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Boise Green Living: Recycled Wool

It's a busy time of year for Karen Heddens. Amid stacks of old, cut up wool sweaters, she is hard at work turning old in to new. She's in the production phase of her work year. The year started with her collecting plenty of old clothing that most people have gotten rid of.

"I like to find unwanted and unusable sweaters to recycle them," says Karen. "Some of them have little tiny holes on them or are worn out on the elbows."

The old sweaters eventually become washed, shrunken scraps of wool which Karen turns into something new.  A sampling of the Karen Heddens Designs product line sits in her home. It's made up of slippers, tote bags and jackets. One of the biggest selling points is that everything is recycled.

"People love that part of my work," she says. "In fact that's on of the major things that draws people to this."

People are interested as Karen says business is booming. It's payoff for all the hard work involved.

"It's a lot of labor involved in it," she says. "But it's very satisfying to see people when they realize it's recycled, and really like the product. So it makes me happy."