Recycled Sweater Shrug with "Bite Me" Embroidery inspired by the luscious book Vampire Knits by Genevieve Miller

Yup, you read the title right! We here at Sweater Surgery have another fun sweater recycling design, this time inspired by the book Vampire Knits: Projects to Keep You Knitting from Twilight to Dawn. It is filled with wonderfully designed knitting projects full of great details that had me running to my sweater stash to see what I could make first, because I just had to have something right away!
I love shrugs and with it almost cool enough to wear one here in SoCal making one seemed like a great place to start. You can't go wrong with black so this giant black sweater with fabulously long sleeves (my favorite for being able to pull down over my always cold hands) and great big turtleneck was perfect for a little sweater surgery.
I was in luck in that the sleeves came apart with just a few snips of the thread that held it together and I cut the body of the sweater off the turtleneck without cutting into the knit stitches of the turtleneck thus preventing it from unraveling.
Then I cut the turtleneck open along its seam. I then sewed a button over a snap to make my new closure.
In Vampire Knits they give you patterns for fonts that you can duplicate stitch but I was in the mood for a bit more of a rough look and I was working with a ribbed sweater so I thought I'd go with just a quick down and dirty embroidery with a silver metallic Kreinik thread #8. And I do have a fondness for this phrase that seemed rather vampire appropriate (I did the cross stitch of it from the Subversive Cross Stitch book :)

Side note, I just made the "happy face" and used the closed parenthesis simultaneously...how often does that happen??

Well there are tons more details in Vampire Knits that I can't wait to incorporate in my recycling and knitting projects! If you're more the type that likes to work straight from a pattern I bet you will love making the designs in this book too!
Vampire Knits: Projects to Keep You Knitting from Twilight to Dawn
By
Genevieve Miller

"Product Description from Potter Craft

Surrender to the allure of knits inspired by the immortals we all love to fear. If you adore Twilight, True Blood, or The Vampire Diaries, this collection of 28 imaginative and beautiful projects is sure to captivate.

• Black capes are so 1897, instead get stylish with the dead sexy Sidhe Shrug.
• Unleash your inner shapeshifter with the Werewolf Hat.
• Keep warm while holding hands with your vampire by wearing these Bellisima Mittens.
• Around humans? Use the Blood Bottle Cozies to disguise your beverage.

Whether you are wandering the Carpathian Mountains or the bayous of Louisiana, these smoldering projects—for knitters of all levels—will keep you well protected, no matter what you attract.

About the Author

GENEVIEVE MILLER was inspired to design her own patterns after reading Twilight. She is the mother of three and luckily married to a guy who doesn't mind the house being taken over by a giant yarn stash. She lives in Pasadena, California. "