recycling that cashmere sweater that you can't throw away

I try not to spend a lot of money on clothes and generally either buy on deep discount at places like T.J. Maxx or Marshalls or from consignment or Goodwill. I can rarely find affordable cashmere sweaters and who doesn't love the soft, silky feel of cashmere. Well one lucky day I did find a sweater that was affordable because it was so thin it appeared to have been made out of the floor scrappings from the cashmere factory but who am I to complain, it was cheap and deliciously soft. I loved the sweater and wore it until it got a hole in a rather conspicuous place (think easy access for breast feeding). I am not a pack rat but I could not bring myself to throw this beloved and otherwise still good sweater out. It would be like shooting your loyal workhorse after it reached retirement age instead of putting it out to pasture. So I made a scarf. I cut out two equally wide strips from the sweater and sewed a zigzag stitch around all sides of these two strips to prevent unraveling. I then sewed two of the short ends together as the middle of my new scarf. This gave me a wonderfully soft, cozy and long scarf that I can wrap around and around and around my neck. Very easy and you give yourself a cashmere hug every time you leave the house on cold winter days. This is not limited to cashmere. I have actually unraveled other beloved sweaters of a thicker weave and used that yarn to knit a scarf. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Re-purpose!