One of the most challenging things of the recent apartment spruce-up was finding boxes. But I’ve discovered that every cloud almost always has a silver lining. Having to move a couple of big bookcases so work could be done on the walls behind them meant whatever was inside had to be moved.
And, before they could be moved, sigh, everything had to be packed up…
For awhile, I had a nice little source-stream going on with the corner grocery guy, who was saving mid-size boxes from delivered liquid products for me. Not only are they very strong, they’re not humongous so they can be easily moved by womankind when filled! Even though I had quite a few, after serious packing and loading, I simply ran out of time (and boxes). So then, I started raiding my closets. I figured any “soft” stuff that was packed up could live for awhile in bags, while their boxes did their duty elsewhere.
And that’s how I found this:
Voila! Silver lining!
I came up with almost enough boxes to do the job but at the last minute, I confess, I was stuffing DVD’s and remnants (oops, forgot about the TV cabinet being moved) into any bags I could get my hands on. ;p
Now, these lovely skeins weren’t always so glorious. This yarn started out as various knitted pieces for samples of designs in development, and have been ingloriously “lounging” in a dark pile for quite awhile. It isn’t uncommon for there to be several partial versions of something before it hits the runway — my personal best so far is six. These could be a orphaned front, or an upper bodice, or a sleeve. The lovely turquoise yarn was a whole sweater that came in from an outsourcing try, but it turned out to have been knit at a gauge much smaller than what the pattern actually called for, so it was packed up for a rainy day.
And that day has come! I am having a love affair with the *color* grey and decided to re-purpose that yarn for another design. I had several skeins of unused yarn of that dye lot but needed to round up for the win!
So to the Frog Pond we went…
From the archives: here’s my way unscientific process for Recycling…
Just click on the pictures for a larger version and I apologize in advance for the fuzzy slippers. ;p
How to Recycle Yarn
 |
Frog the pieces by using a standard center-pull ball winder. This *un-zips* the yarn in a very neat way in no time at all. |
|
|---|---|---|
 |
Re-skein the yarn neatly and quickly using a swift. Mark the shaft of the swift so you can set up a standard-sized skein every time. Use one hand to turn the swift from the top, and one hand to keep an even tension on the yarn coming off the ball. |
|
 |
Here’s a re-skeined ball. Tie the skein will in several places (I like 3) for stability during washing & drying using some scrap yarn in a contrasting color (see big picture above)… |
|
 |
Here’s all the ingredients: ball winder, swift, frogged balls of yarn & re-skeined balls… |
Voila! All that is left is to wash the skeins a enjoy the view as they dry…
as a nearly complete aside I HAVE THE SANE BALL WINDER!! and it’s nice to see someone else with it too.
On topic, the yarns you found are gorgeous and i’m about the same colour as a frog with envy.
HA! That little ball winder has seen more action and abuse without failing than any other tool besides some of my needles. I love it!