Recycling Yarn from Thrift Store Sweater, Part II

Where I last left you with this I was drying my yarn in my bathroom. I had unraveled the sweater first, neatly bound it, and washed it in the tub. Well, there are two very WRONG things with what I did.

1. If yarn is wrapped (even loosely) in piles and then hung to dry it takes forEVAH to do so. I mean, that yarn was hanging up there for a solid 5 days before it was all dry. Keeping the yarn in tact and drying flat would have been a better choice *smacks self on forehead*.

2. Winding yarn in large loose piles encourages tangling. And I mean knock-your-head-against -the-wall-throw-your-ball-winder-out-the-window (through the glass)-vow-to-never-knit-again kind of tangles. I spent HOURS last night winding my yarn because of those stupid tangles. Believe me I started a system about half-way through: let out a couple yards carefully by hand, wind, repeat. But then I would get overzealous towards the end and just wind directly from the pile. Bad idea. This is where my excitement to unravel the yarn kicked me in the ass later.

The morale of this story is:

PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS SANE AND LOGICAL, WASH THE DAMN SWEATER FIRST! It'll dry faster and you can just unravel and immediately wind, thus avoiding any tangles.

But with all that drama in the past I now have several balls of slightly-used silk blend yarn that is clean and wound and ready for the needles.

Mmm... scrumptious! Most of the balls are rather tiny, but that's ok. I also swatched some on Size 6 needles and I would honestly say that this yarn is best on Size 5's or lower, which probably makes this closer to a fingering weight yarn (right?). Which is ok, because I'm thinking of making a Lucky from SNBN (see previous post) with it. Now I can feel like a yarn snob with this natural fiber stuff in my stash. Te he. I never thought the day would come *brushes back tear*. Not bad for a $5 investment at the local thrift.

~Fin
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In other news, I'm almost done with the Rapunzel socks and they will soon be getting their proper acknowledgment here at ESK. Knitting socks is awesome. I was telling Mr. V that they're probably my favorite thing to knit now because they're just so damn practical (not to mention fun).

I signed up for my first craft swap on Craftster. The "What You Listen To Whilst Crafting" CD swap. I thought this was perfect because you get a collection of new music (DING!) and a small craft to go with it (DING!) AND it's not so involved that it has to take up all of your time (DING!). I would try some of the more involved swaps that require a couple crafted items but I already have some deadline knitting on my plate as it is. I don't need anymore, because like most knitters I feel that knitting with deadline looming over me takes a lot of the fun out of it. Here's the Swap Page. Check it out and join in if you're interested. And check out Karin's Recipe Swap, too! She makes lots of nummy things over her way.

Here's the tenative KnitList as of NOW:

1. Ridiculously Easy Mary Jane Slippers from Craftster (for SIL)
2. Baby blanket of some sort (still not decided)
3. Miss Dashwood baby bonnet from Knitty
4. Ballet Wrap Cardigan from IK Winter 05 (whenever the actual mag makes its appearance)
5. Maybe, Lucky from SNBN with newly recycled yarn