First Unravel

On my most recent visit to a local thrift store it was a particularly hot day and they had a large box of sweaters sitting outside marked at 25cents each. I grabbed a few nice wool ones for an experiment in unraveling. If you read my previous post, Drop Spindle Experiments, you'll know that I was playing around with the idea of recycling and repurposing old woolen items. So this is my first project and though not completely finished yet I couldn't wait to share.

I started out with this grey vest.

It's a nice soft gray, speckled in reds, blues and yellows.

Extra large and 100% Shetland Wool.

I started by opening up the seems

The ribbed neckline and armholes were separate so they were the first to be unraveled and rewound. Each of these three center pull balls is about 56 yards of fingering weight. When I've finished unraveling the entire vest I may ply it together on my drop spindle for a more easily used yarn or I might leave it at this weight for something warm and thin, perhaps mittens or socks.

7 Months

My little girl hit 7 months on my first Mother's Day and I can't get over how much she has grown and changed since we brought her home! She's now 11 lbs 8 oz and she is my little piggy, she eats eats eats and is always ready for more! We got a lovely crib for free last week and yesterday I got it set up next to our bed as a sort of "co-sleeper" hopefully I can transition her to sleeping over there, as she gradually eats less at night I think it will get easier.  The room feels a bit more crowded the bed is bigger so that at least is nice!

No Photo Update

No pictures, the only real difficulty I've had "blogging with a baby" is finding the time to take cool pictures. But it's been too long since I posted last and if I don't post something soon I'll roll into a non-blogging slump. It's been busy this month ... well last month actually, hard to believe it's May already! We took a trip to D.C. And then to Philly for my sister(in law)s bay shower, which was really a lot of fun, I had been dreading both of those as Guin doesn't go for car rides, she's not that baby you drive around just so she will sleep. Despite all that she travelled really well and the only problem we had was exhaustion from not getting a nap all day.

Last week I also had a pretty exiting trip to a local second hand store I'd never been to before, perhaps sometime I'll post pictures of my haul but for now I'll just tell you about it! I found some nice wool sweaters some of which I plan to keep and some I plan to unravel and re-use, at 25 cent each I couldn't resist. I also found a couple shirts and the grand finally which has me quite excited ... a 4 pelt sheep skin rug in great condition for only $30! It could do with a rinse, fresh air and a fluffing, but is all in all in great condition and for something like 10% the original price.

Well let's see now what else? My little girl has been eating anything I'll feed her (except green beans) and I think will probably be crawling soon. Today has been good so far I managed to cook and mash up some sweet potato and also some pear for freezing, hopefully I can do some banana too!

The garden is looking lovely with all the rain we've been having, seedlings sprouting lettuce growing well, radishes, peas, onions and garlic sprouting higher and the trees and grass as green as green can be! I guess that's all for now, if my sleepy baby will actually start sleeping at nap time maybe the next post will have some pictures!

Drop Spindle Experiments

kurdistan woman

I recently learned about drop spindle spinning and I am so excited about it! I was at an old wood resale place a few weeks back and I noticed a spinning wheel and I realized that I don't actually know much about spinning and I decided that I probably should! Up till this point I had never heard of nor seen anything about drop spindle spinning though apparently  it is one of the oldest and most commonly used methods for turning wool into usable yarn. As I did my research and learned more about this art, I realized that I had to try it! But how could I "get my feet wet" without paying to much for the water. It's one thing to spend a lot of money on something you know you're good at and you know you love, it's another to spend it on a whim that you might end up hating. Besides all that, it's really just not my style! So I began thinking about what yarn is traditionally made from. Sheep's wool is a given, but I have no sheep, angora rabbits, alpacas ... but what else has soft fluffy warm fur? Cats, dogs... I used to have a cat similar to a Norwegian Forest Cat she had the most lovely long soft gray fur. Dogs such as collies, retrievers, hurding dogs and huskies also tend to have a lot of long fluffy fur! 

twining on a drop sindle

This however interesting still wasn't helping my cause much as I don't currently have any pets, fluffy or otherwise. So my thought process continued on to natural fiber, cotton and flax. Well near my house grows a lot of milkweed, and to be honest I know a lot of people with fluffy dogs. But it would probably be a long time before I ever get around to any of that. Drop spindles however, are also very good for twining. So I decided to make my own very ruff Turkish Spindle to give it a try and it was amazingly satisfying and relaxing, which in turn turned my thoughts to recycling and reusing. Why not take old, used, ugly, stained or holey sweaters, scarves and other knitwear from say your local thrift store. Simple wash, unravel, dye and re-twine to make new yarn that you can knit or crochet with! Here are my two cheaply made Turkish  spindles, one is made from sticks and string the other from tongue depressors and a chopstick!

ThredUP thoughts

I'm sure you've seen the advertisements, they seem to be everywhere! ThredUP is the new big thing on the block. They claim to have everything you love about thrift shopping and online shopping all in one place, not only can you buy but you can also sell and their prices are supposedly AMAZING!

So my thoughts? I have to check it, right. So I head on over to their sight to see what I can see. Now for any of you who know me, you know I love a good deal! I am all about sharing cloths, hand-me-downs, thrift shopping and consignment. Over the past 5 years I've grown to appreciate this aspect of American culture even more (second hand is not a thing in China). But when I got to thredUP I must admit I was shocked ... almost sickened by the prices on there items $20, $50, $100 or more. Just a few months back I was complaining that the thrift store prices had all gone up to $2 or $3 per shirt. 

As I was fuming and thinking about the outrageousness of it all, a thought occurred to me. I would never buy from thredUP but perhaps I could sell to them. If they are charging $10-$30 or more on every item, they must be buying for a good amount. As I investigated I found that the things they are willing to sell for over $20 they will only pay you about $2 for. Well, that just about did it for me and then I noticed something that was just to much! Wrinkles! A sweater, a J. Crew cardigan for $20.99 covered in wrinkles! If they don't take the time to even make their photos presentable .... All I can say is their advertising seems to be the only thing they have done a good job with.

I don't think I will ever buy from ThredUP, and I don't think I'd sell to them either. Have you tried it? What are your thoughts?