Harvesting Yarn
Although knitting socks, even 5 identical pairs, is never a tedious job, it IS nice to see the end in sight! However, there was a problem with this "end". The problem was that, at 3 balls per sock, making 5 pairs required 30 balls of yarn. After completing 4 pairs I only had 2 balls left! Hmmmm.... I knew that 3 years ago I had 50 balls of this particular shade of Emu called Forest Blend (YES! 50 balls... so I went a little overboard... what else is new?). I had bought it as a Close Out online and when it arrived I was not exactly in love with the color. Eventually seeing it turned into work socks was a perfect solution for such a masculine blend... so where did the other balls of yarn go?
Well, part of it went into DD#2's ill fated crochet afghan a few months back and part of it, almost 2 years ago, went into a totally "lazy" sweater. I knit the front, back and sleeves to the underarm on the machine, threaded all the live stitches onto a circular needle and made a fairisle yoke sweater. Somewhere along the way the decreasing went horribly wrong and I ended up with a sweater with no shoulders. I did a post about a year ago where I separated the yoke and the main body and knit in a 3" strip which should have made enough room and kitchenered the whole thing back together.... It looked good in photos but it still didn't fit right so it got stuffed into a bag and abandoned inside the stash cupboard. I never finished the ribbing on the cuffs and hem or anything I was so frustrated! I suppose, over time, I realized I would never fix it and needing more yarn to finish the last 2 socks was the perfect reason to harvest the yarn without feeling too badly.
Let me say that the fairisle was well done - not too loose, not too tight - and I really love this particular pattern so I was loathe to tear it all out, especially since I knew there was more yarn here than I needed to finish the socks. Why not use that part as the start of a capelet like the one on the cover of that book, "Wrap Style"? I decided to start where I had stitched the two pieces back together. I picked up 10 stitches or so at a time onto a circular needle and used one of my bamboo DPNs to pull out the stitching....
After about 2 hours I had the yoke off and tackled the seams. That may seem like a long time, but trust me, it took me a lot longer than that to knit the yoke - I counted it time well spent! I have to give myself a pat on the back here - I made this sweater back when I thought the best way (read fastest) to do seams was by crochet!
It only took a few moments to find the ends and untie them - then zip!
I simply laid the yarn end into the groove on the ball winder and started winding! There was the odd hitch, here and there but when I was done....
The fairisle yoke on needles and 6 cakes of yarn! The 2 largest (very top) were nearly 100 gm each and had nearly enough to finish the last 2 socks (added to the 2 whole balls I had left) so I know there's enough to make the capelet as big as I want - later! LOL!!
They say a change is as good as a rest and this yarn harvest was a pleasant diversion I must admit! So now on to those last 2 socks!
Well, part of it went into DD#2's ill fated crochet afghan a few months back and part of it, almost 2 years ago, went into a totally "lazy" sweater. I knit the front, back and sleeves to the underarm on the machine, threaded all the live stitches onto a circular needle and made a fairisle yoke sweater. Somewhere along the way the decreasing went horribly wrong and I ended up with a sweater with no shoulders. I did a post about a year ago where I separated the yoke and the main body and knit in a 3" strip which should have made enough room and kitchenered the whole thing back together.... It looked good in photos but it still didn't fit right so it got stuffed into a bag and abandoned inside the stash cupboard. I never finished the ribbing on the cuffs and hem or anything I was so frustrated! I suppose, over time, I realized I would never fix it and needing more yarn to finish the last 2 socks was the perfect reason to harvest the yarn without feeling too badly.
Let me say that the fairisle was well done - not too loose, not too tight - and I really love this particular pattern so I was loathe to tear it all out, especially since I knew there was more yarn here than I needed to finish the socks. Why not use that part as the start of a capelet like the one on the cover of that book, "Wrap Style"? I decided to start where I had stitched the two pieces back together. I picked up 10 stitches or so at a time onto a circular needle and used one of my bamboo DPNs to pull out the stitching....
After about 2 hours I had the yoke off and tackled the seams. That may seem like a long time, but trust me, it took me a lot longer than that to knit the yoke - I counted it time well spent! I have to give myself a pat on the back here - I made this sweater back when I thought the best way (read fastest) to do seams was by crochet!
It only took a few moments to find the ends and untie them - then zip!I simply laid the yarn end into the groove on the ball winder and started winding! There was the odd hitch, here and there but when I was done....
The fairisle yoke on needles and 6 cakes of yarn! The 2 largest (very top) were nearly 100 gm each and had nearly enough to finish the last 2 socks (added to the 2 whole balls I had left) so I know there's enough to make the capelet as big as I want - later! LOL!!
They say a change is as good as a rest and this yarn harvest was a pleasant diversion I must admit! So now on to those last 2 socks!
Posted by Gloria Patre at 6/23/2009 2:22 PM 
Categories: Other Projects, Musings
Tags: recycling yarn raveling a sweater
Categories: Other Projects, Musings
Tags: recycling yarn raveling a sweater
You are one smart women.
Love the sweater.
Elsie <><
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You are brave to tackle that and must have a very quiet environment to do all that in. I'm still unwinding from my 7th graders today, next to last day of school, 8th grade graduation and we have all had it.
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Well done! I think you did the best in this situation.
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