What do you do with the old knitwear you no longer want to wear?
Old, unloved, or damaged knitwear can be upcycled in various ways. Check the label to establish the content of your knitwear.
- Unravel it, and use yarn to rework it into something else.
- Turn it into a felted fabric for sewing.
- You can embellish your knitwear, for instance, turning a plain jumper into a Christmas jumper, to change its look.
- Use visible mending, embroidery, or a patch to repair your damaged knitwear.
- Sell on eBay
- Donate – check out below what can happen to your donated items!
Felting 100% Wool Knitwear
Felting with a natural yarn jumper (not cotton) is simple. Set your washing machine on the hottest setting, and it will shrink and mat up; how much will depend on the type of yarn. Want to shrink it some more? Next, put it into the tumble dryer immediately after washing. Fraying will be non-existent or minimal depending on the type of wool and how much the yarn has shrunk and matted up. From this felted fabric, you can make hot water bottle covers, mitts, hats, toys etc.
Unravelling 100% Cashmere or wool knitwear
I watched a YouTube video a couple of years ago showing a pensioner going to charity shops in search of cashmere jumpers. He couldn’t afford to buy the yarn new for his knitting hobby, which was more like a passion. He’d carefully hand-wash the jumpers and dry them naturally. Next, he’d painstakingly unravel the garment. He’d knit up beautiful scarves and hats in cashmere for friends and family as lovely gifts, totally sustainable.
Unravelling 100% Cotton or bamboo knitwear
The best thing to do is unravel a cotton jumper. First and most importantly, what do the seams look like? Can you see the edges of the knitting with clearly defined stitches? Unpick the seams very carefully and start unravelling from the top. This cotton yarn is ideal for making zero-waste things:- wash clothes, face cleansing pads, scrubs and dishcloths.
Sell on eBay.
Another option is to sell your quality knitwear on eBay, even if your knitwear made from wool, cashmere, or similar is damaged and stained, it will still sell. Crafters will buy the damaged ones cheaply, known as cutter jumpers, to upcycle for their craft.
It is always better to consider buying less, better quality, buying natural, caring for your clothes, and repairing them—embracing slow fashion creates less waste. Learning a craft or two enables you to upcycle fabric, knitwear, mend, darn, and patch.
As a last resort – donate your clothes.
In the UK, 70 per cent of used clothing is exported. That amounted to more than 395,000 tons in 2018, cumulatively worth £451 million”, The Mail Online .
Countries like Ghana and Nigeria receive millions of tons of old, cheap clothes, which end up at enormous markets for sorting, selling and distributing. The Kantamanto market is one of the largest second-hand markets in the world, with over 30,000 workers. The market is home to around 5,000 shops, and the import side occupies an additional 15 acres.
The local textile and manufacturing areas can no longer compete. Countries like Ghana have ended up dumping grounds as unbelievably vast mountains of discarded clothes pile ever higher every year. About 40% of these old clothes exported from Europe and the USA into West Africa can’t be sold or used. Unfortunately, end up dumped, The Guardian. These vast areas are spilling out onto coastlines. “It is growing in the sea – turtles cannot come to the beach, the coral is dying, the fishers can’t fish”.
