keeping busy

 A happy little girl with her new sweater. I think it just fits.. so I'll have to make the next size bigger for her next time. 
Thrift store finds. I found these beauties on my last trip there. The two aqua sweaters are vintage old navy with the old labels they don't use anymore. The middle sweater is so nice I may not unravel it. It is size small and fits.

 Spotted these beautiful plants walking to Trader Joes on Sunday. I have never seen plants this color.

 I cast on this sweater right after I finished the little blue sweater and it hasn't gotten very far. Every few rows I make a mistake and have to rip it back. The yarn is recycled cotton/linen blend and feels really nice with nice drape, so I rip and knit on.  Some day it will be the oriel lace cardigan. I had high hopes of finishing this fast, but I now see this isn't going to happen.

 More WIP.

 I'm finding that unraveling sweaters is a good stress relief. It had kind of gotten addicting. Both of these yarns are cotton acrylic blends with a little rabbit hair. So soft.

 A picture of my beautiful daughter who had grow into a beautiful women. She is going through some hard times right now. I will be returning to Florida for the summer to help out and will hopefully be able to make it back to Washington before fall to start school and continue to make a better life for myself. Back to the heat.. sigh.

Finished and cute!

 Yay.. Finished in just about two weeks. This pattern is called Leksak. The ravelry link is here.

 As I stated the last time, this is my favorite type of sweater construction. Top down, seamless, one piece. The yarn I used was a light cotton/acrylic blend recycled from a large thrift store sweater. I actually used less than half of the yarn, so there is enough for another small sweater or shrug. I think is a perfect summer sweater for a pretty young lady.

 Next... a new thrift store sweater to take apart. This sweater is actually in really good condition and pretty. I loved the black and white tweed yarn. This sweater is also a cotton, acrylic, poly blend. Very soft and light. I will probably use this yarn for a fall sweater. I'm hoping to be able to use the sequins too! For today I will be casting on another summer cotton sweater I can't wait. The little navy blue cardi is getting a bath and will get a light blocking. That will dry over night and I'll mail that out on Thursday. I'm hoping it will fit.

ASweater story...

 After unraveling the sweater I found at the thrift store I started this little sweater for my grand daughter. She wanted a navy sweater for summer. The yarn is a very light cotton acrylic blend. I have basically stopped all other knitting and have been solely working on this little sweater. The pattern name is Leksak and I'm making a longer cardigan. I started the project on April 29th.

 My favorite type of sweater to knit is exactly this.. a top down one piece raglan.

 As you can see it is progressing pretty quickly. I'm worried about the size. The gauge is right on.. I'm just wondering if the chest sizing is a little small. I'm knitting size 8. I always find it hard to knit for someone when they are now able to try it on at different stages for sizing. I love the way the sweater is connected at the neck.

 Knitting on the way to work and at work and on the way home from work.

 This is where I am at today. After doing the usual laundry and day off stuff I plan on watching "The Paradise" and spending the evening knitting away.

 A beautiful walk to work. The trees at filling out and flowers are blooming. (^_^)

Next the finished sweater!

On the needles...

Here is a picture of all my recycled yarn projects to date. The finished cotton lace sweater from 100% cotton gap sweater yarn. The aqua lace shrug that is still on the needles being knit with wool, acrylic angora blend yarn from a Ralph Lauren sweater and a summer tunic for my grand daughter knit with a cotton acrylic blend from a Sonoma sweater. I love the feel and texture of all the recycled yarns. The navy cotton is soft and light and will make a perfect summer tunic. This sweater has an unusual design that I'll tell you more about next time. I have a day off today and we are having wonderfully warm weather.

Progress this morning of both projects. The color of the lace shrug in this picture is almost perfect.

The warm weather has brought with it loads of beautiful blooms both flowers and trees.

Progress this afternoon on the little cotton tunic. Finished the raglan increases and put the sleeves on hold and now working on the body. That is all for now. So back to knitting and enjoying this beautiful warm sunny day!

more sweater recycling..

 Bye Bye American Eagle outfitters sweater.. hello acrylic,wool. nylon, alpaca yarn.  Again there is a good amount of soft yarn from this sweater. I'm getting good at unraveling sweaters now. I also know what to look for. If you want to do this yourself the sweaters you want to stay away from are the ones that are cut and sewn by machine. That means that you will only get a lot of ends and nothing that you can use for knitting. I look for better fibers like linen, wool, cotton, alpaca, angora and cashmere. Also a lot of the commercial yarn is made up of lots of thinner threads that are not spun together. It is usable but you have to be careful when knitting. Check the seams to see if they are put together with the same yarn using a chain stitch. That usually means that the sweaters pieces will unravel and there will be very little wasted yarn. This sweater yielded lots of beautiful yarn.  

 Another trip to the thrift store and two more sweaters half price. The first one is a Gap sweater, viscose, lambs' wool, nylon, angora and cashmere. The navy sweater a sonoma sweater 56% cotton 44% acrylic. It has a really nice feel and a nice sheen. I already have a project for this and you will see this soon. My son was admiring this yarn. hehe

 All unraveled.

 Progress on my shrug. This yarn looks more blue in person and I love knitting with it. So far I have only been working on this going to work on the bus. The yarn is light and soft and cozy. I better get knitting so I can enjoy waring this soon.

Recycle that yarn!

 Knitting on the bus on the way home. I actually get quite a bit of knitting done on my trip to and from work. This is a large lace shrug that I'm knitting with yarn I recycled from a Ralph Lauren sweater. I love the yarn. It's really soft and light due to the little bit of angora in it.

 Spent time today unraveling more sweaters. This sweater had a Cherokee label inside. It's the first acrylic sweater I decided to recycle only because of the color and the condition of it. I'm glad I decided to buy it. I was able to unravel every bit of yarn from this sweater with the only wasted yarn being the yarn and tread that was used to sew it together. I think I can make one giant wrap sweater with this or two smaller sweaters. Great find at the thrift store.

 Up to date... all the yarn from the sweaters I have been unraveling. Yarn from one sweater is missing. Right now I have enough yarn to make 7 nice size sweaters. woo hoo!!

 My first finished recycled sweater. Finished this today. Has lovely drape and will be perfect in the summer here over a tee-shirt. Yay!!



Here is the yarn that was missing from the pile of yarn in the previous picture. This is a Bass sweater 55% Ramie and 45% cotton. I love the color of this one and I think I will make a short sleeve cardigan with this. The pattern is already on my ravelry queue. (^_^)

thrift store = knitting

 Once again I found some goodies at the thrift store. First was this lovely wooden leaf bowl for $4.99. I recently saw one very similar to this in a store for a lot more money.  Below is a picture of three sweaters that will soon be unraveled for yarn. The first one is actually acrylic but it was in excellent condition and only $4.99 in the perfect color. The second sweater is a ramie and cotton blend, again in a beautiful color and the third sweater is a wool, acrylic and alpaca.. very soft and a very neutral color.  I think I will have enough yarn from these three sweaters to keep me knitting all summer.

 What's in my knitting basket now? The cream lace sweater is almost finished with about one inch left to knit on the ribbing and then I just have to bind it off and sew up the back seam. The other project I just started on the bus the other day. This is recycled yarn and I couldn't wait to knit with this. First I love the color and second its so soft and is knitting up like butter... hehe. It took me awhile to decide which pattern I wanted to make. I finally decide on another lace shrug, the HiyaHiya Tulip shrug. (ravelry link).

 Almost finished....

 Is this snow? hehe no, it is little tiny flower petals from the trees at the transit center. There are so many flowering trees in this area. It really is pretty.