Shear Delta Two

I think one of the biggest challenges with using recycled yarn is having to reexamine potential gauge (that's stitches per square inch). All commercially made sweaters are knit with a machine, and although I would like to say I too am a knitting machine, knitting by hand does have it's limitations. Delta One was a prime example of that. It got downright painful trying to match the gauge of the original sweater. The next time I make Delta One I'll have to go up one needle size, lest I carpal tunnel myself to death. But anyways…



Shear Delta Two uses a triple strand of lamb's wool to achieve the same gauge as Delta One. Prior iterations of Shear have used a double strand which has more breathability and is therefore more suited to the warmer nights of summer when such articles would be worn. Now that Autumn is here, it's time to thicken things up. This is a very subtle upgrade that people won't even notice, but I think it's worth disclosing. Basically: Spring/Summer is double strand Shear, and Fall/Winter is triple strand (and some quadruples).



Multi-strand is of course dependent on the native yarn weight of the sweater from which it was recycled. I've recycled a lot of sweaters, and most of them were machine knit multi-strand. So when I would unravel them, what I'd be getting is a yarn consisting of two or three strands already held together by the machine. Other sweaters I've recycled consisted of just one strand which I'd have to double or triple, as was the case for Delta Two.

Then of course there's the sweaters that have been machine knit as five strand bulky weight, and I have to separate each strand and reassemble them into the weight I want… yes, all this recycling is a lot of work. But I won't bore you with anymore technical babble. Enjoy the bonus pictures.

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