Going Postal

I've been meaning to post an update about the weight of my recycled wool in the continuing saga of assessing my scale's accuracy.

The question: How does my $2.99 thrift find compare to its digital cousins?


Since my test skein didn't seem big enough to settle the issue, I took the entire batch of recycled wool to the post office to use the digital scales.

Twice.
The first trip, I used a table-top digital scale in the lobby. I was short on time, so I weighed the entire batch then each skein individually, noting the numbers, and headed out. When I got home, I realized the numbers from the individual weighings did not add up to the total amount I'd gotten on the same scale. The total had been 7.8 ounces, but the total from each individual weighing was just 5.8 ounces. Further investigation was required.

The second trip, I went for the big guns: The Automated Postage Center.


Ready for a surprise?

Not only did the APC weigh my wool differently (8.10 ounces), but when I re-weighed it all on the same table-top digital from the previous day, I got a different number (8.10 ounces)!

That's right, the smaller digital scale registered a different weight on two different days! I'm pleased that it and the APC were calibrated to give the same weight the second time I went in. However, I'm seriously wondering about the accuracy of all sorts of postage I've paid for other things!

In the end, I have learned a couple of useful things:
   1. On both the digital and my kitchen scale, I'll get a more accurate reading if I weigh like skeins together rather than individually.
   2. My $2.99 kitchen scale isn't perfect, but it's not horrible, either. It had given a total weight of 9 ounces. The APC gave 8.1, for a difference of 0.9 ounces. That's about a 10-percent variable. Definitely close enough for most of what I do. If that changes, I'll probably cave and get a digital scale.


How much yarn, finally, do I think I salvaged in my first thrifted-sweater attempt? Something between 1,180 and 1,360 yards.

Pretty good no matter how you weigh it — and if I need more precision, I can always go postal!

How To Prep A Tidy Sock Project /Coffee Makes Everything Better

I've learned some great things about knitting from my co-Raveling sister:
   1. How to knit socks.
   2. How to work magic loop.
   3. How to knit socks toe-up using magic loop and Judy's magic cast on.
   4. Addi Turbos rock for magic loop.
   5. KnitPicks Options rock even more.

This tip from her is my current favorite:
   6. How to keep two-at-once sock projects portable, neat, and tangle-free.

Recognize my Monkeys?
I'm about to start the toe decreases!

Instructions:

1. Get a sturdy, clear-plastic, zip-top bag large enough for two hand-pull skeins of sock yarn. The one pictured here came from Weaving Works, one of the many fine LYSs here in Seattle. I imagine you can find these bags any number of places.

2. Using a hole-puncher, put two holes — evenly spaced — in the bottom. If it's a round- or flat-bottom bag, you'll need to make a little fold where you want to punch the hole.

3. Put something on or in the bag to differentiate one side from the other (i.e. a sticker on one of the sides or a picture of your pattern on the inside). I like to use the manufacturer's case for my needles, if I'm using Addis. For awhile, though, the price sticker on the bag did the trick.

4. Put your 2 skeins of yarn inside the bag so the "marker" is on top, pull each end through its respective hole, and zip the bag.

When you're working magic loop, you'll always know when you're at the beginning of a round based on whether the marked side is up or whether the two strands of yarn leading to the bag run parallel or are crossed.

This technique can be a real lifesaver if you're working an allover stockinette pattern for your socks. Everything stays tidy, and when you're done for the day, you can pack up the knitting into the bag as well. Just be sure not to zip it closed over top of your yarn!



If you don't want to spend the $1.63 for a bag like this, with a real zipper, use a standard zip-lock storage bag. You'll want at least the quart size, not only because it will hold more but also because the plastic is a little more durable.

The set-up above works really great if you're not reinforcing the heels and toes. But when you add the two additional yarns for reinforcing, it can get messy.

I tried two solutions, both of which failed. First, I put the reinforcing threads inside the bag using the same holes as for the normal yarn. But the fibers didn't pull evenly, and I ended up with all sorts of rolling. Next, I left the reinforcing thread outside the bag. But this way, the yarn cards (or miniscule skeins) flop and roll all over the place. Completely destroys your chances of knitting on the bus!

The solution?

Espresso!

Seriously.

I solved the problem quite by accident. I wanted to have two sock projects going at once and needed a second bag. I remembered the stack of fantastic little bags my favorite espresso beans come in, which I had been saving for a good way to re-use.

Let's face it — for a true coffee connoisseur and knitting enthusiast, it's a yummylicious match made in heaven!


WARNING! Shameless commercial plug: Espresso Vivace is, IMO, the finest roaster in Seattle. We get their decaf (i.e. let me sleep) and vita (i.e. wake me up) beans, and we go through about a half pound of each every week. Needless to say, the bags pile up. I just can't bring myself to get rid of them, even through recycling, because they're so nice. I'd already been using them to store remnants from knitting projects. I realized they were great candidates for sock project bags.


