Lisbeth – recycled and upcycled sheet turned into rag knitting scarf
Lisbeth - recycled and upcycled rag knitted scarf
I love the combination of chocolate and raspberry, both in a culinary sense and when it comes to combining colours.
I also love to recycle then upcycle fabrics, and play around with textures and colours.
Lisbeth is my latest rag knitting scarf, with an op shop shredded sheet as a base, knitted with a sequin yarn and a lovely alpaca blend in raspberry and chocolate. I’ve made this scarf a little shorter, so you double it up and put the flower at the end. It’s probably more like a cowl or scarflet, though it’s still around five feet long.
The flower has five layers, one made out of the shredded sheet, and the centre picking up more of this theme. The flower looks good enough to eat.
I’ve put a long fringe on one of the long sides, to enhance the notion of doubling the scarf over to wear it as a cowl.
There are 12 stitches and three strands of yarns/sheets. It’s done in garter stitch (plain, pearl), and took around 100 metres of each of the three yarns to make.
You can see more recycled and upcycled scarves on my etsy site.
Lisbeth - rag knitting scarf, front view
Recycled and upcycled orange silk remnant, now a new scarf
Raw silk rag knitting - voila, a new scarf
Montmartre, this raw silk and cotton rag knitting scarf, is the second of two I made this weekend.
I bought the remnants from my local op shop and paired them with a bobble trim yarn in varying shades of oranges, browns and greens. To add a bit ot pizzaz, in came the sequin yarn. To finish, I crocheted a two-layered flower with some of the ripped up cotton and paired it with some silk, some complementarily coloured wools, and a bit of spangley sequin yarn.
I used 13 mm needles, and three strands of yarn: the rag shreds, the bobble yarn, the sequin yarn. There were 13 stitches. I knited pearl stitch (garter stitch) for about six feet.
Use any two-stage flower pattern from the net. Use the rag knitting thread as your bottom layer. Put a bit of rag knitting thread in the middle. Go crazy with coloured french knots. Make it pretty, then sew a pin on the back. You’ll feel artsy if you do this 
Recycled and upcycled – rag knitting scarves with crochet flowers
I’d love your opinion on my recycled/upcycled scarf collection, made from op shop sheets, doona covers, silk and shantung remnants and an old 60s tablecloth. (See also www.handmade3777.etsy.com for more pics.)
For a while now I’ve been trying to improve how I reduce, reuse and recycle, and challenge myself to do more of this in different ways. This range of scarves is my latest attempt at reuse, repurposing, upcycling.
I love the texture of these ripped up numbers, and they end up being so individual. I started fixing flowers to them but have decided that people may like the choice about whether they want to wear a large flower or not. Personally, with the ones I’ve made for myself, I wear the flowers all the time!
What I’m really loving about this creative burst is that one idea leads to another. As I’m sitting knitting a woollen scarf, I’m thinking “hmm, I’m sure I could rip up a sheet and do something with it”; when I’m doing the rag knitting, I’m thinking “there’s a canvas in the cupboard…why don’t I start that painting of Charlotte soon?”
The exciting thing is that my creative journey is stable and continuing, and I’m feeding the artsie side of my brain, which feels good.
I hope you’re feeling good and have beautiful and creative weekend planned.
A breakthrough in recycled knitting
In the last few weeks I found, felt thoughtfully, then tore up and knitted a soft white doona cover with pale olive green flowers on it, into a really interesting and engaging scarf. I added some olive green sequined wool and a knitted flower in a variation of the sequined wool, and am delighted with the results.
So delighted, I made a second. (Note for potential doona cover ripperupperers – you can get about 2.5 average-length scarves out of one doona cover )
I feel great about this project:
a) because I don’t think the doona cover would’ve made it onto a shelf in an op shop: it was past its use-by date; and
b) because I feel like the most virutous & artsy person in the world because of it, which makes me feel like painting!!
So, hurrah to creative pursuits that support reducing, reusing and recycling, and from turning non-desirable items back into items d’art and of desire.
I hope you get a brainwave soon that makes you feel as good as this project made me feel!
P.S. I just bought another sheet from an oppy shop in Warrandyte. It is white with pinky tulips on it. Who knows what she’ll be combined with and what she’ll look like when I’m through. One thing I know for sure, though, is . she’s going down the same track as doona cover number 1!!
