DIY T-shirt Yarn

I find so many cute things to crochet on Pinterest, but the one that's highest on my radar is this cat cave.  It's made of t-shirt yarn.  I looked all over before locating t-shirt yarn at my local Joann's.  Unfortunately, the selection is small and they don't have more than 2 rolls that match in color/design and that doesn't seem like enough to finish one nest.  In my opinion, the stuff is also fairly expensive at $9.99 per roll.

Naturally, I've decided to make my own with cheap t-shirts from Value Village.  I bought a few men's XLs in shades of gray and black to see how it goes.  I located this great tutorial on making continuous t-shirt yarn (also on Pinterest) and set to work on the first shirt.  This is how it turned out:

It was more time consuming than I expected, though my time estimates tend to always be much shorter than actual time taken.  It also made my hands a little sore from the way I pulled the strips to stretch them out.  Overall, I came out with ~53 feet.  I'm not sure whether that's a lot or a little, but we'll find out when I start crocheting!  More to come...