Guest Author - Kate Pullen

Perhaps you have crocheted an item which is slightly less successful than you hoped – or maybe you’ve stumbled upon an old sweater which was crocheted in finest silk. Rather than waste the yarn – why not unpick it and prepare it for reuse. Not only does this give you a handy addition to your yarn stash without it costing money (which is good news by anyone’s judgment!) it is also a great way to recycle old clothes. Take a look out in charity shops or boot sales for old woolen garments – hand knitted or crocheted are best as you know they have been created in one piece and not cut from knitted fabric. Any yarn will be great for recycling, however the real treasures will be finding a cashmere sweater, or other luxury yarn. Don’t worry if the colors are not quite right – you can always over dye the yarn and create your own custom colors.

First gently wash the item to be unpicked. It is a lot easier to wash it while it is a single piece! Gently, in warm water, wash wool so as not to felt it, let it dry and then start the unpicking! To unpick the item, look carefully at the work. With a jumper you are likely to need to unpick the seams at the shoulder first, which may entail unpicking the collar. You are reversing the normal construction process! When the garment is in pieces either find a knot or snip into the top row and start to unravel the yarn. Wind it into skeins (the easiest way to do this is winding it between elbow and thumb). Loosely tie some thread or yarn around the skeins in three or four places to stop them from becoming tangled.

When the yarn is unraveled it is time to prepare it for reuse. Now – if you are like me you will think that just unraveling the yarn is all that is required to be done and will start using the kinked yarn. Don’t! Using kinked yarn to knit or crochet will give you uneven stitches; the kinks will misshape and distort the yarn so when it is next washed you will find that your stitching is very random! Yes, I am speaking through bitter experience! Before reusing the yarn you need to rid if of it’s kinks. To do this, simply thoroughly wet the skeins. Do not overly agitate them or they will felt, however squeeze the yarn tightly to ensure that it is thoroughly soaked. When you are happy that the skeins are completely wet, give each one a sharp ‘tug’ to pull out any remaining kinks and then hang to dry. It is absolutely fine to put your skeins into the spinning program on your washing machine – however DO NOT use the tumble dryer, your wool will felt!

When dry you should have lovely smooth skeins of yarn, ready to wind into balls for use! Dye it or crochet it with other yarns to give a whole different feel to the yarn.