Recycling yarn

#1

I realy like the idea of recylcing yarn, it’s been mentioned a few times, particularly for those of us who are on a bit of a budget, but im just not sure how to go about it.
If i have say a sweater, and i like the yarn, how do i get the arn out of the sweater, without ending up with just a pile of tatty bits? i assume you need to cut somewhere but i can’t for the life of me fingure out where is ‘safest’.

any tips from you thrify knitters would be most apreciated, then i can start on my yarn recycling crusade. the charity shops won’t know whats hit them!:knitting:

#2

Try this link. It has detailed information.

#3

I took apart a short sleeve jacket thing that I had knitted. I think it helped that I had knitted it, so I knew where to start. What I learned: start with the seams and see if you can pick those apart first. Then pick apart your end stitch and start pulling. The yarn I used (a ribbon yarn) came apart pretty quickly and easily, but others might snag and get attach to each other. I wound balls as I pulled. (I took the sweater apart on a night when I had insomnia - once I got the seams figured out, it didn’t take too much brain power.) I did end up cutting one seam where I couldn’t get the yarn unknotted.

#4

Yes, undo the seams, usually they’re stitched with a chain stitch with yarn that’s a little thinner, so sometimes you can just zip it off. Undo the neckband, then you have the pieces. Most sweaters you find at the thrift shop are knit the same way we would do them - from the bottom up. So look for bound off sts at the top of each piece and that’s where you’d start unraveling from.