Spent two day knitting furiously, and finally yesterday was S-day: Sheep day!  Before assembling the sheep I measured the knits we produced for future reference: once a scientist, always a scientist.  The little girl helped counting rows and weighing the knits on the kitchen scales. Then I had a go at assembling the sheep – will blog about that later.

Some conclusions as to the knitting:

Making yarn goes much too slow when the cutting is done manually. The machine cutter is great but also dangerous – never use it when tired or when in conversation! All my fingers still present and accounted for.

Strips 5 cm wide result in yarn of different thickness, as T-shirts are thinner or thicker. Take this into account when cutting so make smaller strips if fabric is thick and wider ones if fabric is thin.

The big knitting needles are great for teaching purpose and for pictures. Smaller ones are better for speed.

Alternating the Dutch and German knitting styles was kind to my hands.

For a sheep that is twice as big the knitting effort multiplies by 4. A sheep 3 times as big multiplies by 9.

So here go  the measurements

Big sheep part 1

Strips 5 cm wide
66 stitches per row
100 cm x 80 cm
40 T-shirts multi coloured
3 kg
time to make the yarn: 1,5 hrs
knitting time: appr. 8 hrs
number of kids that assisted: 10
number of seniors that assisted: 3

Big sheep part 2

Strips 5 cm wide
40 stitches per row
68 cm x 60 cm
15 white T-shirts
1,1 kg
time to make the yarn: 3/4 hrs
knitting time: appr 3 hrs
number of kids that assisted: 0
number of seniors that assisted: 0

Unallocated part

Strips 5 cm wide
38 stitches per row
66 cm x 54 cm
47 rows
16 T-shirts coloured no white
1,1 kg
time to make the yarn: 1 hr
knitting time: appr. 5 hrs
number of kids that assisted: 8
number of seniors that assisted: 5

Small sheep no 1 part 1

Strips 5 cm wide
39 stitches
57 cm x 44 cm
30 rows
14 T-shirts
1 kg
time to make the yarn: 1 hr
knitting time: appr 2 hrs
number of kids that assisted: 1
number of seniors that assisted: 0
Small sheep no 1 part 2

Strips 5 cm wide
26 stitches
40 cm x 40 cm
33 rows
7 T-shirts
0,4 kg
time to make the yarn: 0,5 hrs
number of kids that assisted: 0
number of seniors that assisted: 0

Small sheep no 2 part 1

Strips 5 cm wide
39 stitches
60 x 42 cm
27 rows
14 T-shirts
1 kg
time to make the yarn:1 hr
number of kids that assisted: 0
number of seniors that assisted: 0

Small sheep no 2 part 2

under construction