‘Vintage Gingham‘ hand-dyed recycled bulky yarn
23-year old Cassie is a full-time graduate student in Illinois who started selling on Etsy about a year and a half ago. Her shop, cassiemarie, features recycled, handdyed yarns and handspun yarns plied with recycled yarn.
What got you started on upcycling/recycling yarn and/or yarn materials?
I’ve always been ‘thrifty’ in a sense, recycling and reusing things has always been second nature. When I started knitting and crocheting, I would use yarn from the thrift store, or yarn that had been handed down to me from someone else. Eventually I started spinning in addition to knitting, and of course dyeing yarn was the next rational step. I started dyeing with kool-aid, and then I moved on to using acid dyes. I’ve been taking apart sweaters for yarn for about two years now, but haven’t started to sell it until recently. I’ve been dyeing and/or re-spinning the recycled yarn in order to give it a second life, and a chance at being something beautiful once more.
left: baby sweater knit with recycled yarn (based on the baby sweater pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, heavily modified); right:
Bold and Bulky Mini Cardi (pattern from the book Fitted Knits), knit with recycled yarn
Who/what inspires your work?
My grandmother Joanne first got me interested in crafting in general. She crochets and sews, and ever since I was a kid, she would teach me how to make crafts of all sorts. I remember her being so patient with me — she would have me take mini sewing lessons, and take notes on how to thread the machine and so forth. I was always fascinated by how she could take a pile of plain looking fabric or yarn and turn it into something wonderful. She was also very thrifty, and whenever I would sleep over at my grandparents’ house on the weekends, she and I would wake up at the crack of dawn and go to garage sales.
Nowadays, I’m very inspired by the online community. Places like Etsy, Craftster, Ravelry, and Blogs are all excellent resources.
left to right: Cooties, The 80′s, and Bleached Algae handdyed recycled yarns
What are your favorite parts of recycling/upcycling?
I really love the idea of taking something discarded or cast aside (sweaters) and rejuvenating it into something that is both useful and desirable. I also love the challenge of it all, and the ‘hunt’ to find the perfect sweaters to recycle. Most of all I love using the yarns I create, and seeing others use them as well!
What are the most challenging things about recycling/upcycling?
Like all things in my life – simply finding the time! I really enjoy spinning and dyeing, but I’m also a full time grad student, so I really have to make time to do it. Other than that, it has only been a positive experience!
You have such evocative names for your yarns – how do you come up with them?
I choose my yarn names with a lot of care. I don’t come up with them until they are fully dyed and dried, and then I think about what the colors remind me of. So many colors in our lives are associated with certain moments. One of my favorites is the “vintage gingham” yarn, I specifically remember those colors being on a tablecloth that someone in my family owned. It may help that I’m a painter in ‘real life,’ and that my vocabulary for color is fairly wide. Painting and naming yarns is similar in many ways to painting and naming artwork.
Future plans for the cassiemarie Etsy shop include listing larger ‘lots’ of yarn, vegan yarns, and knitted items. You can see more of Cassie’s work on Craftster and Ravelry (username cassiemarie), as well as on her blog, The Adventures of Cassie.Cassie’s paintings can be seen at cassiechristenson.com.
all photos in this post are copyright Cassie Christenson and are used here with her permission.
Molly Bachelor is a 27-year old architect in Encinitas, California, who has been selling recycled yarns on Etsy since the fall of 2007. Her Etsy shop, C R A F T Y (the fiber rescue project), offers 100% recycled yarns, either unraveled from gently used, high quality sweaters, or handspun from mill ends and other scrap fibers.
left to right: Turquoise Coils handspun, GLAM (a) handspun, OKAPI handspun
Why did you start recycling yarn?
I've been a knitter for awhile now, and have always found yarn and fibers to be the best part of knitting (don't we all!). I started recycling yarn well before I began on Etsy, just doing a bit at a time to save the yarn from a favorite worn-out sweater or add to my stash. I'm always looking for opportunities to reclaim waste materials, so I was glad to eventually learn that there was a market on Etsy for this kind of yarn.
What inspires you?
I'm inspired by the limitless, open-ended possibilities of fibers. It's so much fun as a recycler, because the fiber arts are about working in cooperation with the individual fibers – whether it's twisting, weaving, knitting or whatever. The basic individual fibers are always still there, ready to be reinvented when their time comes.
recycled silk/cotton and cashmere, hand-plied together
What are the most challenging things about recycling/upcycling?
