Second Sock Syndrome

I have fallen victim to the second sock syndrome. The second Java sock is coming along very slowly, which may have more to do with final exams than the syndrome, but I also finished a revised short sock:

The one on the left is the first attempt, and the one on the right is the revised version.

The revised version is done on size 6 DPNs and with one fewer pattern repeat on the foot. I also forgot about decided not to do the first two stockinette rows. You can see it fits much much much better. You can also see the size difference when they're not worn:

Above: First attempt

Below: Second attempt

Even though it takes only a few hours to do, I'm finding it hard to start the second one. I'm going to go ahead and blame that on the syndrome and not my own laziness.

But once I finish both second socks for the Java socks and Short socks, I will commence on the creation of the Inlay socks for Mom. Then the Circle socks. Then the Fuzzy hat. Then maybe I'll get some sleep.

Sock Update and Other Fun Things

Sock Update: I finished one of the Java Socks!

I love it so much! It's so soft and comfortable! The yarn is amazing, possibly my favorite ever. I will eventually make some for myself, but now I'm forging ahead on other Christmas gifts.

I thought I'd share some other cool things, too. First is what I've been using to transport my sock projects:

A Chinese-takeout box.  

 

It's great for a couple reasons. It easily contains my project and the accessories like a measuring tape and pattern. Also, as an advantage over a plastic or canvas bag, its rigidity prevents the tiny needles from snapping. I recently accidentally sat on and destroyed a couple of size 2 DPNs and was pretty devastated over it, which is why I searched for a reasonable alternative containment system. I think certain tupperware would work too, the trick is finding one that's long enough for needles. But it's always good to think creatively to repurpose something that is often thrown away.

Lastly, I was Christmas shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond and I saw this:

It's a sandwich cutter to make your sandwiches in the same of dinosaurs. It was too cute, I had to get it.

Fun fun fun!

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and then some more Good

The Good: I finished the Cadence Socks and they're awesome!

First Christmas present done! My sister will love these!

The Bad: I have a math exam tomorrow and I am totally unprepared!

The Ugly: The short socks are done...

wah waaaaah....

Ew.

Yuck. Get them away. Ew. Ew.

I'm pretty sure my only mistake was making them too big. I'm going to try again on 6's and see how that goes. Also, the pattern is obviously totally wrong about sizing. On these I did 9 iterations of the cable pattern (including the decreasing part), but I'd say for a size 7 foot or so to do 6 or 7 cable patterns (but maybe less on 6's, I'll let you know when I figure it out) But another sizing issue: the ankle is way too loose! My other sister would be like, "you made your other sister those amazing Cadence socks and I get these? You must hate me." So I'm not going to give her these socks. Because I don't hate her.

Maybe if you made these on 7's with thicker fluffier yarn they'd make good slippers, but now they're sort of ugly floppy useless sock/slipper hybrids. Another (necessary) deviation I made from the pattern is that I kitchener'd the toe shut, instead of pulling the yarn through the remaining 10 stitches.

The also-Good:

Instead of going back to the short socks, which I'm completely sick of, I forged ahead and started the Java Socks for sister's room mate #1:

Now this is what I thought sock-knitting would be like before I started. The Cadence socks were really easy and went really quickly. These socks however, they're just inching along. This yarn is much finer and I'm actually sticking to the size 1's. But they are oh-so-soft! 

Here's my game plan: The pattern said the leg is 6.5 inches long. Each iteration of the pattern (4 rows) is about a half an inch long. If I do 4 iterations of the pattern (about 2 inches) per day, I'll be done with the leg in a few days. Not bad. My problem is that this weekend is Thanksgiving, and my whole family will be together. This by itself is not a bad thing, but that means I can't work on any family-related projects, because then they'd see their gift before it's done and that would ruin everything. So I have to strategically work on certain projects while certain people are not around. I can work on the short socks on the way to Thanksgiving, because sister #2 won't be in the car, and I can work on the Java Socks at the party while sister #2 is around, and maybe I'll work on the fuzzy hat if my dad isn't around at some point.

