How easy Weezer makes it sound. Simply hold the thread as he walks away. Easy-peasy, no? No. It is not that easy to destroy a sweater. (And was he wearing a large, one-piece sweater and nothing else? Unravel the one garment and he's naked on the floor? Phppt.)

But it's not too difficult, either. Cut a few seam threads, tug here, tug there, and finally - you have a pile of something that was previously something whole. Yay.

Warning: This article is pic-laden, and may take a while on slow systems. Upgrade to DSL alreay. You have been forewarned.

Thanks to Alison for getting this party going and putting the ideas in my head. (Yes, I'm that easy to manipulate.) I'm all about the February Fix, but... nothing's broken. Or, more accurately, I've not knit anything for myself but one sweater, which I lurve. So if I can't rip out my stuff, I'll do the next best thing (or possibly the better thing): I'll thrift a sweater and rip it out!

I got my Blue's Clues

And, dah-lings, that's precisely what I done. Thanks to the Denton thrift, I was able to pick up two inexpensive sweaters in good shape that I can happily destroy. Note to other Texans: it is rare and a treasure to find actual wool sweaters at thrift stores, but it is possible.

The first is this 100% wool sweater (I believe it was Old Navy, but forgot to take pics of the label). I liked the heather-y blues and thought I might make Matty a pair of Fuzzy Feet. And for $3.49 it wasn't a bad deal.

The other sweater is a dark navy, 100% silk sweater for $.99. Yep, 99¢. Nine dimes and nine pennies. Less than one dollar US. And the silk yarn is in wonderful condition. But I can see why this got thrifted. The weight and drape of the yarn just doesn't work for this sweater, plus having to dry clean a sweater? Blah. I have great plans for this yarn; perhaps this.

such a wee bit o' thread

But this story is about rip #1: the blue wool. I followed all the great directions, and was easily able to rip out the sleeve and side seam thread. (And how great was it that one thread held both the sleeve AND the side seam? One.)

Going...

going...

gone.

waste to the right

The sleeves ripped pretty easily and I had v. little waste from it, just a bit on the shoulder seam, where there was some machine seaming. Instead of fiddling with the machine-made seams, I simply cut them out and didn't look back. Even on the neck and shoulders. I didn't want to waste the time or patience it would take to undo it all; besides, the waste was still minimal compared to the rewards I reaped.

I forgot to take the "bath" picture, but here are the other shots: spinning into a hank straight from the sweater (another benfit of the swift), hanging out to dry, and winding into balls.

ripping and winding

psycho pshower pscene

glory bit of sunshine

'balling' is much different that 'bawling'

Ah, the rewards!

I do admit that I was surprised at how fine a yarn this was. Oh-my! How could I have picked fingerling weight yarn as my first ripping project?! Arghh. But I did. Now I move on. This may mean, however, that it won't become Fuzzy Feet for da' Bonez, unless I hold 3 or 4 strands together while I knit. Instead, I'm considering a lacy shawl/wrap. What do y'all think?

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