Recycling Yarn ...
- a quick tutorial ...
- Mar 15, 2018
- 4 min read
I found this little beauty in a charity shop last month. And straight away wondered, why? It is my belief it was probably never used, and maybe never even given to the intended recipient. It was so clean, appeared 'as new' - and the colour was so delicately pretty that I was able to spot it and zoom in!
I believe I could almost tell you which brand of yarn it is, but I really wouldn't like to hazard a guess on that without seeing the original, labelled yarn alongside it. I did notice a mistake in the knitting, and wondered if the knitter donated it because they only noticed it after it was finished, and had perhaps no desire to unravel and re-knit, or ... who knows? There could have been any number of reasons for it being there, waiting to be rescued by me! I calculated there must be about three or four 50 gram balls of Baby Merino used in the knitting of this blanket, so for the $3.00 price tag on it, who was I to argue?
This find produced in me, feelings that might also be experienced upon the discovery of buried treasure! Knitters who frequent charity shops regularly will be able to relate to this, of that I am certain!
On with the show ...
I have documented the recycling process here, for the benefit of those who wish to have a go at doing something similar. I only recycle good quality natural fibres, by the way. It makes the whole exercise so much more worthwhile!
What you need:
Item to be recycled.
Good, working arms.
Dining/Kitchen chair with a straight, high back for winding yarn around.
Yarn bowl or suitable substitute.
Scrap Yarn/string/ribbon for tying hank ends.
Doweling (or something similar) to suspend hanks from during the steaming process.
Hand held steamer
Step ladder or similar, to balance (doweled) yarn on during steaming process.
Method:
1) I regard it as a definite bonus that this item was knitted all in one piece! It was also clean, so I didn't feel the need to wash and dry prior to this. So far, so good! All I really had to do was find the end that had been woven in after cast off, loosen it and begin to unwind the blanket into balls. Something easily done while watching TV in the evening. If you have a garment to unwind you first need to undo the seams, and sometimes that can be a bit of difficult process, so the yarn really has to be worth it! After this little exercise I ended up with just over 4 balls at 50 grams each, so by my calculations I now had over $40.00 worth of yarn in my hot little hand!
2) Next, we wind the balls into hanks/skeins. All that is needed for this is a working arm, some scraps of yarn for tying around the ends of the hanks, a dining/kitchen chair with a good, high back support for winding the yarn around - and something to put your yarn in so it doesn't roll all over the floor as you rewind it. Anything that will keep it safe. I used a cane basket, and therefore had to be careful not to snag it on the bits of cane that inevitably protruded in places. I would definitely recommend something with no sharp edges after having done it this way, but this was the closest thing I could lay my hands on at the time.
3) When you come to the end of a ball, make a hank/skein by carefully slipping a good length of waste yarn under each end, against the side of the chair, and bringing both ends of the scrap yarn to the front. Firmly tie so the hank stays together when you slip it off the chair back. The yarn will be quite wrinkly, which is totally normal. And ... ready for the next stage.
4) Suspend your yarn on a piece of dowel or similar, ready for steaming. I used some wooden wall hanging supports (yet to also be recycled!) and I balanced the whole thing on a small step ladder to hold it in place.
5) Get your steamer organised and set about getting rid of those wrinkles. I filmed the steaming process, one handed on my phone - and you can find it on my youtube channel. So far it is my only video, probably for obvious reasons - but you should get the general idea! It's a shame this method doesn't work for humans, isn't it?! Once you are satisfied that all the wrinkles have been steamed out of the yarn, put it in a nice airy place to dry, because it will be damp from the steaming process.
6) When dry, either *twist the hanks in order to store them for *balling later when ready to knit. Or ... ball them straight away so you can begin knitting! I am not sure what is in store for my lovely, squishy baby merino, but shawls and mitred squares both come to mind. It's going into storage for now, but - watch this space! There will be a sequel!
*See the following links to YouTube videos, regarding how to:
