This post isn’t about my frog, as much as he is cute and I love his slimy head. This post is about frogging. Frogging in knitting is where a large section of knitting is unravelled (on purpose). It can be heartbreaking, like when you realise you’ve made a mistake way way back and have to frog a whole lot of work to fix it (as I had to do last week with my shawl when I dropped a stitch and didn’t notice). It can also be an awesomely cheap way to get yarn, by frogging an old knitted piece to turn it into something else. I like frogging for this purpose, because I’m a little bit green.
So anyways, I was first introduced to the idea of re-using yarn like this while perusing the great pattern book Aware Knits by Vickie Howell and Adrienne Armstrong. They unravelled an op-shop jumper, dyed the yarn with natural dyes then turned it into baby booties and adorable pilchers. I am super attracted to the idea of frogging for repurposing because in general I am extremely cheap and I like that I’m not using up new resources. The downside is that you have to unravel a project that either you or someone else has worked very hard to make. I had always wanted to try it though.
The other day I took the plunge and bought two jumpers for frogging. I’m going to turn them into baby clothes. YOU CAN’T JUST PICK ANY GARMENT. I won’t explain how to pick a suitable frogging garment, because Neauveau Fiber Art gives an awesome explanation, so look there instead. The first jumper I chose, which I have already started frogging, is this purple jumper.
It is made of a cotton-like yarn which I guess is about the thickness of 4ply wool. The jumper itself is quite unappealing to me. It is either from or inspired by the late 80s – early 90s. It has bare underarms and slits at the shoulders so they poke out (actually, bare shoulders on long-sleeved tops seem to be becoming fashionable, but they’re not my cup of tea). I told myself I’d only frog something ugly, or else I’d feel guilty. However, purple is my favourite colour and this is a nice shade.
The other garment I bought to frog was this jacket (apologies for the bad photography. Please ignore the unmade bed).
I’m torn (pun not intended but welcomed) about frogging this one. It is actually a nice and functional jacket. However, it is a size 18, which means it doesn’t fit me and would have to go back to the op shop if I choose not to frog it. It is also grey, and I’m not a huge fan of how winter clothes mostly come in grey, black and brown. It also has awesome big buttons which could have a bunch of other uses. The yarn is bulky weight which means it would be quick to knit, and grey is a nice unisex colour for babies. I’m leaning towards frogging, but opinions are welcomed.
The good thing about these two garments is they both have tags on them and were therefore not home-made. The purple one is Di Moda and the grey one is Target. That makes me think they were likely made on a machine which means I’m probably not unravelling someone’s time-consuming hand-knitting work. It’s also comforting that they’re not one-of-a-kind. In total they cost me $17, which is much cheaper than buying the same amount of yarn, plus I got buttons with it and the money went to charity.
I’m sure frogging garments to repurpose the yarn will be great fun and finally a way to get cheap yarn! I’m super excited about it, but I still have other projects planned, including the shawl I’m currently working on, before I start re-knitting the frogged yarn. I’ll keep you posted.
The Knitted Kitten
