The Tipsy Thimble

I know I just put the post up about the GAP sweater… but this thing is turning out so cool that I have to post about it again! (If you haven’t read about it yet, check out the post one previous to this one… below.)

So, I posted pics of what the first batch of Kool-Aid dyeing looked like… I loved it! But, I went back to it (I had 6 huge balls of yarn to play with…) and colored some more. I am done with it, and I think it turned out spectacular, if I do say so myself!

Here’s a recap of what the last batch looked like:

And here’s the second set:

All of it looks so awesome! And after (almost) boiling it for the dyeing, all of the kinks came out and it puffed back up. I had thought that it was a sock weight yarn, but now I see that it was probably due to the tension of being knitted up that it looked so thin. It’s definitely a little bit bigger now that it’s all refreshed… Probably almost a DK/sport weight. And SO soft!!!

I ended up with a LOT of beautiful yarn from this sweater:

I think these will be put on my Etsy shop once I take them to my mother’s house to weigh them on the postal scale. That is, if I can bring myself to part with them! They really are SO wonderful to look at and pet…

I need to find more sweaters like this one… too bad the stupid contents tag was removed from this one!!! It’ll be trial and error to find another one like this! (I’ll write another post later about an “error” I’ve already found on my journey to find sweaters to recycle into gorgeous yarn!)

So, I read about recycling yarn from high-end sweaters and knew that I had to try it. Mr. Tipsy and I are on a somewhat tight budget, and I have always been a thrift shop kind of gal. So the other day I was running errands on the other end of town and decided to stop at the big Salvation Army store out that way. It used to be a grocery store, so it has racks and racks of sweater-y goodness. I picked up about 6 sweaters for $2-3 each.

I’m not going to put all of the instructions for what I did here on my blog. There are so many talented women whose blogs I got directions from, and really, I have nothing to add to their great directions. So, I’m just going to link to the blogs that I followed and show you the pictures I achieved by following them.

First things first, before you even buy a sweater to unravel, you need to know which ones will unravel well and which ones will not. I found a great site about that, and it explains what seams to look for and such. See it here at Neauveau Fiber Arts. (If you really love the sweater and it has bad seams, you could buy it and felt it (if it’s a feltable fiber) and make a purse or something out of it.)

So, now you’ve found sweaters with good seams. Some people with wash the sweaters at this point, but I just waited until the yarn was all apart. I figured I’d have to wash it to get the “kinks” out of the yarn from the knitting, and if you dye it you’re going to (almost) boil it, so it’ll be squeaky clean by the end of the process.

I decided to start with an XXL GAP sweater in an olive green color. I wasn’t in love with the color, but I hoped it would over-dye. The fiber content tag had been removed (grr…) but I did a burn test and determined it was (probably) mostly wool with a little bit of nylon elastic blended in. (for a great chart on how to determine fiber content by burning, check out the fiber burn chart at DitzyPrints.com.)

When I got ready to get down to the business of unraveling the sweater, I found My Virtual Sanity’s blog about recycling sweaters to be the most helpful. It’s VERY detailed and makes you feel like “you can do it”.

I wrapped the yarn as it unraveled around books.

I have since found a small wooden shelf that makes a 1 yd skein… much better. Here’s what I ended up with after using that:

The CDs are in the picture for size reference. I got a LOT of yarn out of this sweater!

Then I decided I wanted to dye this yarn, mostly because I can’t think of a single thing I want to make that would need this much olive green yarn! I went with the Kool-Aid dye method, because it was the cheapest alternative, and I already had the Kool-Aid here at home. I used the directions from two blogs for this: Eunny Knit’s for the self-striping technique and The Piper’s for the basic Kool-Aid dye technique.

My test hanks came out a bit more saturated than the final yarn, but I can’t pinpoint why (too many variables: microwave vs. stovetop, Mixade vs. Kool-Aid, pre-soaking vs. not, ratio of water:mix packets… It’s ok, I love the final results!)

Test Hanks:

Final skein drying:

Final skein with test hanks and one skein of the original:

Close-up of the final product:

I’m really pleased with the final results, and let me tell you that washing/(almost) boiling/dyeing sweater yarn really brings it back to life!!!

Ok… This was on my project page of Ravelry, but I wanted this to be in the patterns database. I realize this is an adaptation of a pattern, and I want to thank and acknowledge the original writer. The original pattern can be found at Rheatheylia’s page. This post is only my adaptation, and you will need to refer back to the original at several points in my pattern.

