The Beauty of Bargains

I always talk about the cheapness of thrifted yarn, but I don't often mention condition as a factor. After all, most yarn that is donated is more of the old stash that was never used variety. Sometimes it does have a storage smell, or some soiling. But most of the time the yarn is in like-new beautiful condition. This is because most knitters and crocheters do store their supplies properly.

Every now and then I find a few skeins at my local thrifts that are in mint condition. But this bargain lot that arrived in April was in exceptionally nice condition. In fact, it looked like it came directly from store shelves.

Here are the fifteen skeins in the bargain lot that I bid on and won. All of them are worth five to fifteen times the price I paid (which is why it's a bargain.)

The two skeins of cotton yarn. I've never won a lot in such great shape. I also received a lot of yarns I've never tried to use, so having that variety of fibers will let me try new patterns, like amigurumi made from cotton yarns.

Two bamboo and one silk/bamboo blend skeins. With cost of living soaring right now I don't want to waste a lot of cash buying exotic yarns that may not work for my projects. Thrifting them is better for my wallet and my frugal lifestyle.

These two skeins are an acrylic nylon blend, another type of yarn I've never tried out. Love the pretty colors, too.

Large skeins of acrylic are wonderful for blanket or throw projects, so I'm always happy to find these.

These are polyester yarns I've never tried. The whole lot is amazing, and in perfect shape, and just what I want to add to my stash. I've already used close to fifty skeins of thrifted yarn making throws this year, so I go through a lot.

Still, the numbers are important, too. I looked up every skein, and to purchase them retail would have cost me $152.92. Where can you buy this much yarn in this condition for $16.00 (about $1.07 per skein)? Not even at the dollar store.

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Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Store Closing Haul

The mega Books-A-Million store over in Sanford is closing, and offered an extra 20% off on their current stock -- all sales final -- so I went over to do some shopping. Safely but sadly there was no one in the store but me the entire time I was there. The Holly Jackson novel is for Katherine, the Halloween board book is for Oliver, and the copy of Garden Spells is to keep on hand because I give that book to everyone. The rest of the books are for me. I love Anne Cleeves, and the Galbraith novel sounded interesting (the first couple weren't, but I'm willing to take another chance.) The Escape Room is by a new-to-me author, plus it was cheap. The GreenCraft mag is just a guilty pleasure. Hopefully the smaller BAM nearer to me won't close. I don't buy many books from brick-and-mortar stores these days, but that's really the last one within reasonable driving distance.

Valerean

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