A project for 2010 - recycling sweaters

I am not proud to say this, but I often ruin my sweater by washing it in the washing machine. I would put a sweater (or two, yes, I am bad) in a bag and wash it using the gentle cycle. I have quite a few sweaters that have thus become too small for me. I would take them to a cloth depot at the end of the season, or whenever I feel overwhelmed by the number of the shrunk sweaters.

Well, that was in the past. I found that old sweaters can be made into other things. The common advice seems to be to felt the sweater, which would give you smaller, but sturdier (and easy to hem) material, but there are projects that do not involve the felting method. It was a huge revelation for me that one can sew sweaters. I think I am going to try making slippers and cardigans. Who knew. Shrunk sweaters have just become my friends again.