I am taking things apart
By AnjaP
@Rollo1 (16676)
Boston, Massachusetts
October 30, 2015 7:15am CST
When I was young and living at home, both my mother and I took up crocheting. We crocheted afghans - all the time. We would sit and crochet together while watching television. Fast forward to years of working and raising children and I just never once thought about doing anything crafty, so I hadn't done any crochet or knitting for years and years.
Until someone at a yard sale sold me a big box of yarn for $1. I took it home and put it in a corner. It sat there for a year. Then one day, I bought a crochet hook and decided to find out if I still knew how to do it. I picked the easiest project I could remember how to do, and made a granny square afghan. The kind where it's just one big granny square. I used up all the scrap yarn.
Now that afghan has a spot in the middle where the yarn has been cut. Not broken, it looks cut and I think it got caught under a rolling caster on a chair. But anyway, it's no good as it is, and I have been jonesing to make a poncho. Not having enough of any particular color to do that, I have decided to simply unravel the afghan and rework all the yarn into a poncho.
I am rather looking forward to my myLot earnings this month. Maybe I can buy some new yarn and make something that looks half-decent. This yarn addiction is murder.
Do you ever take old things apart - knitting, clothes, furniture - and make something new out of it?
20 people like this
18 responses
@LadyDuck (502466)
• Italy
30 Oct 15
I like to modify clothes, I have always liked more to sew than to crochet. My Mom was a dressmaker when she was young, she stopped working when she married my father, but she sewed all my clothes and I remember I loved to watch her cut the fabric, assemble, sew, add the lace and the buttons, I learned a lot from her.
5 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174430)
• United States
3 Nov 15
@LadyDuck I always sewed things by hand. I was never very good using a machine, but I really didn't need to know how to use a sewing machine, either. The only things I ever sewed were hems in Pretty's blouses that came undone or to re-attach a button that came off a shirt.
I do know how to darn a sock, but haven't done that in years. New socks are not too expensive. When we get a hole in one, I use it for a dust rag and save the good one to match with another lonely sock when its mate gets a hole in it.
2 people like this
@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
30 Oct 15
I have no such craft skills sadly. If I took something apart it would just be broken.
3 people like this
@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
31 Oct 15
@Rollo1 I think things break if I just look at them. I have a sense of need to avoid diy repairs on anything
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174430)
• United States
3 Nov 15
@arthurchappell Hmmm... I was going to tease you and say you could just call that being lazy, but decided I had better not. I don't know you well enough to judge if that would offend you instead of you accepting it as a joke, so I am just telling you what I wanted to say instead.
Is that alright, or do I need to delete this comment?
2 people like this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
30 Oct 15
I don't remember how we learned, but we learned together. I learned to knit from the encyclopedia when I was about 10. But as @marlina says, there are so many great tutorials these days on YouTube and some are really step by step. They even have videos that show how to do things for both right-handed and left-handed people.
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174430)
• United States
3 Nov 15
One thing is certain, @sofssu , learning will never get any easier the longer you wait.
@Rollo1 My mother taught me how to crochet when I was ten or eleven years old. (I was a nervous kid. Dad said I was twitchy. When they took me to see a GP about it he told mom that I needed something to occupy my hands while I was doing things that didn't require all my attention. So she taught me to crochet.)
The first things I learned how to make were little finger puppet animals. I could whip one of the giraffes out in about half an hour. (Guess what I gave my brothers and sisters for Christmas that year?! LOL!)
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
31 Oct 15
If I took something apart it would wind up in the trash! Hope you have better luck.
3 people like this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
31 Oct 15
@Rollo1 unraveling is easier than raveling!
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11134)
• United Kingdom
30 Oct 15
I often have brilliant ideas of projects to get on with, but the old stuff sits for a while and then ends up at the tip because I didn't get round to it. :)
3 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174430)
• United States
3 Nov 15
@Rollo1 IDK, did you unravel it to use the yarn for something else?
I am fairly certain I didn't finish it for you!
I am fairly certain I didn't finish it for you!1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
31 Oct 15
@Rollo1 Very cute. I have some fabric to donate. Perhaps a local high school sewing class would want it.
