beautiful baby

How to make a cashmere blanket out of thrifted cashmere sweaters

You can make a cashmere blanket out of five cashmere sweaters.  When I first started collecting cashmere sweaters I aimed to get them for five dollars or less.  Now I aim for less than ten dollars because prices have really gone up at my thrift store.

Tips for finding sweaters:

1. Go often.  Try to get to your thrift store at least once a week.  Some people figure out the best times to go.  I never could.  

2.  Learn how to recognize cashmere - it has a distinctive look and feel and you can use your eyes to find the possible cashmere sweaters and check them with your hands and inspect the labels.  Cashmere sweaters almost always have a second label on the left side seam, a couple of inches above the waist. 

3.  Learn how to spot sweaters that will unravel.  First of all, they must have the proper type of seam; it is like the seam on the top of a big bag of rice or dog food, crochet like.  It is a series of loops and when you tug at it, it will unzip neatly.  Ninety-nine percent of cashmere sweaters will have this kind of seam.  Exceptions: when they have been altered to make them smaller or change the style.

4.  Sweaters worth unraveling will be in pretty good shape, not too full of pills, not too threadbare, not too worn out.   The most common problem is abuse, the sweater may be a bit felted from improper washing.  

Tips for unraveling sweaters:

1.  Go easy on yourself.  Unraveling is something you get better at, like any other