Posted in Clothing and Accessories, Knitting, Spinning, tagged Crochet, Industrial Yarns and Sewing Threads, Knitting, Shopping, Some Like it Hot, Spinning, Textiles and Nonwovens, wool, Yarn on April 30, 2013 | 4 Comments »
Suzy Sells Sea Shells recently blogged about the recent craze in thwacking hand spun yarns after they’ve been washed.
Now the trend is thwacking yarns. It is all over the place. Do you thwack? Why aren’t you thwacking? You aren’t finished unless you’ve washed and thwacked!
This thwacking concept reminded me irresistibly of this scene from Some Like It Hot. Fast forward to the following time mark: 1:24.
Most of the time, I slap it!
Posted in Clothing and Accessories, Knitting, tagged cashmere, Cashmere wool, Clothing, Fiber, Knitting, Mongolia, recycling, Shopping, Sweater, wool, Yarn on November 11, 2012 | 23 Comments »
Nice yarn made of really nice fiber costs lots and lots of money. Take this Ravenwood 3-ply 100% cashmere yarn, for example. Clara Parkes calls this yarn:
Quite possibly the loveliest and most substantial cashmere yarn I’ve ever touched.
220 yards for $70. Probably more than worth it for every last luxurious strand.
I can’t afford to buy this sort of treat very often. Or, if I must be honest, ever. Unless I am buying one precious hank to make a small project, like a special pair of fingerless mitts or a glamorous hat.
I certainly can’t afford to buy enough of this glorious cashmere to knit a multiple hank project. A whole sweater? Forget it!
But that doesn’t keep me from wanting it. It doesn’t keep me from lingering over the cashmere displays at the local yarn store, dreaming of what will never be.
She wants the precious. She is always looking for it.
A friend recently turned me on to a method of obtaining large quantities of cashmere, silk, and other expensive fibers for a fraction of what they would normally cost: sweater recycling.
I picked up the following sweater at a local thrift store and gave it a good hand washing to remove any lingering second-hand skeevies. It’s 100% cashmere in a perfectly acceptable color. And most importantly, it had friendly construction and good seams. You want to avoid serged seems like the plague. You’ll end up with lots of little strips of yarn. And who wants to spit splice all of those little pieces? Not me. Not even cashmere is worth that kind of aggravation.
To learn more about taking apart sweaters, take a look at this awesome blog post at Crafstylish.com.
After taking it apart with a seam ripper, I wound the various pieces of the sweater into balls on my ball winder.
And here are the results. A sweater’s worth of 100% cashmere yarn. I’m not exactly sure of the yardage, but I could estimate fairly easily using a digital scale and a calculator. The cost: $4.99.
iPhone provided for scale.
I feel pretty smug. And empowered. I can’t afford to buy luxury cashmere yarn very often. But I can certainly afford to buy $5 sweaters and take them apart. The greatest part of the cost, really, is the time require to shop, wash the sweater, take it apart, and wind it: About 5 hours, all told (although some of that time could be shortened in the future, now that I know what I’m doing).
Confession time: Not only do I feel smug and empowered, I also feel a little bit guilty. There’s nothing wrong with being thrifty and there are lots of very, very good things about recycling. But I know that, in doing this, I am taking business away from my LYS and from the good folks at Ravenwood. On the other hoof, chances are that I would never, ever have bought this volume of cashmere yarn from any producer or merchant. I just can’t afford it. So is there really anything to feel guilty about? Tell me what you think.
Posted in Clothing and Accessories, Humor, Knitting, Life, tagged FO Friday, Knitting, Lace, perfect strangers, Ravelry, Shawl, Shopping, Yarn on May 25, 2012 | 4 Comments »
The odious shawl is finished. Done. Finito.
No more ripping back. No more boredom. No more forcing myself to work on this project when I really want to be working on something, anything else.
I feel like this should be surrounded by crime scene tape or a chalk mark.
And now I am so happy, we do the dance of joy!
I feel bad for all of the negative emotions I’ve directed at this shawl. After all, it’s going to be a gift for a new mom in my family: someone who is going to need lots of good vibes.
I feel strongly that I need to do a project cleansing before I let this thing out of my sight. Something to restore the good energy and happy gifting vibes. Any ideas? Do I need incense?
Posted in Clothing and Accessories, Humor, Knitting, tagged Clothing, Knitting, Ravelry, Shopping, Slate, Sock, Socks and Hosiery on April 21, 2012 | 12 Comments »
Have you ever had a sales person try to convince you to purchase the latest tech gadget or kitchen time saver using this hackneyed old phrase: “It’ll knock your socks off”? Don’t just laugh at their cutely ineffective sales tactics. That dastard is threatening you.
To most people, the idea being stripped of your socks in a moment of retail ecstasy is not that disturbing. After all, socks are cheap and you can always get more. A 4-pack of Gold Toes at the department store cost less than $15. That’s less than $2 for each sock. And the mall is probably open until 9. No worries.
As a knitter, the notion of losing socks is a source of anxiety. I usually spend more on just the yarn than a normal person spends on a whole 4-pack. And that’s just the tip of the woolen iceberg (What a weird metaphor, and yet oddly appropriate as it reminds me of the pile of woolen handwashing waiting for me upstairs. Which I will continue to ignore.).
I spend hours and hours of my free time carefully crafting each sock. 16-20 hours for a simple pair; 40+ for a fancy pair. Imagine getting paid minimum wage for that labor (I know, what a laugh, but I can imagine.). What are these socks worth just at cost? The mind boggles.
Basic ribbed sock by Kate Atherley. Image from Ravelry.
Simple socks: $7.25 x 20 hrs = $145
Clandestine socks by Cookie A. From Ravelry.
Fancy socks: $7.25 x 40 hrs = $290
Add to this the cost of the yarn. This is what it’s worth at cost, roughly. Then consider a 100% or 200% retail markup (We know they do it. Plus the scenario is more fun to think about that way.)
A recent article in Slate discussed the market in high-end socks. A certain shop in Rome has been outfitting the pope and his cardinals in red footwear for two centuries ($27 per pair). And a company called Zimmerli sells a pair of $200 socks in a dreamy merino that supposedly wear out after only 6 or 7 washes. Seriously? I’m not quibbling about the price. I doubt they were hand knit, but they were probably crafted from virgin merino, sheared under the full moon while monks chanted a detangling prayer, or some such business. What I can’t believe is that they only last a handful of washes. I can make you a pair of $200 socks that will beat those socks all hollow (haha, it’s funny because you won’t we wearing them). Only if you want cables or lace, mine might be more like $300. But hey, if you’re already in the market for $200 disposable socks I don’t think you’ll have any problem with the idea of $300 durable socks.
So anyway, my point is this: When a sales person enthusiastically threatens the fate of my socks in this way, well, it’s a good thing my mouth has a functioning filter. Thank the dear and fluffy lord. Otherwise, we’d have the conversation I always fantasize I’m having:
[Random awesome gadget] will knock your socks off.
*Stony faced stare*
Ma’am?
Are you threatening me?
Erm…?
You wanna dance, punk? Do you feel lucky?