What makes these bags special — and, thus, provided my lightbulb moment — is the pressed "selvage" around the edges. I like the bottom construction, too, because they stand upright, but that's beside the point. When I punched for the two holes (in the side rather than the bottom of these bags), I made not two openings but four: two stacked sets of two.


So now I load the center-pull skeins of yarn into the bag, with the skein top facing the punched hole, and I pull the working thread through the upper hole. I wind the reinforcing thread off the cards into little center-pull skeins (often I just divide one card's worth in half to do both) and load these in front of the main yarn, pulling the tails through the bottom set of holes.

The two threads don't tangle around each other, and the reinforcing thread doesn't bound freely across the room or bus!


You're right: I could have had this brainstorm, eventually, without the coffee. But I didn't. It took the beans.

Speaking of which, Vivace does sell its beans online. You can get them (and thus your own nifty bags) here. Believe me: It's worth every penny!

Just make sure to wash the bags well before putting your yarn in them. You'll want to remove all the coffee oils and smell. (Well, if you're like me, you don't mind a little lingering coffee aroma.) I've had the best success turning mine inside-out and running them through the dishwasher on the top rack.

Not interested in buying the coffee but like the bags? I've got a few extras. Pop me an email with your address, and I'll send one.

Hanging in the Balance

Some things take persistence. Determining the accuracy of my $2.99 thrift-store kitchen scale, it seems, is one of them.


The plan was simple: Make a test skein of my thrifted wool. Measure the yardage. Weigh it at home. Weigh it at the post office. Calculate the difference and note it as a statistical variance on my scale.

Test skein = 46.5 yds
Weight on Kitchen Scale = 10 g
Weight on Post Office Scale = 0.3 oz (8.50485 g)

5.4675 yds/g, which is more than the 4.65 yds/g I thought.

Difference = 1.5 g — more than 10%

It is a statistically significant amount: If I were calculating yardage based upon weight, I would have been off by 6.975 yds just on this little test skein. Potentially 177.9 yds on the entire 9 ounces recycled.

I decided that I can't decide yet whether this is acceptable. I need more research. This time, I'll take the entire batch to the digital scale to find out if the variance is the same with a larger weight.

Inaugural Spring Yarn Resurrection

Easter Sunday seems a fitting time to post an update on my first yarn reclamation project.


In my previous post about this project, I had spent a fruitful morning ripping the heck out of a black New Shetland wool crew neck, and the fiber needed washed.

The neat little center-pull balls I'd made had to be re-wound into hanks suitable for washing. So Friday evening, after confessing to my husband that I'd embarked on another cool, new project, I enlisted the help of my entire family. We wound the yarn onto our arms — electrical-cord style — which lasted all of about 10 minutes before we all had aching muscles, and I lost my two helpers! After another 5 minutes' struggle against the burn, I became brilliant and started winding the yarn around the plastic box I carry knitting projects in, rather than my left arm. This worked really well and made hanks with a larger diameter. By night's end, I had five noodly looking hanks tied figure-eight style with scrap Cascade Ecological from the Hemlock Ring.


It's important to use colorfast scrap yarn to avoid accidents in the wash.

I filled the kitchen sink with very hot tap water and a dab of C's No More Tearski shampoo. Who wants weepy wool?!
At 9:30pm, I submerged the hanks and left them to soak while I went off to knit, figuring I'd come back in a couple hours to rinse and hang it to dry. Yeah, right... I was knitting in bed...

With a jolt, I awoke at 5am, realized I hadn't tended to the yarn, and ran to the kitchen in a panic that I'd find a swollen mess of unsalvagable yarn muuuhhhhh. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. With great care, I rinsed and squeezed the yarn as quietly as possible so as not to awaken my sleeping family... or yappy dog... and hung it in the bathtub. The next morning, I transferred the yarn from our bathroom to the back deck. Doesn't yarn drying in the sunlight look glorious?!





We managed time enough to have it dry and get it back inside before the rains came, and last night J and I wound it back into center-pull balls. I made two mistakes of judgment in how well the yarn could handle turning the swift, so where once I had 5 skeins, I now have 7. The biggest problem was that the hanks just weren't quite large enough for the swift. We did best with J holding them and me operating the ball winder.

After about 20 minutes' work, we had this:


Here's one really important tip, especially when working with finer yarn: Mark the ends so you don't lose them! I used Scotch tape.


I know it doesn't look pretty, but the tape has been invaluable. With all the waves in this yarn, it's almost impossible to find the ends otherwise.

Last night, after helping Peter Cottontail hide eggs for C, I assessed how much usable wool I had culled. Mind you, the calculations may be impressive, but this isn't quite an exact science yet because, while some of you use fancy digital scales to weigh your yarn, I use this:


My $2.99 Value Village bargain. Thank you to whatever erstwhile dieter donated this gem! It's quite large, and I love the big bowl, rather than a platform for keeping whatever I'm weighing contained. (Apologies for the finger smudges.) But it's a temperamental beast, needing recalibrated several times during a single weighing. So I consider these "ballpark" numbers. For final counts, I'll take my test skein to the automated postal center at the end of my street.

