It Just Wants To Be Something Else

Knitters should never let good yarn be doomed to be a part of bad knitting.

This used to be a commercially knit sweater from, I think, The Limited. When it came into my life on Wednesday it was still almost as it had been when someone purchased it from the store. It was stuffed up in a closet at work, all sad and lonely and wishing for a better life. I heard it wimpering, up on a shelf, stuffed back behind a box full of various things.

Help me.....help me.....oh help me. I am wool. You LIKE wool. Release me from my prison.

I didn't mention to the others in the office that I was hearing voices in the closet. They already think I am just a bit "different" because I knit my own socks and sweaters. I play with wool so I don't go postal. They should be happy about this.

I finally gave in to the voices and dug around on the shelves until I pulled out this heavy gray sweater, long, with a shawl collar and a belt. Egads, I thought I had been thrown back into the 1970's! I had a sweater just like this when I was in high school. This style sweater didn't look all that great on me then and I didn't even try this one on, knowing what my body shape is. No need to shoot my ever fragile self worth in the foot.

It wasn't until I saw the already unraveling seam under the collar that I realized what I must do. At first I thought that I would just fix the unraveling stitches, "knit them up" with a crochet hook and fix that small imperfection so that the sweater would be whole again. Ugly, but whole. It would be an easy fix. I took a bit of a closer look at the sweater just to get a better idea of it's construction. And then it struck me.

Fix it? NO! I will liberate the wool from it's ugly sweater prison. It wants to be something else.

It was frightfully easy. Not all commercially prepared sweaters are good for unravelling and reusing. It totally depends on the seams. I could see that this sweater would most likely deconstruct without too many problems and I was correct.

I love it when I am correct.

There wasn't too much waste yarn when all was said and done. It is very hard not to snip some portion of the yarn that you didn't intend to. I ended up with a rather small pile of bits and pieces of wool. It will be donated to Cindie for her wet felting.

I have no idea the yardage of all this yarn but I can tell you that there is DEFINITELY enough to knit another, more pleasing sweater. But that will not happen for a time. I will measure the yardage, skein it up, give it a good soak and then hang it all with weights on it so that some of the "kink" is pulled out of it. And then the skeins will go back into the stash cabinet for a bit to hang with the other yarn. It just needs to chill and be happy for a while on it's wooly vacation.

The wool is happier already. Can't you see it smiling.

 

 

 

 

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