Recycling wool or yarn clothing can be a solution for knitting in crises. Face it we have all been there, but many of us have never taken the plunge.
When I was younger, there were times when there was not enough money left to buy yarn. Depending on the project we have in mind it can be a significant outlay to buy the balls of yarn we need to weave our garments.
I learned then that it is important not to let the crisis stop me! So I came up with a simple solution that allowed me to create the item I had in mind without breaking the bank as it were. How? We can recycle clothes. We can recycle the yarn.
The first place to search is in the closets and storage spaces, those rooms that we have dedicated to storing the output of our projects.
When we look through the clothes we have in storage it becomes apparent why we will not be wearing a certain item again. Though if we look closely we can see the reason why we originally purchased them. In clothes that are no longer worn we can find a wealth of resources for future projects. Things that have fallen out of favor can get a second chance on life.
Before we begin we should be clear that we are only interested in cotton yarn and wool garments, although you could also be served some synthetic fabrics, given they have similar properties.
If you can't find what you are looking for, check the rakes, the cheap ones, the second-hand clothes stores, etc..
The web is also helpful, since you can shop and find the opportunity to recycle clothes that are sometimes completely new.
The garments have to be checked in great detail, first, however. Go over them from top to bottom and front to back. Handmade wool and cotton garments are ideal, but they are very rare. Better to recycle plain colored clothes than multi-colored garments or those made from pieces of fabrics. We want long strands with very few knots where it was joined.
How it is done
With the garment clean, we'll have to start unstitching its parts. We'll look for the seams and undo everything we can.
We will separate all the pieces: the collars, the sleeves, each piece that was previously sewn with a needle.
We'll start undoing each piece from the top, from the last points that were made. Make sure to identify these carefully before you begin.
The most comfortable and sensible way to go about this is to make balls while undoing the parts. That way we won't end up with a mess of threads. In addition, with the tension of the ball, the yarn loses the curly shape it gets when it is knitted together.
The next step is to make it into skeins. There are winders marketed in different sizes, volumes and prices. Slower, more laborious and homemade, but just as effective, will be to use the backrest of a chair or the open and outstretched arms of some "volunteer". My husband was mine for several projects. He watched tv during the process.
We'll wash the skeins again to smooth the thread. If we don't like the color it has, we can dye it in this process. We can also smooth the thread of the skeins with steam.
When the skeins are dry, we'll have to make them into balls again. To do this, we will reuse the different systems that we have seen above: skeins, chair or volunteer.
And now I do think we have everything we need for our next project.