Monday, November 16, 2009

How I Spent My...Swine Flu

As my symptoms very slowly recede in the West, I say a fond farewell to the pile of cashmere sweaters patiently awaiting deconstruction.


It takes me between 2-4 hours to prepare a sweater to send to the un-knitting factory (really my 91 year old mother). Each of the rolled pieces is all ready to un-knit with a small ball already started. From the 8 sweaters I started with, I have 3 1/4 lbs of future yarn to send to my mother. The bag of assorted small balls of yarn weighs 4.5 oz. The pile in the upper right corner of the picture is a full pound of sweater scrap that I will not use. I haven't decided exactly how I will dispose of it. I also have 4.55 oz of ribbing that I will not use, not to mention the 2.25 oz bag of short ends.

I haven't done a complete inventory of all my scrap, but I have taken apart well over 100 sweaters. (if the flu lasts much longer I am sure to tackle it)

I still have 50 sweaters yet to be processed! I have to admit I am very reluctant to take apart a perfect sweater. And although it is difficult to felt a cashmere sweater---it is possible. Once a sweater is felted, you can forget about un-knitting it. Maybe I will have to update my languishing Etsy Store.

1 comment:

Brandy said...

I am so jealous of your ability to find the sweaters. I have been searching for months and have only found 3. I would even take the ribbing because I haven't been able to find sweaters!