Recycling and Upcycling Yarn: The Adventures of Cassie

'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.

Etsy Buy Handmade cassiemarie

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.

Etsy: Upcycling and Recyling yarn with Molly Bachelor

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.

Etsy Buy Handmade craftyyarn

all photos copyright Molly Bachelor, used here with her permission

Etsy: Upcycling and Re-imagining handspun yarn with Jes Mattingly

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.

Etsy Buy Handmade jessprkle

all photos in this post are copyright Jessica Mattingly and used here with her permission

Etsy: Interviews

'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

Scraptacular Magpie Crochet Scarf

 Let's just say that Viv stopped by yesterday in the late afternoon, right around the same time I opened a package from misshawklet. I'd been eyeballing one of the Scraptacular skeins in the misshawklet Etsy shop, and finally went ahead and bought it even though I had no plans for it - maybe a Top-Down Ribbed Knit Beanie, a safe fallback for handspun yarn. I've been working on another crochet lace scarf, similar to Anne in that it is worked from end to end and is really quite simple but needs clear instructions, as well as being done up as a sample in Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton. Right after I ripped the tape off the box and pulled the flaps back, I reached for my box of crochet hooks and a bag of small yarn oddballs. The yarn has little glints of metallic thread in it, which I'll try to take better photos of - scarf still needs to be washed and blocked too. The randomness of the color changes is part of the fun, but I did snip out about a yard near the end, where it was a mix of dark gray and black and just didn't quite work for me (if that raises your eyebrows - the idea that I'd work up this exuberantly bohemian Crazy Cat Lady scarf and think that a small block of sedate color would be too much - you oughta see some of the paintings I did back in art school). So far I have resisted the urge to add fringe. Viv may revisit the idea after I wash and steam-block this. It is currently quite long and wraps around the neck a few times. Tim Gunn might politely suggest that "it's a lot of look," especially to be wearing next to the face. That's fine by me. I stopped coloring my hair (have done many of the colors and shades seen in this scarf), and still want to accessorize with bright colors.

misshawklet Scraptacular handspun, assorted fibers, variable aran - chunky weight, 126 yds. Size L/8.0mm crochet hook. Edging done with random scraps of assorted worsted weight yarns, including Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in Lemongrass, Shell Pink, Poppy Orange, and Sky Blue.