Yarn Recycling - Part 2

DSC_0073.JPG, originally uploaded by doctorkrg.

Here's the washed yarn hanging in my bathroom. I've only ripped the front panel of the sweater so far. I have another ball that I haven't washed, composed of short pieces knotted together, in case I need the extra yardage for a project. This yarn, for the most part, is without breaks.

I can't wait to make socks.

Yarn Recycling - Start to Finish

I went to the thrift store yesterday and found this gorgeous alpaca sweater. The sweater itself was a stupid shape, but I had my M.A.P. try it on just in case. But I was right, dumpy shape. So I ripped and ripped it out.

Here's how it started. Look at all of that yummy yarn for $4:


I've only ripped one front panel. There was a lot of loss, so I probably will only end up with about 1000 oz. of yarn, instead of 1500 or so. Darn. 1000 oz. of like-new alpaca for $4.

It's fingering weight, so I'm going to make socks with it. I'll post a follow-up when the yarn is dry and wound, and the socks are WIP.

Why we should pay college athletes

From NYTimes today, "Serfs of the Turf" by Michael Lewis:

If the N.C.A.A. genuinely wanted to take the money out of college football it’d make the tickets free and broadcast the games on public television and set limits on how much universities could pay head coaches. But the N.C.A.A. confines its anti-market strictures to the players — and God help the interior lineman who is caught breaking them. Each year some player who grew up with nothing is tempted by a booster’s offer of a car, or some cash, and is never heard from again.

Can you imagine Nebraska or Michigan or Ohio State football games on public T.V.? What a joke. There are so many issues here, including big intersections of race and class, but I don't feel like writing a treatise.

But I just can't think of one reason why we don't pay a stipend to college athletes. Waiving tuition isn't enough. I went through 12 years of higher education and learned the difference between a tuition waiver and education support. A tuition waiver doesn't help you take your girlfriend to the movies, especially if you are forbidden from having a part-time job because of your D-1 athlete status.

Although, I've never actually heard of an "interior" lineman. We always called them "inside." Whatever. Lewis still has a point.

Ravelry "Friends"

By the way, I'm not "fiber smarts" in Ravelry. I'm "krgp," like my author's name here.

Yes, those are my initials. Yes, I have four names, because I'm stubborn and easily swayed by society's dictates at the same time.

Yes, I'm a gemini.

Ravelry Rocks!

I finally received my invite to Ravelry.com, and boy is that my new addiction (that, and the Urban Vest from the latest issue of Knitter's Magazine).

Mostly I'm entering in my WIPs and FOs into my "notebook" and putting in the books I own into my "library." What fun! I highly recommend it.