Yarn Reclamation Project Number One

The journey from yarn perm to Big Drop and then to Ridgeback.

There are many things about knitting and any yarn craft that are amazing, but I’ve always felt that one of the best things is that it fully embraces change, and offers a great life lesson: mistakes happen, things go wrong, but everything can be fixed and sometimes for the better.

Because if you make a mistake when you’re knitting, whether that be a stitch issue or something ends up being too big or too small, and you find yourself swearing profusely when you realise what’s happened, you can always ‘frog’ it and start again. If, despite your best efforts, those crafty moths get into your project bag or wardrobe and have themselves a gourmet lunch, you can fix the hole or ‘frog’ it and make something new with the salvaged yarn. If you started a project and then you decide it’s not for you anymore, then you can always ‘frog’ it and start a new project. Or if you have a knit that just doesn’t suit you anymore or it’s just languishing in your wardrobe going to waste, ‘frog’ it! The point is, you always have a chance of a fresh start with knitting and there is never any waste!

Now, in my case, I had a load of pattern samples that were sat in a box never to see the light of day again. So I frogged them and my Yarn Reclamation Project came into existence.

But the question is, how are my Yarn Reclamation Projects coming along?

Well…

When I started the project back in July 2023, everything started swimmingly. The first pattern sample that I decided to reclaim was for my Scarf Number 4 pattern.

I really like this scarf with its subtle diamond and lace motifs, but it’s a big scarf and on me, being a short person, it was too big! It took three skeins of 4ply yarn to knit this sample and that was a lot of yarn to have tied up in something that I’d never wear again.

The first thing I had to do was to unravel the scarf. This was easy enough to do, but because I’d used a gorgeous hand dyed yarn called The Sun by Yarnwhisperer. You can still buy colourway on preorder basis by contacting them directly, by the way. But one thing you should always try to do when using hand dyed yarn over a large area is alternate skeins to avoid the natural variances that occur during the hand dyeing process. And that’s what I did. So rather than having 3 big balls of yarn once I’d unravelled it, I ended up with lots of small balls of very crinkled yarn or ‘yarn perm’ as I like to call it!

The yarn is unravelled, balled up and then washed to straighten the 'yarn perm'

And how do you deal with ‘yarn perm’? You can just ignore it, but your tension may go a little awry so you are better off either steaming or soaking the yarn and allowing to air dry to get rid of the kinks. Either way you need to turn the balls into the beginning of hanks, secure them, straighten them by your favoured method, and then you need to ball it up again so that you can start knitting your new project. But you’re still not done at this point, because then you need to weigh it and work out how much yarn you actually have in terms of length if you don’t know already. This is particularly relevant if you didn’t knit whatever it is you’re unravelling or you can’t remember the name of the yarn or how much you used. And I’ll be writing about how you do this

in a future Yarn Reclamation project post. Sounds like a lot of work doesn’t it?! It is, but it really is worth doing.

As previously mentioned I knew that I had three skeins of yarn tied up in this sample and once I’d decided on the new project I was going to knit with this reclaimed yarn, I weighed out 200g of yarn. And I knitted not only what I had intended to be a new pattern sample, but also what I intended to be a gift for my Mum.

The first Yarn Reclamation Project pattern sample that didn’t end up being a pattern sample at all.

But if you’ve read my latest Creative Journey post about my recently launched pattern Big Drop (and I recommend that you do) you’ll know that this didn’t go to plan.

However, another wonderful thing about knitting and crafting is that it can help us through the major stresses of our lives and I can’t remember a moment where I haven’t been knitting since. And don’t forget, I still had one more skein of this yarn to use! And I do believe I’ve put it to good use!

You’ll be able to read about the Creative Journey of my upcoming knitting pattern for June very soon, but here is your first look at another of Yarn Reclamation Project: the pattern sample for Ridgeback.

A brief glimpse at my new pattern; Ridgeback

It’s a simple, one skein, easy to knit, tapered end scarf that you can wear in a number of different ways. It’s perfect for wearing all year round and it’s certainly a very good use for a reclaimed yarn.

So this is how my first Yarn Reclamation Project turned out. It was a relatively straight forward and successful project even if the journey didn’t go how I’d intended. But to see a yarn I love being transformed into different knits is an amazing thing to do and to know that there has been no waste or more financial outlay certainly gives me a buzz. It’s definitely something that makes me proud.

Until next time….