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super chunky yarn

Yarn Salvage #3 – how best to use the yarn

April 27, 2019 by Annie Leave a Comment

Yarn recycling is fun, rewarding and good for the planet! In my two earlier posts I gave you tips on garment selection and salvage. Yarn Salvage #3 – How best to use the yarn….. will give more advice on how to process the yarn you collect and the best way to use the yarn. You can see the earlier posts here Yarn Salvage Tips #1 and Yarn Salvage Tips #2

There are a number of different aspects to yarn that influence how you treat it and the type of project it is suited to. The three main aspects I will cover here are yarn weight, ply and content.

Yarn Weight – wpi

This is an important aspect of the yarn when it comes to determining the type of project you can use the yarn for. We measure Yarn Weight in ‘wraps per inch’. You can pay a lot of money for a gadget that works out the wpi for any yarn. It really isn’t difficult though and in my view not worth spending hard earned cash on! Wraps per inch is the number strands of yarn that will fit into one inch. The strands should sit next to each other comfortably. There should be no overlap or stretch.

To make your own gadget to measure wpi you need a pen, ruler and piece of wood – ideally something rounded like a broom handle. We use an old clothes peg ๐Ÿ™‚

Take the ruler and place two marks on the wood one inch apart. Draw lines around the wood at the places you have marked. You are already ready to use the tool!

Take the yarn you want to assess and wrap it around the tool. Place the first strand of yarn just inside the first mark you made. Wind the yarn round the tool without stretching the yarn. Each strand of yarn should sit alongside the previous strand with no overlap. When the yarn wrapped around the tool reaches the second mark, stop winding. Count the number of wraps of yarn between the two markers. This is your wraps per inch for the yarn or wpi.

Yarn Ply

Ply is the number of individual strands that make up a yarn. Sometimes the strands are twisted so that the yarn handles as one strand. Sometimes you unravel a garment and find that the yarn is made up of several strands that have not been twisted. You can choose whether to separate out the strands or keep the yarn as multi-strand. What you choose to do will depend on the type of yarn and the type of project you want to use it for. I keep detailed records of recovered yarn. I write down the wpi and where the strands are not twisted, also note the ply. This gives me good information when planning projects.

Yarn content

The easiest way to identify the yarn content is to take the information from the garment label when you recover the yarn. I try to select garments with an element of natural fibre. When combining yarn in a project I try to match fibre types. This is not always possible. Yarn content will impact the way the yarn changes over time. It will also have a big impact on the way the yarn washes. If you have a project made from recycled yarn always wash on a wool/cool setting and dry flat. This is particularly important when combining more than one salvaged yarn.

Unravelled yarn often has a lot of ‘kinks’. When you crochet or knit with the yarn these kinks will disappear. If they bother you you can try to reduce them. I say ‘try’ because this method will produce varied results according to the yarn composition. The lower the percentage of natural fibre the less effective this method will be.

Flattening kinks in yarn containing natural fibres

Firstly, turn the yarn into hanks rather than balls. There are expensive machines that make this job easier but we are trying to save cash! You can wind yarn into hanks using your own arm winding the yarn between the base of your thumb and elbow. You can also use the back of a chair or enlist the help of a small human! I find small humans to be helpful and compliant until they hit teenage years. Teenagers are less than inspired by the idea of helping wind yarn ๐Ÿ™‚

Once the yarn is in hanks soak them in warm water – NOT HOT (unless you want to end up with felt). You can add wool washing liquid or powder. The kinks should begin to relax in the water. You may have to leave the yarn soaking for a few hours. Rinse and dry the yarn either flat on a towel or hanging over a bath. Do not squeeze or ring out the yarn. Finally you will need to reball the yarn for use.

Using the recycled yarn

Now you have added all this recycled yarn to your stash what will you make? It is possible to use the yarn recovered from one garment to make another garment. However, it is likely that during the recovery process some yarn will have been lost. This means that you might need to top up the quantity of yarn from one garment in order to have enough to make another.

You can top up the recovered yarn with yarn from your stash. You could buy some yarn to contrast or compliment the recovered yarn. Or you could combine different yarns that you have recovered into one project.

Most patterns are designed for yarn of a particular weight or wpi as above. One of the latest patterns I wrote was for a super chunky yarn worked up on a 9mm hook. I wanted something that would grow and complete quickly! I decided to use this pattern as an example of how I work with recycled yarn.

Much of the yarn I salvage has a high wpi. This is because most yarn used in the industrial manufacture of garments is lightweight around 14 wpi. I prefer to work with a heavier yarn, aran or chunky weight around 7 or 8 wpi. However, you can combine the yarns you recover to produce a heavier weight yarn. This is what I did in my latest project. The resulting yarn can look startling different to its component parts.

