Recycled Yarn

Do I have a story for you today.

All the way back in 2019, when I started swing dancing, I had a whole group of new friends. Most of them had zero clue about anything yarn related whatsoever. One such friend, Mark, had the worst ever scarf from Amazon. It was straight stockinette, and curled to a size smaller than a neck-tie. He wore this monstrosity everywhere.

It got to the point where I got sick of seeing it, so I made him a deal. I would make him a beautiful, custom, handmade scarf if he would cough up the horrible one. Naturally, he took me up on the offer.

Once I had it, the content of the scarf wasn’t so bad. It was some kind of wool/acrylic blend, and it seemed unfair that such a quality yarn had to exist in such a objectionable form. I decided I’d fix that, too.

I unraveled the whole thing. I was just a bit worried because so many commercial knits are serged, and those little pieces of yarn they become are neigh useless. No serged seams on this one, though. Once I cut a little piece on the corner, it unraveled almost as well as a handknit would have (I did mention he wore this thing everywhere, right?).

Since he liked the scarf so much, I figured he should have at least some of the yarn back. I decided on a two-color brioche hat (a similar stitch to the scarf I made him). This hat was started right before the Great Knitting Funk of 2021, and it’s brioche, so it’s been in progress for a very long time. I made him start a video game stream recently so I could finish it in his virtual presence.

And look at it! He’s happy with it, and now knows better about where to get his knits. Shouldn’t have to worry about him again (shouldn’t being the keyword there. We’ll see!).