My first finished WIP for 2013

 

My first finished WIP for 2013 has arrived. As previously mentioned, this sweater has been in my work-in-progress pile since 2009. It's my first ever recycled yarn project (made from an unraveled Goodwill sweater). I love the result and it'll be a great layering piece for work when Spring rolls around.

Stats on this sweater:
Yarn: Recycled 50% Linen and 50% Cotton
Needles: Size 4
Pattern: Ropes and Picots from 2008 Winter Interweave Knits (Ravelry link)
Alterations: The original pattern is made using a Tweed wool and is pictured on a model with about 2 inches of positive ease. I wanted a more tailored look so I went with only about a 1/2 inch positive ease. The Springy nature of the yarn led me to shorten the sleeves and for now I'm leaving the snaps off of it because I think it looks pretty good without any closure on the front. When knitting the sleeves I skipped all of the increasing and cast on the full amount for the top of the arm. I just made sure to knit enough rows to have the sleeve hit my elbow when complete.

This pattern was pretty easy to follow. The only hard part was the finishing work. The instructions are vague on seeming and I got confused when trying to fit the sleeve into the odd arm hole shaping. This might be a product of my inexperience with saddle shoulders. Also, there is next to zero instructions on how to fit the fronts to the shoulder shaping. I studied the pictures in the magazine (only 2!) and finagled it into place. I think I got it right and it fits and drapes really well so I guess I did it pretty well. The neck and front picot edging also takes a long time to complete. This sweater is not for the anti-finishing folks. Patience is required!

Overall I can't wait to wear this to work once the weather warms up.

Another WIP spotlight

Second in my spotlight on my WIPS for 2011 is my "Recycled Ropes & Picots" cardigan. The last progress I made on this was October of 2009. It's a fun project and I'm excited to have it finished some day soon.

 

I Haven't much more progress then what is shown above. The two fronts shown in this picture are finished and I have about 5 inches of both sleeves done. While the pattern calls for full length sleeves, I'm making mine 1/2 length. Partly because mine is a summer weight yarn, partly because I'm afraid I'll run out of yarn, and partly just because I'm more partial to shorter sleeves on sweaters and shirts. This is my first recycled yarn project so I'm worried I didn't estimate the amount of yarn correctly. I think that may be way it's languishing in my WIP pile...fear of failure.

My goal for 2011 is to at least finish the sleeves on this bad boy....finishing in time to wear it in the spring or early fall would be fabulous.  So much to knit, so little time.

Picot Progress

I'm knitting madly on my Recycled Picot & Ropes Cardigan. The back is finished and the I'm knitting the two front pieces at once and they are about 65% done. I love how it looks but I'm a little sad because it'll definitely be a summer cardigan. It'll be too cold to wear it by the time it's complete....it being October 31st after all.

The yarn supply is dwindling quickly now. After what you see in the picture (which I'm hoping will easily take me through the rest of the fronts plus have two balls left over) I only have 2 large balls left. I'm thinking about knitting the sleeves top down so I can stop and leave enough for the picot edge that will run around the front edges and around the top collar. I was planning on 3/4 sleeves but I think I'll cut it back to 1/2 sleeves (if not shorter) to make sure I have enough yarn. I'd really hate to run out...it's not like I can just buy more. What a disaster that would be!

Doing the sleeves top down I don't think will be too tough. Reverse the shaping....but...these words may come back to haunt me later. Haunt me...lol...it's Halloween...

Here's a couple more close ups. I'll reiterate the fact that these picot's are TOO CUTE!!!

Recycling

While in Maine a few weekends ago (collecting my blue ribbons from the fair!) my mom and I took a trip to Goodwill. I was in search of some sweaters that I could unravel and re-knit. I bought a couple. One 100% wool sweater that is all washed and waiting for something...not sure what I'm going to do with that. And, the one above...a 50% cotton 50% linen old Land's End sweater. Both sweaters were $4.99 each. Good deal for the amount of yarn you get.

This is my second sweater unraveling project. I unraveled one from my closet 1st...for the no pressure practice. It went OK....this one went better. It came apart much easier and I got much more usable yarn out of it.

I started itching to make a sweater for myself when I found a sweater pattern in an old Interweave Knits magazine. The pattern is called Ropes and Picots and it was in the Winter 2008 issue. I totally didn't even notice it last year...but with the new recycled DK weight yarn sitting in my stash I couldn't resist.

I'm up to just past the bottom of the arm pits on the back. The sweater is really simple but has very nice simple detailing. The picot edge is so cute that I want to put picots on everything from no on.

I may or may not dye the finished sweater a darker color. I kind of like the natural color but I know I'd get more wear out of a darker sweater. I'll see what I think when I get it finished.

Recycled Sweater

Yesterday (and for about a three years before yesterday) I used to have a cabled store-bought sweater hanging in my closet. It was from Old Navy and very pretty but I just didn't wear it anymore. So I tried my hand at recycling.

There's a group on Ravelry called Thrifty Knitters and they have a whole page of tutorials, links and resources on this type of thing. I found one that made it look so easy. The author's "Show that sweater who's boss" was very inspiring.

The above yarn was all reclaimed from the aforementioned sweater. I got about 12.5 ounces of 50% cotton 50% acrylic DK weight yarn. It's white...so now I'm thinking of experimenting with dyeing it myself. There's an article on Knitty on dyeing plant fibers which looks interesting. Kool Aid also seems easy, but I've gotten conflicting reports on using Kool Aid to dye non-animal fibers. So more research is required...

Clearly, another blog post on this topic will be coming :)

A Recycling Project

Yesterday my friend Ann and I went to Goodwill looking for some sweaters to recycle into a felted bag. Above is what I scored. A wool Abercrombie stripped number (men's large) and a funky purse with some interesting wooden tops with leather handles. Hopefully I can reuse the wooden parts, the handles and lining.

First step is to felt the sweater. Hopefully that happens today. I have another hand knit bag that needs felting (a little Noro dumpling bag) so I might as well felt two bags with one wash. 

In the meantime, however, I want to do a little research on the recycled sweater bag. I feel like I need a little inspiration....

First I looked on Flickr. There is a "Recycled Sweater Pool" that is full of stuff:

Some things I never thought of, like mittens and scarves. This pool actually gives me ideas for Christmas gifts next year :) I also like the idea of a blanket made from bits and pieces of recycled felted items. Of course, that would be a much larger project...not for a first timer...

I also looked on Ravelry for ideas. Several projects I like (not bag related) is from user Adair who made a pair of slippers using a template from Marthastewart.com. There are also groups for hand bags and lots of ideas in the shared projects area in each group. I like the idea of copying the shapes of the finished bags but creating the bag using recycled sweaters and sewing it together. One group I like is the Bags, Bags, Bags group. 

Lots of ideas to chose from here....now to start felting!