Yarn with a Re-purpose

I've written before about the upcycling & unraveling of sweaters for their yarns.  I haven't done much unraveling of late, but recently, I've been going through my studio, cleaning, sorting and purging to make room for baby's new space.  And I realized that I hoard old clothes.  Whether it's because I think I can alter them because they don't fit quite right (why do I think this?  I'm not a good sewer!) Or I can re-purpose them for something else (for a long time, I wanted to introduce a line of re-purposed, felted sweater garments such as hats and mitts), or I can unravel them for their yarn.  I had quite a few nice sweaters that had been half unraveled.  So, I hunkered down, unraveling some, deciding to just pass on others (acrylic isn't worth my time).

Of course, once I had finished a good round of sorting and purging, I was in the thrift store one day, and I spotted a creamy white, super soft, hand-knit shrug.  No tags or labels, the fiber content of this one was up in the air.  So I added it to my cart and debated whether I should get it or not.  Obviously, someone had spent a fair amount of time knitting such a pretty shrug... but honestly, I don't wear shrugs.  They had also spent a pretty penny on 3 or 4 skeins of what I now think is pure baby alpaca yarn.

So for $6, I grabbed it and came home and unraveled it days later into 3 and a half balls.  I wound off a couple of skeins for dyeing, one in pink (I was hoping for more of a red.. oh well), and an earthy green.  I quickly knit the pink skein up into a pair of Camp Out Fingerless Mitts (pattern by Tante Ehm).  Great pattern, and great yarn!

I'm now slightly addicted to the pattern and decided to gift the first pair to my mom, who is more fond of pink than I.  Maybe the green ones can be for me!  One certainly doesn't need full on mittens with our unseasonably warm weather and lack of a real winter. 

Have you ever unraveled a sweater?  What did you make?