The Yarn Reclamation Project
A pile of my pattern samples ready to become part of my Yarn Reclamation Project
I think we can all agree that yarn crafting in all its form is brilliant! It’s great for our mental health and soothes our anxieties, it taps into our creative souls and it’s a wonderful way to spend our time. It can also be a very easy way to spend our money as our bank accounts can attest on a fairly regularly basis.
Potentially it can be a very expensive hobby and although yarn comes in a wide range of prices and a wide range of fibres, buying anything is a drain on your hard earned cash. And at a time when our disposable income is being squeezed left, right and centre this could prove to be quite worrying to our yarn loving hearts.
But rejoice! For our craft is highly versatile, yarn can be repurposed and there are various of ways to get good quality yarn without handing over any more money. We can raid our long forgotten works in progress or we can even look in our own wardrobes and pick out knitted items that we don’t really wear anymore, perhaps are unwanted gifts or have seen better days (I have a couple of those!) But I also have a few pattern samples that have just been living in a box. All we need to do is reclaim the yarn by unravelling it, turning it into hanks, washing it, drying it, and balling it/caking it back up so that we can create something entirely new.
Unfortunately, as with so many things, the “all we need to do” does require a bit of effort. The entire process is quite labour intensive and time consuming, but it’s incredibly satisfying. I do have a separate post prepared on the exact process which I will be posting in a few days. But the fact that you’re taking an item that may not be getting as much love as it should (or maybe it’s had a little too much love over the years), processing it and creating something brand new without detriment to landfills or our bank accounts, is something really exciting that we should all take pride in doing.
So why did I decide to repurpose my box dwelling samples rather than simply selling them?
As a knitwear designer, I make my living by selling knitting patterns and the samples for my patterns are a lovely, but costly byproduct of the design process. To be honest, I don’t think I could ever afford to knit up every design that is in my head (wouldn’t it be amazing if I could!?). But recently, a number of family, household maintenance and cost of living reasons have all struck at the same time, and I’ve had to redirect my sales income, which usually funds my yarn, to other more pressing costs. This funding hole not only has to be filled, but also replenished by doing what I do best: designing and selling my patterns. And when I thought about it, I had 10 skeins plus of excellent quality yarn tied up in samples which are too big for me to wear. Yes I could have sold the samples and that may have brought in a bigger sum up front, but it’s one off income, I’d need a buyer and there’s no guarantee that someone wants a particular pattern sample in the yarn I’ve used. They’re more likely to buy the pattern and knit it in whatever yarn they choose because the pattern isn’t going anywhere…just the sample! And this is how my Yarn Reclamation Project came to be. But also as a blogger, I feel that sharing my reclaimed projects with you all is a way of showing that there are alternatives to buying new yarn so that we can all continue crafting away, at a time when we’re all having to watch the pennies.
Now you may be thinking, “But what if it’s hand dyed yarn? How is this supporting the dyers?” Well, as any small business owner will tell you, there are numerous ways to support them. Buying from them is obviously a big win, but you can share their work and mention them on social media to help them reach a bigger audience of potential buyers. And I will be doing just that. I will be sharing the projects individually from the original pattern sample through to the new pattern sample on the blog and on Instagram. I will mention them in my recommended yarns on my patterns. Basically I will do exactly what I would do if I’d ordered brand new squish!
I hope you will find this series of blog posts useful and maybe encourage you to do the same. I’d certainly love to see your own Yarn Reclamation Projects and show them off here or in one of my newsletters. Plus don’t forget if you use one of my patterns with your reclaimed yarn, your finished object may end up in my Creative Customer Gallery and you’ll get a 20% discount code for use on any of my other patterns!
But for now, look out for my Yarn Reclamation Process blog post in a few days and also the first of my Yarn Reclamation Projects which sees the sample for my Scarf Number 4 which used The Sun from Yarn Whisperer’s Tarot collection (it’s the sample on the very top of the pile in the image above) and I’m turning into one of the next pattern samples in my Drop Collection. There will be a blog post, but make sure you’re following me on Instagram for more updates.
Until next time…