Upcycled: Cardigan to Strawberries and more

The little hand-me-down cardigan was worn by at least five little girls, including three of mine, mashaAllah, over the past decade. The tag on it, indicates it was originally a 18 month size, but with innumerable

 washes over the years, it shrank and felted to be a six month size. It also got misshapen.

So, when I needed some red felt for a project, it was time for this cardigan to be sacrificed. And some time later, I had a little strawberry pincushion. (Picture tutorial pinned on my pinterest board here.)

And because the little strawberry was ridiculously easy to make and cute, I made another.

 My kids wanted in on the action, so we made a couple more.

Now we had a complete harvest.

And I did not have the heart to throw away the embroidered part of the cardigan, so that got made into a case for my scissors.

I still have quite a bit of red felt remaining. Who knows what it will turn into some day.

On a serious note, I bumped my head into a preschool swing set, a few days back and suffered a mild concussion. The dizziness and headache still persist. I do not feel like taking on any new projects, (to be honest, daily housework is hard enough) until I feel better. Soon, inshaAllah.

To Frog Pond And Back

Just as I suspected, in the case of my grandpa sweater, the tubular bind-off at the lower edge and front bands, did not hold up well with wear and stretched to much out of shape. So much so, that I decided to take the drastic step and frog back the collar bands and the lower edge ribbing. It took a significant bit of resolve to take off all the buttons and rip out all the buttonholes reinforced with hand-sewing, but it needed to be done, if this cardigan were to make my frequently worn list.
I redid the ribbings with smaller-sized needle and did regular bind-off in rib. I lost some yarn in frogging and decided to forgo the shawl collar, considering the little extra yarn that I had, was used up in the lower edge ribbing.  It was all worth it in the end, as the regular bind-off is much more stable and I do not miss the shawl collar much.