Wednesday, May 09, 2007

This is gonna be a tough one...


We went to the thrift store yesterday and amazingly I just wasn't finding much of anything that sang to me. I decided I'd look for some wool sweaters for reclaiming and fulling/felting. They had already taken most of everything wintery off the racks but I did manage to find just one. It's a real beauty and I haven't been able to make myself take a test cut yet! LOL!!! I've toyed with the idea of trying to unravel it for the yarn but I really don't know where to start. I'm pretty sure it was hand knit as you can see small mistakes in it if you examine it closely. It seems to have been knit in one piece also... there aren't any seams aside from a few inches in each armpit and the collar ribbing seems to be done seperately and applied with what looks like hand stitching. I even toyed with the idea of just keeping it as it is, but it's a very coarse wool and very pricky even for me and I don't usually mind most wool prickle. It's pretty out of shape too and would need some intensive blocking. I was looking for a sweater with a specific project in mind. I wanted to make a cat nest like the one I recently crocheted and felted. This sweater has such a pretty design though that I'm thinking maybe I need to make something different.... but what?! The yoke design would also interfere with the amount of fabric I want for the base of the cat nest and I hate to just cut into it and waste that part. What would YOU make from it?

4 comments:

YarnThing said...

Well, you know me...I am all for making a bag. I think you could do something really neat with the yoke like around the top of a purse or something. But I don't know if I would cut before or after felting. What do you think?

Like the new look!

Marly

It's just Raven said...

*sigh* I'm afraid I'm the same... everything has "purse-a-bility"!!! LOL!!! A girl can have toooooo many...
I've been having visions of a back-pack style shopping bag. I just don't know if this sweater will be large enough for what I'm thinking, but the structure would be near perfect. I guess because I'm a traditional feltmaker first, I'm a bit picky about visible seams. When at all possible I avoid them so very rarely full before sewing. Sometimes I'll lightly pre-full to help avoid raveling and may have to do that here. I have to take off the collar ribbing first though or it won't come off easily after pre-fulling.

It's just Raven said...

Oh my goodness... what did I just SAY there! ROTFLOL!!! CAN'T have enough bags... really... I meant a girl just CAN'T EVER have too many bags! LOL!!!

Tammy said...

I am with you guys on the bags. I would especially want to incorporate the pretty design into the bag somehow.