I also need to come up with a gift for my mom. I really want her gift to be like a grand finale to the Christmas 2011 gift collection, but I can't find anything spectacular (and yet doable) enough. It's hard to browse patterns on Ravelry when I have 3 projects going at once. It makes me feel guilty. There are just too many fun things to do and no time at all to do them!

More Christmas Projects / Annoyances Part 2

I know it's probably the last thing I need to be doing right now, but I was testing out this fleecing technique used in this fleeced earflap hat because I bought some roving at the farmers' market and it just looked like SO MUCH FUN! And I assure you, the fluffiness and warm cuddly feeling that this little swatch gave me is getting me really excited to actually start this project. Here's a picture of what would be the "front flap" of the earflap hat made with Cascade Eco Wool and some truly fantastic roving from Wisconsin Highland Farms*.

Holy fluffiness!

Mmmm so soft! I love it!

But here's the thing. My priority list is as follows:

1. Study for my exam this week

2. Study for my exam next week

3. Finish the short socks

4. Finish the Cadence socks

5. Earflap hat

So you see here, this hat currently falls as #5 on my priority list, although I think taking out my giant pile of recycling should be up there, too. ANNOYING. 

Now, back to the short socks. Here's where I'm at:

Now, I selected the size 5 - 6 1/2 because my sisters and I have small feet. However, the pattern says to continue the sock 7 inches from where the heel flap diverges from the rest of the sock. But my foot is only about 6 inches longer, and then you need to factor in the toe decreases, right? My gauge is not off, how can this pattern be more than an inch off? And the toe decreases have to be at least 10 rows long! How ANNOYING. 

* Here's a shout-out to Wisconsin Highland Farms:

Wisconsin Highland Farms, LTD. 

Ann & Steve Herr, Owners 
2428 S. Dickey Road - Broadhead, WI 53520 
608-897-4380 
ann.herr@hotmail.com

Fall Food

Ah, fall. Something about fall foods that seems like the entirety of summer was simply working towards the deliciousness of squash and apples. I was at the Dane County Farmers' Market this weekend, which happened to be the last outdoor farmers' market of the season, and I got some fantastic deals, including a grocery bag full of acorn squash for a couple bucks. Amazing! I shared some of my steals with some neighbors and started cooking some for myself immediately! Acorn squash is easy: just cut them in half, take out the "guts" and cook them face-down on a baking sheet until they're done. I set my oven to 375 and it took them about 30 minutes, but if you're going to try this you should probably consult some other source, because my oven frequently lies to me. It's a small, robust, antique-y looking thing. What I really need is an oven thermometer...

So what to do with the seeds? I usually just compost them with the rest of the squash insides. This time, I tried roasting them. After I scooped them out of the squash, I pulled the extra stuff off the seeds and rinsed them. This can be tricky! They are slippery little tiny tricksters. Then I dried them off with some paper towels.

Here they are sans gooey stuff and rinsed.

Then I added some olive oil, just enough to coat (a few tablespoons) and some salt, garlic powder, and some paprika. I spred them out on some parchment paper on a baking sheet and set the oven to 300.

I took them out after 15 minutes and tossed them, then put them back in for another 15. You could probably leave them in longer and make them crispier if you wanted to.

Yum! When I'm home alone doing homework, these go fast! They almost taste like sunflower seeds.

On another food-related note, I got one of these fancy coffee makers for my birthday:

Hellooooo caffeine addiction.

These things are just amazing. I've already had two of these today (too much, Anna?) and it is pretty tasty. Flavored coffee is really not my thing, but from the variety-pack I tried a vanilla flavored coffee, and when it is hot and fresh this stuff is good. Highly recommended to people who are busy, lazy, or both (like me). 

