I love my Finish or Frog It group on Ravelry. We support each other to either finish a project or even to frog it. If you're new to knitting, frogging a project is when you rip it out (rip it, rippit, ribbit...) thus "frogging" it. I haven't actually frogged anything in a very long time. But since 2016 is the Year of the Purge, I spent Tuesday cleaning up my Knit Nook a bit. I found a wayward chemo hat from 2004 that was still unfinished, still ugly, still not working and still on the needles. It was such a pretty red yarn that I always thought I would finish it. I was about to throw it away (because sometimes that is the answer) when I saw the yarn label. It was the very same as the last two Rikke Hats I made in teal blue. I immediately knew I had to salvage the yarn. So I began to rip it out.
Duke and Otis helped me frog this old seed stitch hat project that was doomed from the start. Sorry. I love red - but you know it doesn't photograph well.
After I carefully frogged the project and wound the yarn around the backs of two chairs, I used a natural cotton to tie the hank together in 4 separate places to keep it together. Duke was intensely curious about this.
"Mama - it looks like Ramen noodles, but it doesn't smell like food."
Two skeins, side-by-side, ready to be soaked and straightened so the yarn can be repurposed and knit into a new hat.
It always looks like too much gentle detergent - but the suds quickly dissipate. I let the lovely red yarn soak for twenty minutes per skein. I only soaked one skein at a time to avoid tangling the two.
Here are the two finished hanks of yarn, nice and straight, drying on some kitchen cabinet hooks. Normally I would add a very light weight to the end to help straighten the yarn, but this yarn didn't need it. And you might notice it already grew quite a bit when it soaked. In fact, it was too large a loop for my swift, so I had to put this around two chairs again and feed it by hand to my ball winder to make two lovely balls of yarn.
Yes it's a lot of work to repurpose yarn. It's not arduous. It doesn't require any real talent. It only begs a little patience and order to give new life to old yarn. Since I loved the weight and feel of the Adrienne Vittadini Martina from BF Sweater and the two recent Rikke Hats, I knew it was worth the effort.
There you have it. I hope you enjoyed this photutorial. What yarn will you be repurposing next?
Beautiful work. Love the color. IM repurposing our coffee grounds every day in the yard.
Posted by: kathy b | Saturday, January 23, 2016 at 13:10
Great work! And you know you can frog directly onto your swift, right? That way the skeins are the right size. Just hold the project in one hand (or put it on the floor and step on just the edge to hold it), and crank the swift.
Posted by: Lorette | Friday, January 22, 2016 at 13:18
Hi,
Thought I would add a little to repurposing and Major did every bit of the process correctly. This should always be done with yarn; that has been sitting in stash for years, too. The soak is also a time to add white vinegar if yarn bleeds to set the dye. How much vinegar just a little per soak until the water is clear or up to one eight of a cup per basin. Repeat if needed. Finish with a sudsy soak to remove vinegar oder.
Posted by: Cheryl ravelry cherylVirginiad | Friday, January 22, 2016 at 12:01
Sometimes you have to let a project sit long enough in order to forget the effort and time you put into it before you frog it...just to be sure you're doing the right thing.
I may have to join your group to motivate myself to take care of a few unfinished projects.
Posted by: Tracy Batchelder | Friday, January 22, 2016 at 08:49