. It will knit up at somewhere around sport/DK weight, I think. Nice on US #5 or 6 needles. I'm not sure yet what it will become, but the frogged sweater was about $5 and the koolaid was another buck or so. 
Here is a closer view of the yarn.
Brooks Bros Recycled
This is the front of a Brooks Bros V-neck I got off a rack at a Dollar Tree store here. It was a bit of a mystery, because the rack of sweaters was clearly used merchandise and smelled like the Goodwill Stink Treatment. Unfortunately, I had frogged the sleeves and back before I thought to take a picture. The sleeves and back were not offensive or outdated, but this argyle detail on the deep v-neck clearly came from a different decade!
Here is the back of a men's sweatervest I'm making from the yarn. This will have very conventional styling: perfect for a guy who doesn't want to be noticed.
Once I get the seams unpicked, I use my cone winder to expedite unravelling. This works best when I recruit my 10 year old assisstant. One of us holds the piece of knitting firmly by the hem and the other cranks the cone winder steadily and firmly.
I like to wash the yarn to relax the kinks and get out the stink, so I then wind a skein on my swift. I tie the hanks in several places and put them in my washing machine with warm water and detergent. I do NOT let it agitate. Gently slosh around by hand, then set to spin. Refill for rinse, repeat, and hang dry. Usually the yarn is dry by the next day if I hang it in the basement. Outdoors on the clothesline would dry even faster!
7.16.2005
My first of many to come
I finally have finished 1 recycled knit of what will be many to come. I knit a tanktop for myself out of a 100% cotton, short-sleeved sweater. I have pictures and more details about the tank on my blog - pink knits. I loved how soft the yarn was and the fact that I only paid $1 for it. I have other tops started out of other recycled tanks and am truly addicted.
Michelle