Anyone bought something just for the yarn?

[yaela123]

I was out earlier and saw a big bulky scarf in a charity shop for £3. It was made of lovely super chunky color-changing yarn and I was wishing I could buy the yarn and then I thought why not just buy the scarf and frog it? It's just simple garter stitch.

I haven't actually unraveled it yet as I've been quite busy but hopefully will later tonight.

Has anyone else done this?

I have bought clothing for the fabric...which amounts to the same thing really! I bought an amazing vintage skirt which was made of black velvet with flowers printed here and there...STUNNING but the shape of the skirt was bad and the thing had been made very badly too...so I cut it up for a bag!

I bought a cheap Toile de Juoy style sheet set and cannibalised it to make a padded headboard and cushion covers. Much cheaper than buying cotton by the metre.
Don't have the patience to knit, I'm afraid...

I bought a massive sweater in a charity shop because I loved the colours, frogged it and knitted a scarf. I have enough yarn left to make a hat.

I also bought a cardigan with the intention of frogging it, but I didn't manage to unpick it because of the way the seams had been joined. Gave up after realising there was no way to get a decent length of yarn from it.

I do this all the time! I started with a scarf and quickly moved on to jumpers. It's a very economical way of getting hold of quite luxurious yarn (cashmere, silk, alpaca...)

I spend a lot of time in charity shops inspecting jumpers, their labels, their seams...it's addictive & I now have a big storage box full of very good quality unravelled wool. I also unravel neutral-coloured jumpers, which I wouldn't usually wear, and dye the wool

If you join Ravelry there is a group on there called UnRavellers who do this and there is loads of info on there about how to unpick and unravel garments both commercial and hand-knitted.

Thanks - I'm going to have a look at the ravelry group right now