Tag Archives: thrift store sweater

In knitting knews

My knitting project monogamish practice continues – it’s been around a year, and my number of projects has dropped and remained stable – I still need some variety for finger comfort, portability, and a very small allowance for rodent brain, but hopefully I won’t have any more years long sweaters in which my body/tastes change in the duration.

Rocco got a new sweater made from the sleeve of N’s old sweater during the last days of winter.

I just picked up stitches from the wide unraveled end, joined, and knit round and round, reducing for a bit to snug up the neck. Then picked up stitches at the waist for a belly band. Done.

The yarn to add the extra bits was the unraveled stuff, so it matches and looks like a legit dog sweater rather than a sleeve with just a few evenings worth of work.

Also from the previous previous post, I finished a summer cardigan in time to wear it for the appropriate season.

It’s a super-easy Amiga in the discontinued yarn “Bamboucle” from Elsebeth Lavold, which is a shame since it’s a good one (so far) – interesting texture, and a comfortable cotton/bamboo/linen/nylon blend. I got it in a remainder bin X years ago, and didn’t quite have enough, so I shortened the front bands in order to get 3 or so more inches of essential butt-covering length. So it’s slightly odd (vaguely tuxedo-shaped?) in appearance, but perfect for office air conditioning.

There’s a good chance I’ll make another one of these, but the next one will be slightly sized up (I had some funny numbers in between two sizes), and the front bands will be full-length. My other mods of narrowing the sleeves after the elbows and taking out waist shaping (was it in the pattern? maybe not) will stay, and buttons will be up for grabs – this one doesn’t have them. I think I need to thrift another cotton sweater first, but I do have a weird sparkly green one that would be good held with something else.

And speaking of unraveled thrift sweater knits, my mom got a Rosa’s Caponcho earlier this year too.

I loooove this pattern – easy, fast, and practical – I’ll probably make another for myself at some point – it’s great for handspun. This one is from an old favorite wooly commercial sweater that became too tight in the bust and a little too short, and a thin strand of a few plys of black nylon? and one of metallic from a thrifted ribbed turtleneck.

Currently on the needles: a handspun shawl, giant handspun blanket, dog cushion, scarf that might get frogged and is mostly a travel knit, and the ubiquitous pair of socks that just need long cuffs are now mostly beach knitting.

Spinning has ended for the season, and sewing has been in a suspended state of I want to do it, but I run of of time every day – the garden and tiresome office work is mostly to blame…

(This post brought to you by yet another morning/day home with the plumber…)

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Filed under knitting, recycling, thrifting

Favorite sweater re-do, third time around

My favorite old cardigan was due for another round of repairs.

cardigan full

The elbow patch I put on a couple years ago was no longer covering all of the worn areas on one arm, and the other finally gave out.

New England-elbow

So I returned the sweater to a more somber state with matching charcoal elbow patches from a thrifted felted sweater.

oldsweater-elbows

(And our “cloakroom” doorway ended up being the perfect place for a vintage curtain I’ve had for years.)

I sewed up a few holes in the cuffs and weak spots in the arms – thankfully the nubby fabric is entirely forgiving and I didn’t need to worry about making perfect mends.

But the beige thread in the buttons seemed to stand out too much, so I sewed some black over it.

oldsweater-thread

And now the cardigan is stable once more, albeit a little less quirky, but still one of my favorites…

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Filed under collecting, recycling, sewing, thrifting

Come armageddon, for everyday is like swants day

The other day N mentioned he was culling some old sweaters and asked if I wanted any – of course I did (all of them).  And to my surprise, he had a swants-able one in the pile – a forgotten cosy but quite misshapen semi-felted/fulled thrift store find from a few years ago.

I immediately began to cut and sew.

swants-unworn-detail

I didn’t follow the official swants tutorial because I wanted to make some interesting shapes with the pattern, and the shoulder seams already conformed to my hips.

Swants-apocalypse

And then I impatiently set off for the beach, not quite accepting the fact that you can’t really shoot your own trousers while wearing them.

I love the beach in winter.  I love the emptiness and sometimes the ugliness.  I love that the surf washes away the ice and snow and sloggy sh*t that prevents you from walking normally and safely on an inland path or sidewalk.

And when I’m at a wintertime beach in a semi-urban area, I can never stop Morrissey’s Everyday is Like Sunday from playing in my head…

So while the day was chilly, but the sun warm, I filled up a thermos, packed up my ass pad and some knitting* and hit a favorite spot while it was at its most opposite of a smooth summery romping ground.

Swants-beach

One of those rusty pipes helped hold the camera, but all of my swants photos are shite.

But the swants aren’t – I love them!

Swants-pipe help

  Mine are more knickers though – swickers.

Swants-front

The color is truest here – they are cranberry and maroon.  The front has a somewhat provocative triangular point – though how sexy can sweater pants really be?

Swants-ass

And the back has a squared-off shape not unlike old-timey ass flaps on union suits.

I practically had the beach to myself, but the boardwalk was busy with those just waking up from cabin fever and those who have jolly thick-coated dogs (who must suffer through the hot summers).  But no one bothered me – there’s usually a small motley band of panhandlers and nutters who think being unwashed and under various chemical influences is appealing to a woman – but the swants proved an effective repellant!

Swants-cocksoxonrock

Perhaps my new cock socks** helped too…

Now I look like the nut-job.

Maybe on a colder day I’d wear these under my swirt

swants-unworn-front

Now I can’t get everyday is like swants day to the tune of the above out of my head…

swants-unworn-back

*Yeah, still a little too chilly for outdoor knitting – but it was a good place to take photos of it too – coming soon.

**Smartwool, a gift from N.  I told him I didn’t need anymore socks, he told me I needed these.  He was right.  In the few seconds Morrissey leaves my head, cock socks on the rocks repeated chant-like over and over comes in…

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Filed under hiking, recycling, sewing, thrifting, travel