the deconstruction of a sweater!

this was actually a pretty nice sweater, but about 10 sizes too big. it was $2.99 at the goodwill and made of 100% beautiful chocolate brown lambswool. thrift stores can be an excellent source of great wools and cottons if you are willing to look for them. so i decided to take it apart! i washed it first to get the thrift store smell out. the next step is taking apart all the seams. usually a sweater will have side seams and sleeve seams and if there is collar or button band then those are the first ones that need to come undone.

depending on how the sweater was knit, there is usually a bind off row at the top of each piece that you have to undo before you can complete the fun task of just pulling on the string and watching it unravel. (for this sweater there was no bind off row, so it just fell apart after i pulled the seams out).
and in the end i got about 1200 yards of beautiful wool to recreate into something else!!!
i do have plans for this wool, but i haven't started on them yet, i will keep you all posted!

recycled elephant!

so, i've been working on this little guy for awhile. the pattern i was attempting to follow was full of many, many poor ideas and mistakes, so i had to spend some extra time making him look like a cuddly elephant and not an alien life-form. he spent a weekend with nate and i as a fully-finished elephant (even accompanying us to a Reds baseball game in Cincinnati) before being handed over to one of my coworkers who is expecting a little boy next month.

i forgot to take a picture of the unsightly sweater that this yarn once belonged to, maybe next time i will remember. but the good news is that a $3.00 sweater made this whole animal and left me with plenty for another, nothing like a good washable cotton recycled sweater!he is sure happy that nate let him sit on his lap and help drive! woohoo! go reds!