I recently received this email from Gloria and thought it should be included. (I am having trouble getting the size and font adjusted, so I hope this is readable), Bonnie
I had done some sweater recycling in the past - I had (purposely) felted sweaters for various projects and once or twice I unravelled sweaters to get yarn for knitting. But I had never thought of reclaiming cashmere yarn for weaving until I found out about you. In fact, I decided to give a program on thrift store recycling at my weaving and spinning guild. I am so glad you gave such a clear procedure and covered so many points in the May WeaveZine article; I reviewed your description and links before going. The presentation went very well. One long-time weaver commented that she had wanted to do this but didn't know how to deconstruct the sweater; since she didn't knit, she didn't know how to convert it into flat pieces for unraveling. Most of the knitters didn't know about the chain stitch edging, and I especially liked your tip about unraveling in the direction of the v's or "arrows". A few members brought sweaters with them and started the deconstruction process.
Actually, this program gave our guild the best publicity we've had in a while. We always send our program info to the neighborhood papers, and one saw the trendy recycling vibe and wrote up a nice piece on the guild. There was some unintended humor; for some reason it mentioned that I "regularly go to thrift stores!" Not true, but I do admit it's been fun hunting for cashmere! Gloria
