Point is, nice yarn is expensive. But some inventive knitters out there figured out that you can buy nice yarn in sweater form in thrift stores, and then unravel them and reuse the yarn. Since I love thrift store shopping, and had ample free time, I decided to give this a shot. I read a couple of online how to's, and turned this:
Into this:
One thing I failed to realized until after I started unraveling: This yarn is tiny. And since it's a silk angora blend, it's very fluffy. I unraveled while I worked/watched hulu, and my computer was covered in fur. Overall result? Lots of lovely soft warm yarn that likely would have cost me over sixty bucks for four bucks, a couple of night of work, and a fine coating of angora fur blanketing my esophagus and stomach lining. Keepin me warm from the inside out.
Since white isn't really a color I wear a lot of, I'm taking this diy-ness to the next level- yarn dyeing. But I'm going to need some help...
OH YEAH!
Did you know you can whip up a batch of kool aid, dunk some yarn in, and the yarn will remain that color permanently? Just like your insides!
More pictures of my attempts at creating beautiful things on the cheap to follow!
Who's excited about Thanksgiving! I am! I love cooking, eating, drinking, and moving as little as possible. Thanksgiving + me = 4eva! I'm going to make this and this and this and this and this!
Ilan asked for examples of my California-esque speech patterns in a previous blog comment. (By the way, leaving comments on my blog is a sure-fire way to my cherished friends forever list. I stalk my blog for new ones all the time.)
I think a lot of that feeling was a mixture of my own paranoia and being around people I don't know very well. I also use the words "like" and "really" more than I had noticed before. I have met the stereotype and it is me. Now that I've started working at Trader Joe's, I have met tons of people, and my feeling of the bias has faded. I can only think of one clear example now- I was at a knitting group, and a girl was telling a story about watching a hawk kill a mouse by throwing it against a dumpster and then eating it. My reaction was a louder-than-I-expected "Hawks are so horrible!" which caused an embarrassed silence and one woman started to explain the circle of life to me. I then tried to explain that my reaction comes from more of a rabbitcentric, anti-bird of prey world view than a hippy-dippy, all-you-need-is-love-and-tofu, west coast vibe, but I don't think they got it.
Maybe now that I will be up close and personal with the food-buying Boston public, I will have a broader view.
Seriously, though. Look at those eyes. Hawks suck.
5 comments:
hawks are so not horrible but i would have cracked up if i'd heard you say that.
p.s. two post tuesdays keep me from sewing which keeps me from bAHston so stop it!
Mushroom gravy sounds tasty.
And yes - koolaid dyeing is awesome...mostly because you can do it in your food bowls. But be forewarned - it will take more koolaid than you think to dye it a dark color. And cherry is super super strong color-wise.
Sounds like the hawk totally cheated! Using a dumpster?! Where was the ref on that one? Fuck the circle of life.
Justin laughed very loudly at the "keeping warm from the inside out line."
And I totally used to dye my hair with kool-aid in grade school...until my mom finally gave up in middle school and let me just dye it with real dye. Ah, punk rock hair colors...those were the days.
I've done the kool-aid dying! It totally works. And your yarn smells like kool-aid, which for me is a plus. You can also use food coloring & vinegar, which is slightly more cost-effective but dramatically less cool sounding.
I totally have thrift-store-sweater-yarn envy, but I can never tell if a sweater's been knit in whole pieces & therefore unravelable, or if it's been sewn up out of cut pieces, and no good for yarn. I suppose at $5 I could take a chance but I'd feel bad if I were wrong.
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