Annoyances

A couple things are annoying me right now. Yes, it's almost 2 A.M. which might explain most, if not all, of my menial complains, but I will share them with you anyways:

Cadence Socks:

Almost done. Yeah, almost. Because I ran out of yarn. At the toe of the second sock. That means I'll have to go buy another skein of this (expensive) yarn just to finish the toe! Then what am I going to do with the rest??? UGH. Look at it! It's just screaming "finish me! finish me!"

So, facing this tragedy, I started on socks for sister #2. I spotted this pattern a while back, the unoriginally titled "short socks." It almost sounds too good to be true. Socks on size 7's? Who has heard of such a thing? After doing the Cadence Socks on size 2's, I was so shocked to have to re-acclimate myself to the 7's.

What a monstrosity! You could whack someone over the head with these giant pillars of wood and kill them instantly.

The execution is easy enough, except for the pattern is complete gibberish. It's like one painfully long run-on sentence with random, unnecessary punctuation AND CAPS LOCK. "REMEMBER THE GUAGE!" it screams at you in the middle of a paragraph. Why? Shouldn't I have theoretically checked the gauge before starting? Even if I didn't, (I hardly ever do) why on earth would I check it now? You don't give the gauge for ribbing!
"NOTE: This pattern is written in American English. All measurements in charts are in cm."
Really? Does that make sense? It doesn't to me, but that might be the result of a lack of sleep on my part. 
In a more realistic sense of complaints: thrown in here and there are vague terms like "rib" which is supposed to imply 3x3 ribbing. The charts are also not the best. 


</whining>


It's decided: everyone is getting socks this year. I have sock fever! Except for Dad, who is getting this hat.

Socks!

The never-ending sweater project is once again on hold as I make Christmas presents for my family and friends. First up: my sister who specifically requested socks. I've honestly never made adult-sized socks before, so I was very intimidated. I was expecting to spend a fair amount of time on them, which is why I started in October. But I got on a roll and finished one in a matter of a couple of days! They are the Cadence Socks and here's one done:

Boy, that's not a very good picture... but you get the idea.

It's a very fun project. I originally bought two skeins of Classic Elite Fresco, but to finish off the toe of the first sock I had to tap into the second skein. But it was just the end of the toe, I hope I don't run out!

I started making the socks on size 1 DPNs but they came out way too small, so I restarted on 2's. The socks are a little big for me, but I think they'll fit my sister perfectly. (I hope she doesn't read this...)

Next, I'm starting more socks for my sister's room mates, the Circle Socks and Java Socks. Socks socks socks! Turns out, I'm pretty good at them!

Madison Knitters' Guild

Last Monday I went to my first Madison Knitters' Guild meeting. I can't believe I haven't gone before! It was tons of fun. They brought in Susan Anderson and the makers of Spud & Chloe yarn. I LOVE Spud & Chloe yarn! It's what I made my ducky socks out of. It was a great point to jump in, Susan is wonderful to listen to. And we got some gifts! We got this adorable heart shaped tape measure:

And a little canvas bag with two patterns!

Amazing! I also loved the show and tell, there are some seriously talented knitters and spinners in Madison. At the next meeting I'm totally showing off my deer hat and hopefully my sweater will be done by then too! And maybe even my Aidez as well! We'll see. I've got this silly math midterm the day after tomorrow that I'm getting really annoyed with.

Sweater Take 2

I ripped up the sweater pretty far. It was hard to do. Here's what it looks like now:

But one advantage of moving is being forced to go through all your stuff, so I recently found my bamboo size 6 DPN's so I don't have to deal with these clunky metal ones:

Lighter and shorter.

After ripping I started with the sleeves first. I also decreased the stitches in the arm by 6. The shorter needles and the fewer stitches means this is going a lot faster now.

Even though I'm making the sweater smaller this time around, I'll probably still need more yarn. I made this Aidez sweater out of recycled yarn a while ago, but towards the end I ran out (story of my life, I know) so I used this sweater's brown yarn for the last bit. But since I need it now, I unraveled the brown bit from the Aidez sweater. I assembled it really poorly in the first place, so it's not like I could wear it around anyways. Eventually though, I'll finish and re-assemble the Aidez. Here's pictures of it before the ripping:

Notice the big holes...

