Nyttårsforsetter

Must. Try. This. Which is to say "twined knitting" for making a non-rolling stockinette stitch edge. Fabulous.

Finished mom's sweater coat except for the buttons yesterday. I tried really hard to resist starting in on the fair isle yoke pullover, but of course I couldn't. I have about 23 cm (out of 47!) done on the first sleeve. The alpaca yarn is very thin and not knitting up very smoothly. Clearly a sweater that will need blocking. I'm guessing it will "bloom" when wet blocked, and am excited to see what happens.

I thought I wasn't going to do the 12 sweater challenge again this year, but who am I trying to kid? If I'm really honest, I've been planning to do it again this year too all along, so I might as well fess up. Here's the plan. The first few will be from stash only, and I don't need to buy any patterns either (all available for free on line):

1. Drops 108-10 Jumper in Alpaca: this is the fair isle yoke pullover I cast on for yesterday. (Raglan--half the yarn was recycled from a friend, half purchased by me)
2. Cheryl Niamath's Miss Honeychurch: I think I have just enough Drops Lin in blue in my stash to make this. (Raglan--yarn purchased by me last spring)
3. Debbie Bliss' Yoke Detail Sweater: after much hemming and hawing I keep coming back to this for the dark blue Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool that I bought in the fall of 2008. This is where the twined knitting edge above comes into play. (Raglan--yarn purchased "used" by me from a Raveler)
4. Drops 100-33 Textured knitted jersey: this will be with the remaining Highlander yarn that R gave me. I'll probably leave off the texture and perhaps add a turtleneck. (Raglan--yarn purchased by a friend and given to me)

As you can see, I have become a total convert to raglan shaping. Although I like seaming and am pretty good at it, I actually think raglans are more flattering on my figure. Dropped shoulders like you get with most traditional Norwegian sweaters make me look really bulky, and set-in sleeves tend to make my arms look like stuffed sausages. Raglans seem to smooth everything out.

After I get these four done with yarn I already have on hand, my original plan was a list of 6 really challenging sweaters that I've been wanting to work on for a long time, and I'll still probably do at least a couple of them. More and more, however, I have been thinking that what I really want to do is start recycling yarn. There's so much about that process that appeals to me. I want to reduce my consumption and save money. I love thrift store shopping, I love ripping out or deconstructing sweaters, and I think I will love the process of finding an appropriate project to go with the yarn that I'm able to recover. I'm not particularly squeamish, and am pretty good at washing and handling wool (and want to become better), so I definitely think I have the skills needed. I love the idea of finding a damaged or ugly sweater in a beautiful yarn and recycling it into something I can wear. There are two groups on Ravelry that focus on this (UnRavelers and Thrifty Knitters) that I've just joined, so I'm sure there will be lots to learn from them.

So I guess my New Year's Resolution is to dive into the world of recycling/upcycling/reclaiming yarn. I'm super excited about it!

Happy New Year!

ETA some links to pages explaining how to harvest yarn from garments:

Soulful Hues: a good basic tutorial with pictures, including the kind of seam to look for (but not the kind to avoid, namely serged).

Neauveau: another basic tutorial. It has a picture of a "bad"serged seam. I wouldn't suggest just unraveling the yarn into one huge pile like this blogger does, however. It's easy enough to wrap it into a center-pull ball as you go along.

My Virtual Sanity: this appears to be the cream of the crop for tutorials. Highly recommended! She goes through everything, and my only complaint is that she (like everyone else, apparently) writes "surged" instead of "serged." I think I'm just going to start writing "overlocked."

Peaceful Easy Knitting: this one is good because it explains how to figure out the yardage/meterage of the yarn once it's unraveled. I had been wondering about this. Extra bonus points: "serge" is spelled correctly.