ZillahKnits: The Green of Spring

It is officially spring this week so imagine my horror when I woke up to this.

This is a sight you just should not have to see. We have been taunted with beautiful days in the 60's and 70's for the last week and I have to admit I had already converted to my Spring way of thinking. Meaning I simply did not want to see this when I awoke this morning. It's cold, grey and icky outside and I can't open the windows to hear the birds sing and I just don't like it at all. I wanted to spend today sitting outside by the fire pretending I am in the woods in my own little world. Instead, I'm going to sit inside and try to sink myself into some brainless TV and catch up on some knitting.

To supplement the green outside, I did a little "green" shopping yesterday. I decided to got o one of our local thrift stores and see what might be available for some direct recycling. I've heard of other people having some pretty good luck finding sweaters with nice yarn that can be unraveled and repurposed. I love this idea! Any time I can come up with a new use for something that might otherwise be disregarded I just get a warm fuzzy. (see these little examples) Also, who can complain about finding an entire sweaters worth of yarn for under $10. Well, here's what I got:

This sweater is a White Stag 55% Acrylic/ 45% Cotton sweater that I got for $3.99. While I was hoping to avoid any acrylic fibers, this one is pretty darn nice. I like the color of the yarn and the overall softness. I also like that it's big enough that I can see myself using this yarn again. I think this might make a nice spring/summer t-shirt or tank top style. Not bad.

Next I found a Faded Glory lace sweater. This is 100% Cotton and looks to be about a DK weight. I paid $3.99 for this one as well. I like the natural color and softness of this cotton and I could see it making a really nice summer weight top. I've actually been eyeing several patterns on Ravelry for summer t-shirt using yarn very similar to this so it seems to be just right.

The funny thing is I didn't even really look at the lace work before buying the sweater. This morning when I was taking the pictures, I was surprised by how pretty the lace work really is up close. See, pretty.

I might need to take some more detailed photos before I unravel anything. The actual sweater is a little shapeless but the details are sure nice. It almost seems a shame to rip it out. Maybe it will fit S. I'll have to check before I start.

Next sweater, an argyle. Now, I don't know about you, but argyle has never really done much for me. On second thought, I should say it never really did much for me, until I started knitting. Like many things in my life, once I figure out how they are made, I find them infinitely more interesting. (Can I just tell you how much I love the TV show "How It's Made?") Anyway, back to argyle. So, argyle, to me, always represented "preppy." Now, again if you are me, preppy is bad so therefore argyle is bad. However, now that I knit and I understand the skill involved in making the argyle pattern, it is much more interesting. It's still not my favorite look though. OK, get back on track. The next sweater I found is a dark brown argyle in 70% Acrylic and 30% Wool. Again, I didn't want a bunch of acrylic yarn but this sweater is a great color and the yarn is really yummy soft.

The yarn is probably a fingering weight and I was actually thinking it might make a nice lace wrap type thingy. Who knows. Of course, I decided to try all of these sweaters on this morning and I actually kind of like the way this one looks. I never thought I would wear argyle but the colors are nice and like I said, the yarn in yummy soft. Hmm. Oh, what did I pay? Well this one was marked $3.99 but it was also on of the 50% off tags so I ended up paying $1.99. Now that is a bargain!

As for actually knitting something, I continue to knit swatches. I am doing my best to find the perfect pattern for things like this..