So here's to getting it right! Hooray for ripping!

Sweater Update

No, I'm not done yet. And it looks like I wont be for a while...
Here's where I'm at:

I have one sleeve completely done, and one mostly done. I have the body done to the pattern specs (except the hem, which I can't figure out) but I think it looks bad. It in no way fits my body, which I admit is pretty unusually-sized.

 The body needs to be a lot narrower and longer.

 The sleeves could be narrower, too.

I was thinking that maybe I could give it away to someone else, but now I'm completely sure I will not have enough yarn. Plus, I hate trying to give things away that I spent so much time on, because then if the receiver doesn't like it, they'll feel bad that I put so much effort into it and wear it sometimes out of pity. It's a lose-lose. I think it will eventually be a pretty sweater, but it isn't going to be finished for a long time. And that means I'll probably get distracted by other projects, and maybe occasionally school work.

Racoon Hat

This is the very first pattern that I've come up with and shared with everyone. Please don't laugh!

It's a striped hat that's squared off to give the impression of ears. At least I think so!

Needles: US Size 9 (5.5mm) 16" and DPN's, or do the whole thing on DPN's.

Gauge: 4 stitches per inch

Yarn: Cascade Yarn Ecological Wool of any two colors, or any yarn that works with the gauge.

Other supplies: Stitch markers, yarn needle

Abbreviations:
     CO = cast on
     pm = place marker
     sm = slip marker

Directions:
CO 72 stitches using long-tail cast on. Place marker at the beginning of the row and...

Knit!

Now I made my stripes 9 rows each, or somewhere between 1.75" and 2". You can make yours as long as you want!

Keep knitting in stockinette until the piece is 7" long. This happened to be the beginning of my 5th and last stripe.

Decreases:
Row 1: K 16, pm, K 4, pm, K 32, pm, K 4, pm, K to end of row
Row 2: *K to 2nd to last stitch before marker, K2tog, sm, K4, sm, ssk* repeat once more and K to the end of the row
Row 3: Knit
Repeat Row 2 and Row 3 three more times. You can switch to DPN's at any time if you like.

Slip the first 14 stitches and the last 14 stitches of the piece onto one DPN, and slip the other 28 stitches onto another DPN. Sew stitches together using kitchener stitch. (I found this video very helpful)

Weave in the ends.

There you go!

Catching Up

As of a few hours ago, I officially unpacked the last box from my move. Yes, it took me a few weeks but it's better late than never. I have completed a few smaller projects, having put my sweater project on hold. First is this buttoned scarf/cowl/thing:

I deviated from the pattern in that instead of doing a knit row for the second pattern row, I did a purl row to keep it in stockinette. I did this to make it look neater, because the garter stitch-style pattern looked way too messy with this yarn.

Second project: the deer with antlers hat. I used yarn that I had on hand, so I don't think it looks ideal, but it's cute! The antlers, when I felted them as directed, really didn't shrink that much.

Second project PART 2: the deer with antlers hat done a little better. I bought some yarn specifically for the project and I like this one better. (You can check out the specific yarns I used on my project pages on Ravelry.) For this hat's antlers, I felted them as directed and THEN stuck them in the dryer on high with some other laundry for about 30 minutes. This shrunk them a little more and made them significantly stiffer.

Third project: I will create a new post for this because it's a pattern that I came up with myself, so I want to share the pattern with everyone!

Now that I'm all done being distracted, I'm going to finish that sweater. I REALLY AM!!! I might have to steal back some yarn from my recycled Aidez sweater, but I can always redo that one. I will finish this sweater.

Moving, etc.

So I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy moving to a new part of town. It's pretty neat, and I'll post some cool things about that later. But for now, some house-keeping.

