Reclaiming Yarn From a Thrift Store Sweater

I am interested in reclaiming yarn from some sweaters I already own but don’t want to wear and am interested in reclaiming yarn from thrift store sweaters, to save money and yes, for the green living efforts too.

While in Pennsylvania we were having a laid-back driving around day and I spotted a huge Salvation Army store. I know of none of these near my home. I also know my local Goodwill sells sweaters for $10-12 which is not such a great bargain in my opinion. So I went in to the Salvation Army in Pennsylvania, and hit the jackpot on sweaters. Most were $2.99 with a few at $3.99. I bought only wool sweaters. I found many beautiful and ‘like new’ sweaters in cotton too, but I didn’t have plans to use them in the near future so I didn’t buy those.

I might machine felt (full) the sweaters as is, cut them, and then cut and sew them together in a new shape. I might unravel the sweaters to reclaim the yarn and to knit the yarn into something new. I need to investigate this more to examine my options.

At the time I bought the sweaters, I had no idea how to reclaim yarn from a sweater and did a Google search. This excellent tutorial came up, on the blog Chaotic Crafter. Chaotic Crafter reclaims all types of yarn, not just wool and not just cotton, to use to knit new projects. I wanted to share this with you in case you are interested in doing this.

Reclaiming Yarn from a Thift Store Sweater post at Chaotic Crafter

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