Recycling at its Best!

It turns out that Dear One was not actually enamored of the giant blue Bartlettyarns afghan I made to celebrate the addition on our home in Vermont and the wonderful new great room with queen-sized-hide-a-bed sofa so long ago.  This turned out to be in one of the boxes we brought to South Carolina.  It seemed like a perfect project for recycling.  There is so much yarn in the afghan I should be able to make a sweater even for myself...

Because this was made back in the days when my hands still agreed with me and crocheting, to recycle this yarn I just had to find the end.  There were only four corners to try and, as luck would have it, I found the end at the first try.

As I started unwinding, I also began winding onto the back of one of our dining room chairs.  I did this over a period of about a month, until I didn't think I could take another moment, plus we had company coming for lunch and I wanted the job done by then.

You can see why I wanted to complete this part of the project before company came to lunch...!

After stopping the unwinding process I place ties around the huge skein of yarn in four places then dropped the work into the sink which I had filled with lukewarm water. I let the yarn soak for fifteen minutes or so then let the water out and squeezed the yarn a bit.

Out in the garage I found a walking stick and a piece of 2 by 6 I had pilfered from a trash bin at one of the building sites here...same thing we have under the "planters" on the deck!

After hanging on the deck for a week the yarn was mostly dry so I brought it into the house to get ready for the next part of the process: winding the yarn into a cake.  Well, it will be several cakes because there is so much yarn.

One note, there was still enough of the yarn in afghan form to have a lovely lap blanket so it is folded up and placed on the love-seat in the living room.  Assuming some day it might be cool enough for a bit of covering...