My sweater is on hold because 1) I'm pretty sure I'm going to run out of yarn and 2) I'm almost certain it will not fit me and lastly 3) I'm kind of bored with it. A while ago I bought this deer hat pattern, and I actually bought yarn to start it but I lost it.


A friend gave me this nice colorful alpaca yarn, and I started making these hand-warmers, which I intended on just finishing off into real mittens, but this pattern has given me some grief.

Whaaaaat happened here??? I don't know. I messed up somewhere. But the biggest problem is that the bound-off stitches didn't match up with the yarn overs. Maybe I was just tired from unpacking and forgot how to read.

Is that a thumb hole?

The yarn didn't stripe as well as I thought it would anyways, so I'm looking for another project to use it on.

Google+

Google+: Facebook but classier.

I remember when I first joined Facebook. I liked how simple it was. Then it got less exclusive and more annoying. I think it's going the way of MySpace. I stopped putting my pictures on Facebook because of the awful privacy rules. I instead started using Picasa, but it was difficult to manage who is able to see my pictures. Now with Google+, that's really easy.

Now Google rules my life. Let's hope this turns out well.

Duckie

So, the sweater is slow going because I'm on the sleeves now, and it's just straight stockinette for the whole thing, and my attention span is pretty mediocre.

I'm taking a break to make these duck socks, because my boss is having a baby.

In the sweater from-the-neck-down class that I took, everyone was making baby/child sweaters, except for me. So while most people were on step 3 or 4, I was still stuck at step 1 because it takes so much longer to make an adult-sized sweater. I was so jealous of those other people. All the satisfaction of making a sweater, with a fraction of the time and effort. But I didn't know any babies or small children at the time, so I had no choice.

But now I know a baby. Or I will very soon. I've never made anything for a baby before, and I've also never made socks before. So this project will by doubly challenging.

The project so far has been pretty fun, but difficult. I didn't bother with the "magic" cast-on, and when I got to the Turkish cast-on part, I was just like "pffft... I can do this an easier way." So I tried k1fb to do the increases, until I got to the part where you do 12 increases at once. Yeah... that was a little tricky. I went back and actually learned the Turkish cast-on and guess what: it's totally easy! I was just over-thinking it. My advice: don't try to do it while reading the directions. Read the supplemental directions over once, then attempt it while looking at the example pictures in the pattern. The Turkish cast-on makes a lot of sense for this project.

I did the whole thing on dpn's, because I started out with no size 2 needles, and buying one set of dpn's was cheaper than buying a set of dpn's and two sets of circulars. But if I ever do this project or anything like it again, I will certainly get the circulars. I definitely got the gaps with the Turkish cast on as described on the Ravelry page, but that's almost certainly due to the fact that I used the dpn's throughout.

The applied I-cord is a pretty ingenious design. That's where I'm at now. I really need to hurry up though, because I wanted to give them to my boss before the baby arrived, and this baby is coming out any day now.

I am so obsessed with how cute these socks are. Here's one done!

I took this next picture when I was working the applied I-cord. I think this picture illustrates how much better it looks with the I-cord. It goes from having a messy-looking seam to looking like a real ducky foot!

In summary: I-cord is awesome. Ducky socks are extremely cute. I cannot wait to see how cute they look on the baby!

New Yarn!

As I've mentioned before, I love new yarn. Recycling is great, but nothing beats the feel of brand-new yarn. However, I rarely have enough money to buy new yarn for a big project. Well, someone who works in the Chemistry department with me is also a knitter, and bought a bunch of yarn for a blanket. She then discovered she hated the yarn, so she just gave it all to me! For free! I thought, wow, awesome, free brand new yarn. Well, let's take a look:

And there it is. Six skeins of Lion Brand Micro-Spun yarn of various colors. At first glance it's easy to figure out why it was given to me for free. It becomes un-spun at the drop of a hat.

 And I don't mean to be pretentious here but... it's acrylic so... yeah, ew. 

