1. 100% Merino Wool – little thinner than fingering, doubled I’m guessing it will knit at ~22 sts/4″. Tonnes of it, from a LS (long sleeved), long size L belted sweater-coat
2. 100% Wool – knits up like a heavy worsted or bulky, this yarn is ultra soft (it makes me suspicious of its 100% wool label). From a LS ladies M pullover.
3. 100% Merino Wool – Ultra soft and spongy, held doubled this yarn knits at ~20sts/4″. From large, cabled sweater. The tiny ball on the right of the lot shows the yarn’s original tan color, and I have dyed it into 2 colors, the dark red on the left, and a tiny bit left of the reddy-orange. The dark red is soon to become a short-sleeved sweater!
4. 100% Cashmere – from a LS ladies M cartigan. Ultra soft. I may over-dye this, but I’m not sure yet what color. Knits up like an aran.
5. 100% Cashmere – from a LS ladies L pullover. Slightly thinner yarn than the other cashmere, but I love the sky blue color.
6. Angora/Wool Blend – from LS ladies M pullover. Ultra furry, probably knits like a fingering weight yarn. I’m thinking about knitting a lacy toque. I may over dye too, not sure.
7. Angora/Wool Blend – from a gigantic ladies LS pullover, which was knit in a double-knit pattern, so there is TONNES of yardage. In 6 different colors, though, as the yarn is a 6 ply made up of cream and grey-blue strands in varying proportions. Not all skeins shown (I was in progress)
8. 100% Wool – this is a bit scratchy, though it didn’t seem bad in sweater form. The yarn is from a huge cabled sweater, and as you can see, I have dyed some of it mauve, some turquoise, and some dark sage green, and some remains the original grey-blue. I may use this for felted kitchen items.
9. 100% Cotton – pretty nice cotton, if you like cotton, which it turns out, I don’t! Not when I can knit with merino or cashmere!!
10. 60% Alpaca / 40% Wool – lace-weight yarn, from a ladies M cardigan that was double-knit. Massive yardage (not all is shown, as I wasn’t finished when this picture was taken), in quite a nice rich blueish-green color. However, I won’t wear this color, so I am thinking about over dying it to a dark turquoise with the addition of blue dye.
11. Angora / Wool / Synthetic – heavy lace weight, which I over-dyed from pale blue to an amazingly brilliant blue with shots of purple, using blue paste icing dye. It was from a ladies S sleeveless top, so not a lot of yardage, but it may become lacy arm warmers, or fingerless gloves.
12. Angora / Wool / Synthetic – bulky weight, which I dyed from a pale blue to this variegated turquoise/violet using Wilton’s icing dye [Delphinium Blue]. The yarn shown here are the remnants, as I have already made a short-sleeved cowl-necked sweater from this yarn, which will be the subject of a future post. The remnants may become a hat, and I may over dye it again to black, as I’m not really that fond of the color, though it is quite spectacular.
Click on these thumbnails to see more detailed photos of these yarns:
Wools, Angora Blends, Alpaca Blend, Cashmere
A successful thrift store visit has made my stash 3 sweaters and one hand-knit scarf richer. The scarf is unraveled; it’s a bulky single-ply wool or wool blend, and I think there’s enough to make some kind of a vest. Or matching felted kitchen goodies like oven mitts and coasters? I tested, and it takes acid dyes well. [click on pictures for larger versions] 
Lastly, the ‘dog’ of the bunch is a wool/angora/nylon sweater, at quite a fine gauge. The fabric is actually not as soft as it could be, and a more pilled than I noticed when I grabbed it. But we’ll see, it could become something quite lovely, and the less precious I am with my recycled yarns, the more free I feel to go wild experimenting in the dye-pot. Maybe I’ll dye a bunch of smallish hanks into a rainbow, and then knit something striped, or hold yarns together for shifting color combinations.
damp city knits : 