How to Save Money with Recycled Yarn
By using everyday items around your house, you can turn junk into recycled yarn — for little or no money!
By using everyday items around your house, you can turn junk into recycled yarn — for little or no money!Let’s talk recycled yarn.
No, I’m not talking about unraveling sweaters for their yarn (you all know how that went for me – let’s just say I’m going to try it again in, say, January rather than August!).
No, I’m talking about using plain, ordinary materials you already have around your house and turning it into yarn.
Some of these you may have heard about already. You’ve probably heard of “plarn,” for instance: that’s recycling plastic bags and turning it into yarn. You’ve also probably heard of T-shirt yarn, which is exactly what it sounds like. (I’ve even done it before!)
But have you heard of making newspaper yarn? Rag yarn? Cassette tape yarn? Umbrella yarn? Blue jean yarn? Nylon stocking yarn?
Do you feel like I’ve lost my mind yet? I kind of do… and yet I know I haven’t, because I have actually found tutorials for every single one of these types of recycled yarn online! (Isn’t the Internet wonderful?)
Do be advised that in most if not all of these tutorials, you’ll need to do some prepwork that usually involves cutting. With newspaper yarn, you’ll need to be able to spin; with blue jean yarn, you’ll need to do some sewing.
But with a little effort, you’ll have a quite durable yarn that can be knitted into many practical items, such as tote bags, placemats, dishcloths, baskets, rugs, and more!
Are you ready to do some recycling?
Tutorials for Recycled Yarn
What to Knit or Crochet with Recycled Yarn
Now, you might be thinking, “So this sounds pretty cool. But, what can I actually knit with all these kinds of yarn?” That’s a really good question.
Fortunately, I have a really good answer for you – or rather, the blog Recycled Into Yarn has many good answers for you! As the name implies, this blog is devoted to recycling used materials into yarn – and then reusing it to make fabulous knitting and crochet projects. It has a remarkable database of patterns in which you can use your new yarn creations.
Although they do have many knitting patterns, they have a lot more crochet patterns. This might be the incentive you need to learn or master crochet if you haven’t yet done so!
An added bonus to all this knitting (and/or crocheting) with recycled yarn is that it helps the environment by keeping things such as newspapers and plastic bags out of landfills and puts them into good use.
Create your own recycled yarn. You’ll not only save money but you’ll also reduce your carbon footprint. How cool is that?