As a college student, I am always looking for ways to get materials for less. 

Though it is nice to be able to get exactly what you want for your project, and I always prefer to support small businesses, sometimes saving on materials is essential. 

One of the ways I like to save money while being able to create new things is to “recycle” yarn.

I put “recycle” into quotes because what I do is more akin to repurposing yarn from other garments.

Essentially, I thrift a knit item from the thrift store in a color that I like and that I know I’ll use and I disassemble it. 

After washing the garment, I hand-wind all of the yarn into balls, a process that takes a few hours from start to finish. 

In the end, I am left with at least enough yarn to make a sweater the size of the original garment. 

It is difficult to truly know how much yarn I have, so I like to err on the side of caution when it comes to using recycled yarn to make larger projects. After all, I can’t go back to the store to pick up another skein if I run out of yarn.

Another difficulty with using recycled yarn is knowing the yarn’s weight. There are ways to check yarn weight such as wraps-per-inch. The best way to know how large you need to make a garment when using recycled yarn is to create a gauge to understand how your yarn compares to the yarn in a pattern.