Five or six years ago I got this crazy notion. I started collecting old cashmere sweaters and un-knitting them with the idea of using the yarn as weft. I un-knitted 6 sweaters and lost my focus. The yarn languished in my cedar chest until recently when I was telling an old friend about my idea of weaving a blanket using recycled cashmere. She got very excited about the concept and commissioned a blanket.The next step was to find some more sweaters and decide on a warp yarn. My first inclination was to use merino wool, but since I had been playing around with bamboo, I thought I should weave up a test.
This ends chapter 1. In chapter 2, I run a couple of tests
PS. If you have or know of anyone who has an old cashmere sweater or two with moth holes or stains, please consider sending it to me.
PPS. Since I received the commission, I have acquired 6 more sweaters. I probably have enough for this blanket, but who knows how far I will take it.
By the way, it takes me about 8 hours to un-knit a sweater.
3 comments:
I stumbled into your blog today.... I think I'm in love!
After reading all the posts, looking at your entire website, my head is full....the one thing that really popped out (other than the amazingly beautiful colors) is that you are a plain weaver...plain weave has always wound up being my final choice, and I felt like I should be doing lots of fancy weaves to really call myself a weaver.
I, too, love working with color and look forward to learning a lot from your posts. Thank you in advance.
To robknits and leslieinjapan, Great to hear from you both. I am in the middle of a week long workshop that will be over on Saturday. I want you know know I will be posting then. Thanks for tuning in, and I promise the best is yet to come.
Hi, Bonnie,
Found it! Love it! I think you'll enjoy blogging as much as I do.
You might want to put a link to your blog somewhere on your web site, so people can find it both from the weavering and from your web site.
Cheers!
Post a Comment