Hearts and Stripes Recycled Blanket

Here is my recycled project. The pattern is one I designed myself and is available for free here. The yarns I used are different ply and composition but worked up very easily as one yarn. Remember to test the wpi of your combined yarn before starting the project. I expected the crochet to be difficult and that the yarn would split but this was not the case. Finishing off the ends was the only part that I found more difficult but with a little extra patience and care even that was not too much of a challenge. Here are the recycled yarns I started with.

Salvaged yarn

I combined the recycled yarn with some super chunky white yarn from my stash. This was left over from a previous project. As you can see the finished result looks quite different to the four yarns that went into the work.

yarn salvage - how best to use the yarn

There are many ways to choose yarn for your projects. For me, there is nothing better than laying out all the balls of recovered yarn on the floor and playing with the colour combinations. This is how I get inspiration for my next project. Group the yarn by colour and see what works! Happy recycling!!

Annie ๐Ÿ™‚

Filed Under: Uncategorized, Upcycling Tagged With: crochet blanket, recycling, recycling yarn, super chunky yarn, yarn, yarn combining, yarn salvage

Hearts and Stripes blanket

April 27, 2019 by Annie Leave a Comment

Hello ?here is my latest project – Hearts and Stripes Blanket. This pattern is based on the heart motif I created last year. For this project I wanted to produce a solid version of the heart square. To make a heavy duty lap blanket quickly! I used super chunky yarn and a 9mm hook. With this yarn I can easily make one of these blankets in a week or two.

Here is the finished blanket worked up in red white and blue yarn. You can use the blocks to make a blanket of any size. If you use a lighter weight yarn you will probably want to put in more blocks. I went for a seven by five block layout as that worked best for the quantity of yarn I had. The finished blanket measures about 34 inches by 48 inches or 85cm by 125cm in metric.

Hearts and Stripes Blanket

This pattern would also work very well as a stash-buster project. The yarn required for each area of colour is quite small. I salvage quite a lot of yarn and often end up with a large number of smaller balls of yarn. You can read my top tips for yarn salvage here.

The pattern took four 100g balls of the navy and 3 of each of the red and white.

The blanket pattern is made up of striped squares and full heart blocks. The pattern for the heart block in both UK and US terms are available here

The instructions for the striped block are here again in both UK and US terms.

Joining the Blocks to make the blanket

The blanket is made up of these two blocks worked in a seven by five alternating pattern. The join I used for this blanket is one that has minimal finishing off. The technique makes a feature of the joining thread.

Line up two squares edge to edge with the right side of the work facing up.

Place the yarn you are using for the join behind the work. Always keep the joining yarn behind the squares. Pick up stitches from the back of each of the two edges, as shown below.

Joining instructions 1 - Hearts and Stripes Blanket

Wrap the yarn round the hook working from behind. You need to keep the yarn behind the work at all times.

Joining instructions 2 - Hearts and Stripes Blanket

Pull the yarn through the two stitches you picked up to give you two loops on the hook.

Joining instructions 3 - Hearts and Stripes Blanket

Finally pull the yarn through the loop on the hook to form a slip stitch. From the picture above this means pulling the first loop nearest the end of the hook through the second loop on the hook. The result should look like the picture below.

Design choice – pick a highlight colour for the join and make it a feature. Or use the same colour as the borders of the squares. Using the same colour would make the join less visible.

Hearts and Stripes Blanket – Border

The border for this blanket is very simple and echos the stripes in the squares.

Hearts and Stripes Blanket - border

UK terms

First round – Join in yarn in the colour you used to join the blocks and work one round of DC working 1DC, 2CH, 1DC into each corner. For the design shown here yarn colour white.

Second round – Join in yarn A (red for the design shown here) and work a round of HTR working 1HTR, 2CH, 1HTR into each corner.

Third round – Join in the first yarn again (white) and repeat the first round.

Fourth round – for the final round use the border colour (Navy) and again repeat the first round above.

US terms

First round – Join in yarn in the colour you used to join the blocks and work one round of SC working 1SC, 2CH, 1SC into each corner. For the design shown here yarn colour white.

Second round – Join in yarn A (red for the design shown here) and work a round of HDC working 1HDC, 2CH, 1HDC into each corner.

Third round – Join in the first yarn again (white) and repeat the first round.

Fourth round – for the final round use the border colour (Navy) and again repeat the first round above.

Finish off your ends and there you have it – one Hearts and Stripes Blanket. Hope you like it!

Annie ๐Ÿ™‚

Filed Under: Crochet patterns Tagged With: afghan, crochet afghan, crochet blanket, crochet throw, free crochet pattern, Free pattern, heart blanket, hearts and stripes blanket, super chunky yarn, thick crochet throw, uk and us terms

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