I'll still use it, that's for sure. For what, who knows. I'm a couple days into the Middlefield Sweater and I'm working about midway down the body of it so it will be a while before I can think of starting to use this stuff.

Speaking of the sweater, I'm starting to regret my haste in starting this project. It's pretty clear that there's a good chance I will run out of yarn, and since it's just from a taken-apart old sweater, there is no more. Making sweaters, especially from the neck-down I think, are arduous tasks. I'm afraid I will get to the second sleeve and then discover I'm out of yarn. Then I have to take it apart, again. That just sounds traumatic. We'll see, I guess! So far it's an easy sweater, though. Looking ahead, there's a fancy seam that I've never seen before. More on that when I get there.

New Book and Project

It's been way too hot for me in Madison these past couple of days. I have no a/c in my apartment, so after work I seek refuge in the library until the sun goes down. I woke up early this morning, unable to sleep through the heat, and started a new sweater: the Middlefield Pullover from New England Knits.

I originally got this book from the library to make a different project, but when I saw how many cool patterns there were in the book, I purchased a copy for myself. I'm making it out of the same recycled sweater yarn that I made Tosha's Scarf from (see Ravelry project.) I know I said previously that I would soon do a "from-start-to-finish" recycled sweater project, but I also decided that I would use up all of the yarn that I already have (which is a lot) before going out and getting any more. I plan on making this sweater, at least two others, and the hat and the scarf from this book (ambitious, I know.) So many cool projects! I'm so happy I bought this book.

Now that I think about it, it's kind of silly sounding that I'm making a sweater when it's 80 billion degrees outside. WHATEVER. I do what I want.

I'm making this with size 7's instead of the recommended 8's, because I'm a small person and I don't have size 8's, and the nearest knitting store is too far away to conveniently get to by bus, so the only other way I can get there is by bike, AND IT'S TOO HOT to do that. 7's it is!

How about that Ravelry hack? Weird. I changed my password, did you?

Food and You

I like food. I like making food, eating food at restaurants, and trying new things. I love going to Taste Spotting and making huge lists of dishes I want to make.

I like good food. Sometimes I like bad food, but rarely. I like things made out of quality ingredients. Real food. Food that comes from the ground, not a factory. I like giving my money to hard working farmers, not big corporations.

I stopped eating meat about 7 years ago after discovering how most meat is produced. It took a lot of will power to give up bacon, but now I don't even think about it anymore. I started contemplating incorporating meat into my diet again, as long as it was locally, and responsibly produced. I tried a buffalo burger last summer, but after 7 or so years of not eating meat, my stomach just couldn't take it. I've been cooking a lot of fish lately, because my stomach can handle fish, and because my favorite guy is a meat-eater and I have sympathy for him for all of the meat-free food I make. Unfortunately, eating a lot of fish from the midwest is NOT recommended because of how gross these lakes are.

I usually don't like talking about it, though, because I can very easily sound very preachy. So I'll leave it at that, and show you something I made super quick the other day:

Whitefish in a white wine sauce with sautéed mushrooms and broccoli and some cheese & baguette. It's super quick, here's how:
Cover the whitefish fillets in olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap them up in tin foil, and put them in the oven (375 F) for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the fillets. Meanwhile, measure a cup of cream (half & half works too) a cup of white wine, a tablespoon of flour and some parsley flakes into a saucepan and bring to a boil, then simmer until the fish is done.

I was doing this, then I was planning on roasting the mushrooms and broccoli, but I was running out of time so I decided to sauté them. Just some oil, salt, pepper, a little bit of garlic, and the veggies on a frying pan for a few minutes.

The cheese we had with this is my favorite. Goat cheese from the farmers' market.

Then, of course, there's the rest of the bottle of the white wine. I'm no wine snob (I kind of wish I was sometimes, though) so I usually just get what's on sale at the store.

What's the perfect activity for after eating a delicious meal like this? Watching Ancient Aliens, of course.