1 person likes this
@allknowing (153530)
• India
4 Nov 15
Anything that has to do with needles I am nowhere on the scene. Imagine opening up the whole thing and then redoing something else with it. See that no cats are around when you are putting that wool together
1 person likes this
@41CombedaleRoad (5966)
• Greece
31 Oct 15
I take jewellery apart sometimes and keep the re-usables for future crafting. Once I had a knitting machine and when I tired of it I had loads of scraps of wool left which I made into an afghan blanket, single squares. It has lasted for years and when I look at it I remember some of the jumpers I made for my grandchildren.
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174430)
• United States
3 Nov 15
Those sound like some nice memories, Dale. I envy you a little bit.
@41CombedaleRoad (5966)
• Greece
4 Nov 15
@valmnz I know how well that works too.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
31 Oct 15
I would love to find a dollar yarn box, have a friend that would LOVE that kind of thing
2 people like this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
31 Oct 15
@Jessicalynnt I have worked with thread, but I can't handle the tiny, tiny threads. I don't mind the cotton thread for dishclothes etc. But I could never crochet a full lace tablecloth like my grandmother did.
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
31 Oct 15
@Rollo1 most of my family that crochets does it with thread, other than the occasional afghan
2 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (91086)
• United States
31 Oct 15
My daughter and I like to sit and crochet together. I find the granny square the easiest while my daughter is adventurous and likes to learn new stitches. I like your idea of unraveling your afghan and making a pretty poncho out of the yarn.
2 people like this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
4 Nov 15
@41CombedaleRoad I joined these squares in rows. I joined the squares to form a row, then joined the rows together. I did it by actually joining with a row of slip stitch crochet. However, there is a method that lets you join as you go, and you can find tutorials on YouTube. I personally hate the joining of squares, which is why these are so big - fewer to join.
@41CombedaleRoad (5966)
• Greece
4 Nov 15
@Rollo1 it is not so much the making of the squares but the sewing of them together. Do you know a quick way of doing this?
2 people like this
@ThankyouLord (698)
• St. Petersburg, Florida
31 Oct 15
I think these kinds of items are wonderful, and I admire all the time and effort it takes to make them. Not knowing anything about yarn, I guess I would just be concerned that the yarn would be twisted, so that the new item might not lay right when done. I wish I had a craft I liked doing like that. I come from a non-craft family. My grandmother was an opera singer and painter, as was my aunt. They also were writers. Not a craft person in sight.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
30 Oct 15
I used to do things like that, but I have moved on from crafting. I am into photography now.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
31 Oct 15
@Rollo1 Do what you love, love what you do.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (174430)
• United States
4 Nov 15
@ElizabethWallace I've always liked that saying! It is very true, too.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (174430)
• United States
3 Nov 15
No, @Rollo1 , I normally just buy more yarn and crochet whatever I want out of it. (I have unraveled part of an afghan and re-worked it again when someone accidentally cut the afghan near an edge.)
I think I have a dozen or so skeins of ... I don't remember what color is in my closet... Hang on for a minute while I look. Warm Toast is what I have in the closet along with Cream? (It says Cream, but this is the Super Saver yarn that also says No Dye Lot. It looks more like an off-white to me.)
Anyway, I was planning on making a new bed spread for my queen size bed with those colors.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
3 Nov 15
I am going to need to buy a skein or two, because I am halfway through the poncho and as you go along, you need more and more of each color. I didn't get as much yarn from the afghan as I thought I would because so much was cut into, and I discovered they'd spilled something on it, maybe bleach. Ah well, I am doing the best I can and the colors are what they are. I never have a dozen skeins of anything, but I should get some red and green to make holiday items.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (174430)
• United States
3 Nov 15
@Rollo1 Well, bleach is worse than No Dye Lot, hon... I'm sorry that happened to you.
When I get a bonus check from work I buy all the yarn I want/will need for any projects I have in mind. I am usually working on two projects with material for at least one more waiting for me to get to it.
My last project was a bedspread for a friend's king size bed. That cream? yarn with a dark green border. It turned out better than I thought it would color-wise and he was very pleased with it. (He gave me $20 over and above my asking price for that spread! I'm quite pleased)
@JudyEv (382068)
• Rockingham, Australia
27 Feb 16
That's the good thing about crochet. It is so easy to unpick. I know you've done a lot of crochet since this post. What are you working on now?
