I have this idea...


See, I go to Goodwill and find all these outdated cashmere sweaters. Due to the fact that I wasn’t in a good mood and had to run an errand anyway (and had a $10 gift certificate to spend as well) I stopped at Goodwill this morning and found not one, not two, but four cashmere sweaters.

Periwinkle blue, pink, black, and a black button down. Of the four, only the black button down is wearable (at least for me--the other three have turtlenecks, which I detest. And the styles aren’t very updated, either. And they’re too big. But anyway…)

Here’s my idea:

Back in the day (okay, that’s just corny, but still) quilters made quilts out of scraps. Real scraps, not bought fabrics specifically for quilting. That’s probably why I like older quilts, because it’s recycling at its highest, you know? When clothes wore out (and they didn’t have nearly as many clothes as we do) they would use them for scraps. And quilt with them.

So.

Each and every time I go to Goodwill, I see a treasure trove of sweaters, and I can’t wear all of them. Merino wool, lambswool, Shetland wool, angora, cashmere, etc. Some are felted, some aren’t, some are very outdated (I saw a patched rabbit hair coat this morning, ugh) and some have holes.

A long time ago, I checked out a book from the library that had a pattern for recycling old sweaters into pillows. I really liked the idea (and still intend to try it for pillows someday) but I want to take that idea a step or two further.

You’ve probably already guessed where this is going.

I want to make a recycled cashmere quilt. In truth, I want to make more than one of them, but I’m going to attempt a cashmere one first. It’s not going to be fancy, but I can guarantee it will be warm.

This idea of mine is a nice marriage between my love of cool yarn, my desire to quilt, and the fact that recycling to make something pretty is a neat thing to be able to do.

At the moment, I have five cashmere sweaters that can be used in my quilt. One pink, one red, one tan, one black, and one periwinkle. I am thinking that the periwinkle, red, and pink might look good together and that I might have to wait to use the black and tan for something else. But we’ll see.

It will be an interesting experiment, at least. And keep me out of trouble if it works.

Oh, and I thought about using them to make sewn cashmere hats, too. I mean, it’s possible. I would like to have a periwinkle cashmere hat. Hmm.

Comments

Popular Posts