For now, here's what I have:

My test skein measured 46.5 yards and weighed 10 grams on the kitchen scale — roughly 4.65 yards/gram.

I've washed and wound 9 total ounces of yarn. At 28.3495231 grams/ounce, that's 255.14571 grams.

Calculating out further, then, my total reclaimed yardage is about 1,186.

Not bad, eh?!

And that's just what I've processed. I still have several smaller skeins that are thoroughly usable and just need prepared — at least another 4 ounces. Probably more.

You may be thinking that I could have gotten a comparable amount of fingering weight New Shetland wool for about the same price (remember, I paid $9.99 for the sweater) and without all the hassle. That may be true, but I selected this sweater for the experiment more than for the value. Next time I'll try different yarn or a different sweater. Perhaps the sweater I select will be marked down further. For now, I'm feeling great about what I've learned and gotten out of this.

Now... to figure out a project. The yarn's a little too fine for the satchel J wants to make, so I'm looking at doing a shawl. Perhaps the Candle Flame or the Moonlight Sonata. Thoughts?

This project has been so successful that I think I'm going to start an annual Great Yarn Resurrection Campaign every spring!

Busy Hands

Finished the Hemlock Ring blanket last night. Took more than four total hours to complete that bind-off row! Not one to stay idle long, I started two new projects right away. The first: a Berroco pattern called Sacha's Slippers.


I had picked up a few skeins of Berroco Suede at a deeply discounted price a couple weekends ago when J and I were hanging out at the Acorn Street Yarn Shop during C's Irish Step lesson. (A dangerous habit we indulge weekly!) I had no idea what I might do with the yarn, but I liked the color, I wear a lot of suede, and I trusted I would find something. A little searching turned up these slippers and a lariat necklace in a leaf motif. I think I have yarn enough for both!

It's been ages since I’ve worked on straights or done a two-of-a-kind project one at a time. When I saw that the pattern requires you to join a second skein to work the sides, I didn’t feel like dividing skeins. So here I am with a single, partially finished slipper!



The slippers seem to move quickly. The pics show about 2 hours’ work while watching TV (WWWTV). Right now I think it looks more like a Barbie dress or a flamboyant man's tie than a slipper.

The second project is more of an adventure than anything. I've been interested in the idea of recycling yarn from thrifted sweaters for awhile. Last spring, my MIL and I felted some thrifted sweaters for various projects (including a nifty laptop case for me!). So I popped by Value Village on my way home from work Wednesday to see if there were any good potentials. There were. I could have brought home a dozen things. I decided to play it cool and pick one, safe bet to see if I liked the endeavor. $9.99 later, I walked out with this:


A nearly new crew-neck in black New Shetland Wool. This morning I set about deconstructing it. Seam ripper in-hand and website tutorial in front of me, I fearlessly set to work. Just taking the pieces apart took a little longer than I expected. Even though I had "good seams" to work with, I had a lot of trouble seeing the crochet line at the seams so I could just unzip it. As a result, I did a lot of piece-by-piece cutting. I mangled the neckline, too, but figured that was ok since I could cut that off without creating a bazillion little pieces like would happen if I were working on the side seams.

And, hey, I only gouged myself with the seam ripper twice!

I checked gauge on the original knit before beginning:


Looks like 6 stitches and 7.5-8 rows per inch to me. You?

The yarn is much more delicate than I expected. It's definitely sport/light worsted or DK weight, if not fingering. Looks like it gets 14-15 wpi.

Things I learned:

Try to get sweaters with heftier fiber until I get better at the reclaiming process.

This job is messy! My goodness — the yarn dust floating in the air while I frogged the thing was amazing. Like a mini storm in my dining room. Not only was I covered with the stuff, but later that night I found myself blowing black dust out of my nose. It was almost as bad as when J and I removed cork from the solarium walls at our house in Ohio!

I used my ball winder to help move the frogging process along — and I highly recommend that. This yarn sometimes broke, though, when I was winding faster than the fiber wanted, so I have a higher number of skeins than I might have otherwise. Even with all my rookie mistakes and the pile of useless, too-short-to-mention ramen noodly-looking fiber littering the table, I got about 12 ounces of usable yarn broken down into one 3-ounce ball and several 2- to 1.5-ounce ones.

I still need to re-wrap into hanks and wash it.

What will I do with it? J's been thinking about making a cool monk's satchel, and this yarn fits the profile. I'll give it to him if he wants it. Otherwise, I think it will make up into a shawl and/or some dynamite socks — perhaps even a pair for J, who's asserted his belief that men only wear socks without color. [Sigh.] Enlightenment has its limits!