diy fashion
Frog it: Rip it, Rip it! Reuse thrift store sweaters for winter accessories! By Quinn White
K
on some garments, and you will have to simply cut into the garment to begin unraveling. I then began to pull the yarn. If your gar- ment has edging like this one, you will most likely have to make some cuts to the yarn that has been used to attach the main part of the garment to the edging. When unraveling this sweater, I had to make a cut each time I reached the edging. Be careful when doing this not to cut the yarn that you are pulling. As you frog your garment, form the yarn into a ball for your knitting convenience! Remember, it is important that you gauge your yarn before starting a project. This should be your practice no matter what yarn you are using, but it is especially important when using yarn that does not come with guidelines printed on a label. If you would like to make these vintage- inspired fingerless gloves, you can find the pattern on my blog: www.ktogether.word press.com. It is a perfect fall project, easy for beginners, super quick for all of you busy knitters, and—the best part—it’s free! ^
nitting is a dangerous obses- sion. Certainly, it is wonderful to dream up and create accessories to complement my favorite outfits, to
have the pleasure of gifting a baby their first hat, and to custom make Christmas presents. But an inspiring yarn can make quite a dent in the pocketbook. As I came down from a post-shopping high that followed a particularly dangerous shopping spree recently, I wondered how I could make my yarn purchases mirror my other purchases: inexpensive, clearance and oftentimes used or repurposed. Immediately, I thought of a sweater I found at Goodwill the previous week, realizing that the material it was made of could be easily repurposed. I was completely unwilling to frog (knit- ter’s language for unknitting the stitches) my new fall staple, so I set out to the thrift stores to find sweaters I didn’t feel so strongly about. And, lo and behold, I found an over- sized, green sweater (that I would never wear as is) for under $5. It was a perfect candidate for my experiment. The autumn green was just begging to be worn this fall, and the seamless torso would be easy to unravel. I bought it, guessing that it must at least con- sist of four skeins of yarn. Here is how I transformed this sweater into a ball of yarn to make a pair of fingerless gloves (with tons of yarn to spare). I found a spot on the garment where the yarn had been weaved in with a needle. I undid the weaving and cut the knot so that I could begin to frog the sweater. This may not be as obvious
Quinn White is a writer, knitter and teacher from Olathe, KS.
VintageKC / Fall 2012 38
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