The nature of recycling is that you're working with found materials, so it can be limiting, although I'm always surprised at the variety and quantity of materials available. I generally don't dye my fiber and try to work with found colors, which is certainly a design constraint when spinning. But on the other hand, design constraints can really help the creative process.
left to right: Swamp Princess mill end handspun, Sky (wool/mohair mill ends plied with cashmere), and Elf (handspun wool/mohair mill ends)
Do you prefer to use a drop-spindle or a spinning wheel?
Oh, definitely a wheel. I never really got the knack of spindle spinning. I currently spin on a Fricke single-treadle.
Is there an overlap between your day job and your Etsy shop, or is the yarn an escape for you?
The yarn is definitely an escape from my day job. I love the non-structured simplicity of fiber design as a balance to the complexity and client demands of architectural design.
all photos copyright Molly Bachelor, used here with her permission
left to right: handspun newspaper yarn, Tokyo-plarn,
grocery bag plastic with cassette tape and paper beads, and grocery bag plastic
Jessica Mattingly ("Jes") is a 30 year old full-time clinical psychology doctoral student who uses her Etsy shop, Unique Expressions by Jessica Mattingly (An Eclectic Collection of Innovative Expressions), as her outlet. Jes lives in Chicago, where she spins upcycled yarns out of wool scraps, plastic bags ("plarn"), cassette tape, and paper.
When did you get started on Etsy?
I started back in November of 2005.
What got you started on upcycling/recycling yarn materials?
After I started spinning yarn, I became addicted to figuring out what other materials aside from wool could be spun. I started with plastic bags mixed with cassette tape, then moved on to tissue paper, and then on to newspaper. I've also worked with a fiber made out of recycled plastic bottles, but the fibers are really short and hard to work with.
Who/what inspires your work?
I'm the oldest of eight, and my siblings are a huge inspiration in my life. Also, the need for a creative outlet inspires my work.
handspun "scrappy happy"
What are your favorite parts of recycling/upcycling?
I love the challenge of working with something different. It's like a puzzle that needs solving. I also love the unique appearance of upcycled products. Each one is completely one-of-a-kind. I really enjoy watching the plastic or paper change and evolve as I spin it.
What are the most challenging things about recycling/upcycling?
Well, the materials aren't always the easiest to work with. Paper and plastic are not as flexible as wool. It can be really frustrating when something doesn't initially work, but once I've figured it out it becomes the biggest reward! Also, it takes a lot more time and energy to create something that is upcycled, because it usually involves a lot more prep.
handspun tissue paper
Do you have a preference for using a drop spindle or a wheel for your handspuns?
I started spinning with a drop spindle and used that for about a year before I moved on to a wheel. I now use a wheel for my regular handspuns, but when it comes to paper and plastic, I use a drop spindle. Those materials don't gather very easily around the bobbin of my wheel and they just don't spin up as tightly when I use my wheel.
handspun plarn
Jes also offers a plarn-making service and does custom orders. She blogs at Unique Expressions, where you can also vote in a mini-poll about what she's got in her Etsy shop and check out her Etsy favorites.
all photos in this post are copyright Jessica Mattingly and used here with her permission
‘Changeling’ handspun yarn, jessprkle.etsy.com
While I continue to rest my hands, I’ve been checking out some shops on Etsy that I’d like to share with you. As you know, I like yarn, and I especially like handspun and handdyed yarns. For the next few weeks, I’ll be posting interviews with Etsy vendors who specialize in upcycling, recycling, and re-imagining yarns, especially handspun and handdyed yarns. I’ll be kicking the series off later today and I’m hoping to post a new interview twice a week for the next 3 – 4 weeks (one on the weekend and one in the middle of the week).
The interviews:
October 28, 2008 Etsy: Recycling and Upcycling Yarn with Nikki Ross
September 05, 2008 Etsy: Upcycling and Re-imagining Yarn with M.K. Lawrie
August 23, 2008 Recycling and Upcycling Yarn: The Adventures of Cassie
August 28, 2008 Etsy: Upcycling and Recycling Yarn with Molly Bachelor
August 15, 2008 Etsy: Upcycling and Re-imagining Yarn with Jes Mattingly
