Project Phoenix: Part one - Destruction

When I was in high school I fell in love with the idea of the chunky wool sweater. I loved the weight of a wool sweater, the slightly scratchy, slightly soft feel of the fabric, the sweet but acrid smell of a wool sweater on a damp morning. I loved wool sweaters so much that I wore one practically every day even though I lived in Southern California. I ended up in school in New England in part, I think now, so that I could have a good excuse to keep wearing those sweaters.

My very favorite was a hunter-green roll-neck sweater from J. Crew. Those that knew me way back then will, I have no doubt, remember the sweater in question:

Although I loved that sweater at the time, when I came across it a few weekends ago at the back of a closet in my parents’ house, I had a what-was-I-thinking moment. The yarn is a beautiful color and although the sweater is a bit pilled, it’s held up well for being a decade old. When I tried it on it was hopelessly boxy and made me feel really unattractive. I tossed it into the giveaway pile sadly until I remembered hearing somewhere about reclaimed yarn. Since I’d already consigned several sweaters to the pile for the people, I didn’t feel too guilty about snatching back the old roll-neck and tossing it into my knitting bag.

After a careful examination of the sweater construction, I decided to start with the neck. By the end of the evening I’d turned my rollneck into a boatneck and gathered myself an extremely kinked bundle of yarn.  The right sleeve was the next to go.  Here’s what the sweater looks like now:

Pretty amazing, right? So I’m starting to ponder and browse around on Ravelry for just the right pattern for this very special yarn, but there is still lots of work ahead of me! Unraveling is fun but it’s a pretty active process, what with all the ripping out of rows and wrapping of yarn around a chair back. I still have a sleeve and the front and back of the body to go, but I feel well-guided by the great tutorial by a fellow knit-blogger that I found (thank you, Google!) here.