The neck warmers are IN

Neck warmers or tube scarves or loops/ I have no idea what the real name is/ have been out there for a few years now, but this year the creativity can't be shopped. They are easy to make and very comfortable, if you don't feel well wrapped tightly with your scarf, they are the perfect choice for you. I am haunted by the memory of winter days when my mum would tighten my scarf so much I would hardly move my head :) So I made myself a few different designs of neck warmers for the cold days ahead.

This is my pixel heart neck warmer/collar/loop

And for the boys a space invader design!

And one soft and warm yellow neck warmer / collar/ loop with black buttons:)

You can find all my little treasures at my shop at http://en.dawanda.com/shop/Sheepdreamz or write me here :)

Why to buy Handmade Items?

I am making handmade products and have been often asked, how can I compete with the mass produced items. What it is that makes handmade worth the additional cost?

First of all it is unique, even when you follow the same pattern at the end 2 products don't come out the same. It depends on the mood I am in and the way I hold the hook. what the product will look like, because I am a human and leave my trace on the things I make. 

Here we come to the second advantage I am person who makes things for people. The items can be customized to suit the individual stile and personality of the customer. How amazing it is to get an accessory, which is just what you imagined! Just like this happy customer showing off with her new mittens:)

The quality of the product is also higher, a craftsman wouldn't work with low quality materials, because he/she takes pride in the product and relies on the happy customers, who come back again and again, unlike mass producers who want the product to look good in the shop and once sold it often doesn't last long. 

Buying handmade items is a good way to support the well being of your local community, the local handicrafts people are eager to spend on local materials and generally spend the profit they make locally, doing so they accumulate the profit of many other small businesses. /I am an economist and can't help clearing out economical theories/

And last but not least, it is environmentally friendly, buying local handicrafts means you avoid the shipping of products made else where and reduce your carbon footprint and handmade methods are generally greener than mass production ones. 

How to Recycle an old Pullover and have Usable Yarn

And now the promised tutorial about unraveling a sweater. First you have to choose which pullover to use, I would suggest a mixture between wool and acrylic,because it is my favorite yarn, the wool gives warmth and the acrylic makes it soft. But what you need to know is, that the pullover needs to look like this :

It needs to have 2 ends and be sewed in the middle, not like this

In the second example the yarn has been cut and sewed together, like fabric would, so the yarn is cut at the end of every row, you don't need this!

 What you need to do is take fine scissors and cut the yarn between the two ends and pull a bit to form a small whole, it is good to start at the sleeves or neck, if the pullover is like mine, the treat will be fastened like slip stitch in crochet, so pulling the treat will unravel it, you have to see which way it goes too. If this is too complicated, maybe you are better off clipping the treat very carefully, try not to damage the yarn on the sides. 

 When you are ready with the treat and have removed the sleeves, you need to look at the top of the sleeve/or neck/ and find the end it must look like this, like crochet chains, cut and pull to unravel, if you can't find it, you can cut the treat between the yarn, hopefully it will be different /a bit/ and unravel then. To be honest you will need to try it a few times before it works out easy:)

 When this is done before starting the unraveling clean the ends from the parts of treat, it can other ways form knots later and slow you down, when it looks like this :

 It is not a clean task, there will be small pieces of yarn flying around, clean well the edges and hope for the best:)

 And finally , off you go , the fun starts here:)

 Take a hard piece of paper and roll the yarn around it.

 And one sleeve is ready!!

It takes time, but it is worth it, you get to use so much yarn, which would have ended up in the trash :)
If you are still not sure why it is a good idea, check out my post, which answers this question here

My new creations

I am in love with a pattern I modified for my needs and intend to make lots of those wavy scarfs :)

Technorati code 65J9X4KDM9NQ

Why to Recycle an Old Pullover and use the Yarn

Why would you recycle your old pullovers instead of just getting rid of them? If you are a crochet or knitter you must know how expensive yarn is and a pullover is around 400-500 gram of perfectly fine yarn, sometimes even better than the one you can find in the shop!

100% cashmere, not bad at all:)
 Second reason is that it is environmentally friendly, because buying new seems reasonable to us, but we can hardly imagine the amount of carbon footprint our goods leave before they can make it to our wardrobes.
 When I first unraveled a sweater, it was not because of the two reasons above, it was because I had no yarn shop in my area, or at least none I knew of. I lived in Montenegro shortly after I learned how to crochet and was very keen on practicing my new skill:) Left with no other option I decided to unravel a sweater, I went to the secondhand shop/"the" because it was one and bankrupted shortly after :)/ and got a big pullover for 2 euro.
 I got the idea from my childhood memories, my granny would unravel a pullover of hers /not fitting anymore/ and make 2 small ones for the grandchildren. Being the lovely person she was, my granny has greatly influenced me. She had lived all her life in a socialistic regime, which means that she as a consumer was greatly restricted in the choices she could make, there was furniture for everyone, but it was all the same, coming from the same factory :) so were the shoes and clothes, so it is natural that handmade things were very highly appreciated for their uniqueness and my granny was the one to make them in my family. She was very patient, she would sit with her friends and have fun while unraveling or spinning yarn. Work was natural part of her day, why have your hands empty when you can be making something :)
And this is why you should recycle your pullovers- cheap, environmental friendly and fun activity that leaves you with lots of yarn is worth trying.
Tomorrow I will publish a tutorial discussing how to do it :)