A little while ago, I talked about how much I love going to thrift stores… not just for shopping for clothes & housewares, but to shop for knitting supplies! I had read about how to unravel a sweater for yarn, but hadn’t yet tried it. I had been waiting for the right sweater, and today I found it! I happened upon a men’s XL Nautica 100% cotton sweater (pictured at left) for less than $5.00. The yarn was beautiful (soft, and about a worsted weight), and the seams weren’t serged, which meant that I had a fairly good chance of being able to unravel the sweater.
I came home, and in about 2 hours, I unraveled the yarn from both sleeves and the front. At right is a photo of the unraveled back, and my balls of yarn! I think I have about 600 yards unraveled, and probably another couple hundred in the back. I was a little nervous cutting into a perfectly good sweater, but everything worked well. In retrospect, it would have been easier if I hadn’t picked a fair-isle sweater… even though the yarn was carried across the rows, I accidentally cut some of the carries while opening the seams, and I have a fair number of knots resulting.
Aside from that, I’m really happy with the result, and I’m looking forward to making a nice cotton top!
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