The Sweater-To-Sweater Conversion

I just finished my first sweater-to-sweater conversion. Meaning, I took apart an entire sweater and made a different sweater out of it. Sadly, I did not take any pictures, which I realize now was a huge mistake, but I had no idea it would turn out even slightly ok-looking. Here I'll go over the basic concepts of how to go about doing this, and next time I'll do more of a step-by-step.

Step 1: Picking out a sweater to take apart
There are certain qualities in a sweater that you have to look for when you want to take it apart (to make it into a sweater or anything else.) First and foremost: The seams. This has to do with the fundamentals of knitting. The most important rule is stay away from serged seams. Most of the time, when a sweater is constructed in pieces, the pieces are just sewed together. When this is the case, all you have to do is cut the pieces apart, and unravel the pieces. This way, you can (theoretically) unravel each piece of the sweater into one long piece of yarn. If you imagine a sweater (or any piece of knitted fabric) to be one piece of yarn, weaved back and forth, the process looks something like this barbaric paint drawing I made:

A serged seam is a kind of seam, made by a serger, that cuts the fabric while sewing it together. When this occurs, if you look at my crude drawing, it's pretty easy to see why this could be a problem. At each edge, the yarn is cut apart. Now you have a billion little fragments of yarn that are pretty useless.

 

 I'll upload some pictures of serged/not-surged seams with my next sweater project, but a simple Google search can be a big help.

Another basic rule-of-thumb that I follow is don't pick a sweater made up of yarn too light. Once a sweater is worn and washed for years, the yarn gets significantly weaker. You'll have to spend hours upon hours unraveling a sweater made up of fingerling-weight yarn, and I'll bet that it will break a lot in the process. It's a pain in the butt, so I do not recommend it. 

Now, because of my ideology, I have to stick in this rule: Try to buy an ugly sweater. Going to the thrift store generally guarantees that it's used, but if it's a cute sweater, there's a chance that someone will come in and buy it and actually wear the sweater. My big thought behind this project is to save sweaters from the land fill. Think of the principles of recycling, re-using comes before re-cycling. I've found many ugly sweaters that are made of quality, good-looking yarn. You just have to be able to see beyond the construction.

Step 2: Unraveling

The first thing you have to do to take apart a sweater is take it apart into it's components. Generally, a sweater is sewn together using thread that is a little different from the yarn the sweater is actually made up of. Identify this yarn, make a few snips and pull the fabric apart to see if it worked. If you can see the space between the pieces, you've found the seam thread, keep going. Cutting the knitted yarn a couple times is not the end of the world. 

Unravel the piece into a skein, not a ball right away. There's one additional step that I recommend.

After the piece is in a skein, it's time to wash it. Once you've gotten to this point, you probably think this yarn is too lumpy to work with. Here's a picture of a piece of a sweater unraveled into a skein before washing:

Take the skein, tied together at a few points, and put it in a sink filled with water and soap. You can use regular dish soap, or crazy-people soap like I did.

Swish it around a little bit, making sure all the yarn got soapy. Drain the soapy water and rinse the yarn thoroughly. Hang to dry! Here's what the same skein looked like after washing & drying:

Wow, what a difference! I have to say, washing is not completely necessary, but it does help a bunch. Now you can roll it up into a ball. Now you have a ball of yarn that you obtained for a tiny fraction of the price of buying it at the yarn store. In the above skein's case, this was a sleeve from a sweater I bought at Goodwill for $3.

Disclaimer: I love buying new yarn. Recycled yarn definitely isn't as nice as brand new right-off-the-alpaca yarn. But if I bought nice new yarn for every project I do, I would not have enough money to eat. Literally. I usually buy nice yarn when I'm knitting something for someone else as a gift. If you look at my Ravelry, you'll see that the mittens I made for my grandmother for mothers' day was new yarn, as well as the mittens I made for my sister for her birthday. I'll post some pictures of the sweater I made on Ravelry if you'd like to see the finished product. Stay tuned for a full step-by-step sweater-to-sweater conversion soon!