Friday, February 14, 2020

Sweater Genesis


A few years ago I learned to harvest yarn from old wool sweaters.  I don't do it so much anymore, with the exception of if I find a sweater made from more expensive fibers.  Last year I bought the holy grail of sweaters to harvest: a worsted-weight cashmere sweater in a nice navy blue.
 


It came apart easily, and then I unraveled each piece onto my yarn swift.  I washed the yarn to de-kink it,  and caked it into balls.



The result is a new cashmere pullover for me.  The pattern is Caitlin Hunter's  Koivua, though my version is edited down from the original pattern: I only did color work in the yoke, and knitted the rest of the sweater plain.  It was the feather pattern that originally drew me to this pattern and I like the drama of setting it off by itself.

The light blue yarn was also harvested from a wool sweater and dyed with kool-aid some time ago. 


I love wearing this luxury sweater from recycled yarn.  I feel thrifty, ecological and cozy all at once.

Saturday, February 08, 2020

A Strip Quilt


Strip quilts are one of my favorite kinds of scrap quilts.  I've got a stack of books on this topic to inspire me, and I recently decided to take on this pattern. 

The center square allows me to use up fun fabrics, some left over from "Wild Child," the king sized quilt I recently finished.  The side strips are between 3/4 and 2 inches wide.  I've got some zip bags full of small bits for the corners.  It's very satisfying to burn through some scraps. 

I've had so much fun making these blocks that I've decided to make enough for a double bed quilt.  Or better said: I'll see how I feel when I've made enough for that size.

Economy Block and Large-Scale Fabrics

Recenlty I decided to take out and use the stash of Asian-themed fabrics I'd set aside.  Many of them are large scale, so I wanted to fe...