Cooler weather is on the way, so it’s time to start collecting sweaters! With the unpredictable fall weather you usually won’t need bulky woolens just yet. Instead, you can start by layering light, breezy ones and work your way up to those mid-winter weights.

When I go to Goodwill for sweaters, I often find great ones with small holes or pulled yarn. Your first instinct might be to move on to something else, but often these slightly damaged sweaters are of very high quality.  So, instead of passing them by, here’s a great technique to add a little edge and fun to some of the great sweaters you might find at Goodwill. 

You will need:

-Sweaters from Goodwill (the more loose the weave is the easier it will be to pull the threads).

- Needle or pair of snips.

The sweater I found at Goodwill had a hot pink heart knitted on top of the front panel.  I’m not much for hearts on my clothes, so I used small snips to cut the hot pink threads at the edge of the heart to remove it.  This left some loose threads that I could pull on to begin distressing the piece.  If your sweater has small holes, or other tears you’ll want to start there, otherwise make your own by sniping a thread or two. Once the loose threads are exposed you simply pull on them until they begin to unravel. Some take a little work to get started, but become much easier to pull as they get going. The unraveling creates a beautiful spider-web texture.  If you want more grunge you can rip bigger holes and rejoin them with safety pins, or sew in different colored yarns.  You can also use this technique with t-shirts and other knitted apparel. Threads are tighter, but it’ll produce great results. You might also consider dying your sweater a different color, or adding other embellishments. I personally like the complexity of the pulled threads and like to highlight that by wearing a contrasting color underneath.