Here is what this pattern makes:

This pattern has not been tested and was typed up from furious little scribbles in my notebook as I was making this hat, so please let me know if you find errors!

Please excuse the pictures… I look ridiculously horrible because it was 2 in the morning! I was just so happy to have this hat DONE that I squealed and made my BF take pics right away!

Alright… First, what happened:
I wanted to make the Divine Hat, but I didn’t have any yarn in the weight it called for (worsted; well, I have RHSS, but yuck… no itchies so close to my forehead!), so I decided to try it with a skein of Bernat Natural Blends Alpaca. It’s a “bulky” weight yarn, so I figured I’d just cut down on the number of “ribs” and it would work out. Then, I began following the pattern, and promptly forgot to reduce the number of dc’s in the first round… and kept on going, following the pattern as written. Then, just to make things a bigger “mess”, I mis-read the pattern and ended up doubling the “ribs” on one round, and since the “ribs” are starting points for increases, the hat grew exponentially! Fast forward a few more rounds, and I realize that the hat I am making would only fit someone with a Shrek sized head!!! I did NOT want to frog that many rounds (mostly because this yarn is so damn splitty that it was a pain to work with, I didn’t want to have to work it all again). So… Here is what I did to “save” the project:

With MC (in bulky, with K hook to begin and then I hook to finish), work the pattern as it is written through round 3.

Round 4 - fpdc the fpdc’s AND the dc’s in the previous round. Put 1 dc after each fpdc in this round. (her pattern called for only fpdc in the fpdc’s, NOT the dc’s)
(so, the last round was fpdc in fpdc, dc in sp, fpdc in fpdc, dc in sp. This round is fpdc in fpdc, dc in sp, fpdc in dc, dc in sp)
This will double the amount of “ribs” around the hat.

Round 5 - fpdc in fpdc, 2 dc in next sp around (same as her pattern, only twice the amount of fpdc’s (15X2=30), so twice the amount of 2dc’s (30) as well).
Round 6 - fpdc in fpdc, 2 dc in next sp around (30 fpdc’s, 30 2dc’s).
Round 7 - fpdc in fpdc, 3 dc in next sp around (30 fpdc’s, 30 3dc’s).
Round 8 - fpdc in fpdc, 3 dc in next sp around (30 fpdc’s, 30 3dc’s).

(It will look like a GIANT mushroom top at this point, don’t worry, it’s right for what I’m about to do with it.)

Round 9 - switch to accent color (without cutting the MC yarn, just let it hang where it is), (make the switch after you slip to first stitch in round, but before you ch up for the next round to keep colors together), then work round 9 as previous round was worked. (fpdc in fpdc, 3 dc in next sp around (30 fpdc’s, 30 3dc’s) Cut yarn, leaving an 8-10 inch tail for sewing in next step.

After you work round 9, count 17 ribs around (or how ever many it takes to sit atop your head) and pinch rib #1 and rib #17 together, wrong sides touching.

Use the tail of the accent color clipped in the previous round to sew through the 2 ribs, stitching them together securely. Weave any remaining tail into the accent color round.

Round 10 - Pick back up MC and chain 2 from outside the accent color round (for the next round). Work the round as the previous 3 rounds WITHOUT going past the join you just made (basically, leave it where it is, so that ribs 1-17 make up the “hat part” and the rest of the ribs just stick out of the back (I’ll call this the “flap part”). fpdc in fpdc, 3 dc in next sp around “hat part”.

Round 11- fpdc in fpdc, 3 dc in next sp around “hat part”.

Round 12 - switch to smaller hook, sc in every stitch around “hat part”. Clip MC yarn with 8-10 inch tail, use it to go around the join again (I worked a little round and round stitch with a tapestry needle all the way up to the “hole” underneath the “flap part”, and a few extra rounds around the top to secure that join a bit better.)

Round 13 - Join accent color in any sc on the “hat part”. sc in every stitch around “hat part”.

Round 14 - do “ribbing” as in her pattern (fpdc in first stitch, bpdc in next around) on the “hat part”.

Round 15 - continue “ribbing” as in her pattern (fpdc in fpdc, bpdc in bpdc around).

You can do another round or two of ribbing if you prefer a longer hat. Personally, I hate longer hats. This one falls right where I want it to (just covering the top of my ears and not too much of my forehead).

The hole you created with the join is perfect for slipping a pony tail or bun through. I have 4 feet of hair, and I hate smooshing it with a hat (that’s one reason I rarely wear “tobogan/watch/toque/whatever you call it” style hats. This is an awesome solution to that problem!