Earlier this summer I bought a gigantic XL J. Crew wool sweater for three bucks at Salvation Army. Today I began the process of unraveling it.
Wool is wicked expensive these days, so when this spring I read about recycling old sweaters I got pretty excited. (I'm figuring there is at least fifty bucks worth of yarn in this particular sweater.)
I wasn't sure how to go about the task until Liane told me there was a website with directions. Last night I found it, and this morning, scissors in hand, I began the process.
Unfortunately for me, the sweater is made of big squares crocheted together, so I can't just rip the whole thing out. However, the yarn is big and bulky, so I can see what I'm doing and build up a big pile of unravelledness.
Anyway, I spent several hours mindlessly pulling, snipping, and untangling yarn and enjoyed it immensely. (All that time and I only finished one sleeve! It is a very big sweater.) It was just the sort of Sabbath pastime I needed.
Now all I have to do is decide what to make with my wealth of wool...
(Oh, and if you caught my inverted Shakespeare illusion maybe I'll make something for you!! Or maybe that's more of a deterrent?)
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Yeah Bria! It can be a very tedious and time consuming process--I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's interesting to take before and after pics too (well, interesting to weirdos like me)...
Is wool truly that expensive? Cause that seems like alot of work...
Some day I'll get pictures up..when I can get my tech savvy brother to do it for me.
Is wool really that pricey? Well, last time I knitted something with acrylic yarn I realized it would be cheaper to buy it than to make it. It's been some time since I've even looked at wool, due to my limited budget, so I can't say for sure. Liane?
Isn't it about sleep knitting up the ravelled sleeve of care? or something like that? Augh! I'm going crazy trying to think which play it comes from. This reminds me, incidentally, of a regular columnist for Field & Stream. He wrote about guns mostly, (probably still does, but we let the subscription lapse this year) and occasionally he would use literary allusions in his titles, one of which (on some kind of specialty rifles) was "Such Guns as Dreams are Made On." It had a little asterisk next to it with this note at the bottom of the page: "As is my custom from time to time, I like to steal phrases from writers who are dead and can't sue me. If any of you folks can tell me where I got this one, I will be impressed and may even send you a letter saying so."
I was pretty sure I knew where it was from, and lo! I was right! I wrote in and told him, but apparently a whole lot of other people did too, so he just answered in a mass format in the Letters to the Editor section...So much for my attempt to get a letter from someone nearly famous. It was fun anyway.
Another time he had an even more obscure one, which I can't quite remember: "I sing the American Rifle" or something like that. I traced it to Walt Whitman, but that was as far as I got. It was "I sing the American Railway" I think. Although just tonight it occurred to me that Whitman himself was probably spoofing on Longfellow's "Evangeline," which starts out "I sing the forest primeval..." Well anyway, enough literary ramblings. And tell me if you know the other one. In the meantime I'm going to try to get that ravelled sleeve pinpointed...Hamlet? Hmm...
HA! I found it! And you must believe me that even though I said Hamlet a minute ago, my very first thought was Macbeth, and I just found it to my immense satisfaction. Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth speaking. Now I can go get some decent rest. Phew!
HA! I found it! And you must believe me that even though I said Hamlet a minute ago, my very first thought was Macbeth, and I just found it to my immense satisfaction. Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth speaking. Now I can go get some decent rest. Phew!
Help! how do you delete comments? Our mouse hasn't been working right, and I clicked the Publish button twice in a row...Argh!
Gretchen, I am impressed! That is some knowledge of ol Will you got! Do you read him all the time, or just remember all you've read? Cause I've read quite a few of his plays, but I certianly can't remember specific lines...
I haven't read him since college actually, I just remember the good stuff : )
The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1. I actually didn't know that though...I googled it. :-) Because I recognized the phrase I thought it might have been "A Midsummer Night's Dream," but it wasn't. Now I think I must read "The Tempest."
You're right, Bria, it ends up costing a lot more to buy and make something esp. with good quality yarn. It really depends on the fiber but around here, an average price for one skein of wool yarn is around 12 dollars (the amount needed for the front of a baby sweater or enough for a pair of baby booties). That's my best approximation anyway.
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