Cutting pieces

If you work with recycled wool sweaters, you know it's often difficult to find great colors without spending a lot of money at higher priced thrift stores. If I find a sweater that is an incredible color that I "need" to add to my supply, I will sometimes spend a little more on it - but generally, I often cannot justify spending too much money on an individual sweater. If you do, it quickly becomes very expensive material to work with.

In order to create a new item that has wonderful color – but doesn’t have to deplete my entire color stash – I find I can often use the more neutral colored sweaters as the background or base and embellish with pieces that are much more colorful. I keep a full basket of individually cut shapes (from the brightly colored sweaters) handy just for that purpose. I can then grab petals and leaves at any time to quickly embellish a simple gray pillow or handbag. And, I find cutting wool pieces while watching a good movie very relaxing!

I better run - I'm off to cut more flowers, leaves and circles for upcoming projects!