Valerean

I don't often buy new yarn. A few times this year I have; skeins from Michaels on a bogo sale, some white and variegated yarn I wanted off Amazon, and this dollar store chenille to make a pumpkin costume for my stuffed pup. I prefer to thrift my yarn because frankly it's cheaper and I can get a lot more for my money. Also, I'm not a yarn snob. Any cheaply-priced yarn is fine with me. I did like working with the Premier Just Chenille yarn, which was soft, fluffy and pretty nice quality for $1.25 per skein, so I decided to try a different variety from Dollar Tree. I bought four skeins of the Premier Just Yarn worsted acrylic for $5.00 total. The soft gray is a color I really like (and wear a lot), and the softness of the yarn impressed me. Acrylic yarn is usually a bit stiff. Since I need some new winter hats, I decided to make one with the Just Yarn worsted gray. My first impression was that it works up smoothly and has a sturdy but comfortable hand to i...

Here are the results of my latest round of wannabuts, or items I want to thrift but only for the price I want to pay. This messy yarn lot will need a lot of TLC, which is why I only wanted it for my minimum bid of $9.00. Alas, I lost it in a brief bidding war to someone willing to pay $12.99 for it. This yarn and fabric lot intrigued me, but only for the right price -- and I won it with no challengers for $8.99! I've always wanted a DMC floss cabinet, but thrift auction buyers fight ferociously over them. New they retail starting at $50.00. This one seemed to be no different -- I was outbid by another buyer -- but I thought I'd try one more bid with the max I was willing to pay for it -- $14.00 -- and unbelievably, I won it. Now I have a thrifted cabinet that is a dream come true. Two out of three wannabuts is a very good round. :)

By the time this post publishes I will have attended the county quilt show (all the things in the pic were what I bought there in 2024.) Last year I had a lovely time at it with my guy and my favorite person, and invested in a few things for myself, but this year I will probably just go to take pics of the quilts and only buy a little fabric for a friend and finished quilted projects made by the guild members (my way of showing support.) I need to stop buying fabric for myself, as my ability to quilt things by hand is almost over, and I already have enough to last me ten lifetimes. It's a little sad, but it's also part of life. I've been hand-quilting for over thirty years with hands that have been partially crippled, and I knew the day would come when my fingers would no longer cooperate. I'm happy I was able to quilt as long as I have. It's tempting to wail over losing my dexterity, too, because honestly it does seem so unfair. Then I think of what my lif...

The 10 oz. jumbo variegated yarn I thrifted from a Goodwill in The Villages turned out to be a lot of fun. I used almost the entire skein to make this scarf, the pattern for which is free online. I found the pattern on the inside of the label for the self-striping yarn I used to make my previous scarf, and thought it would like nice in variegated. No problems with the pattern. After the foundation row there's a one row repeat of V-stitch and triple double crochet clusters, which kept it interesting even if it was a bit mindless.The odd thing about the yarn was the color variation shifted a bit in the middle of the scarf, but I liked the effect. Once it reached 72" as per the pattern I fastened it off. I had a small ball of yarn left over, so it was a decent one-skein project. Two 5 oz. skeins of worsted would make this if you don't have a jumbo skein.

The yarn lot I thrifted with multiple skeins of the same yarn just arrived, let's see if it really was the bargain I thought. There are 26 skeins of yarn, including vintage skeins of Natura white (11), Dazzleaire (3), K-mart labeled ombre (2), Bernat Baby Softee (2), unlabeled big Mohair (2) and one moonlight mohair, all of which are discontinued. There was also a tool which I think is for knitting in the round. Downside: just one; some of the skeins were obviously stored in a not too clean place, and have some debris on the outside, so I will need to hand-wash those before I use them. Upside: The white acrylic yarn, which was the reason I bought this lot, is in very nice, clean shape. Six of the skeins were actually still in their shipping bag from the original manufacturer. Quite a bit of this discontinued yarn sells for big bucks now. This skein of Moonlight Mohair retails for $14.70 on Amazon. Dazzleaire sells for around $8.99 a skein these days. Na...

I've been tucking a little money away all year so I could shop at the county quilt show, and this was my haul. I really didn't buy a lot of fabric by comparison to past years, and I spent about half my money in the guild's boutique buying things they made like the placemats and chili pepper hot pad; this helps support their work. I also got some fabric carrots and a pin kit. I visited many of the vendors, who offered some very cool bargains. One was this mystery bag from The Quilted Peacock. Lots of scrap and yardage fabric inside, plus a book quilt pattern and a walking foot for a Janome. I'm going to pass along the latter but I might make a book quilt out of all the fabrics. :) One vendor complimented me on my OOAK shirt, which a dear friend made for me. So I bought these embroidery threads from her booth. You say nice things to me, I buy something from you. :) I met the guild member who made this adorable note pad holder as I was checking ou...

This was last year's Thanksgiving dinner, which we actually had on November 14th because Kat was visiting. On the official day she had left, so my guy and I went out wandering and actually ended up eating at a fairly nice meal at a busy Cracker Barrel. This year I am probably going to make two dinners, one on the official day for two or (possibly) three people if our nephew moves in, and one in December for (possibly) three or four if our nephew has moved in but isn't visiting his children for the holidays -- and Kat (possibly) visits again. That's a lot of possibilities, right? Unhappily we live in an age when the youngsters are totally fine with expecting me to pull a Thanksgiving dinner out of thin air at a moment's notice, possibly because they've never had to make one. It's fine. I've learned to be flexible (and not expect anyone to have manners anymore.) Saves me a lot of grief. In order to make two Thanksgiving dinners without a lot of no...

On Friday I attended the annual county quilt show, and took a ton of pics. This year was even better than 2024. If you'd like to see the quilts from the show, check out my album here.

It's time for another round of wannabuts, or thrift lots that I want but only for a minimum bid. I have some pathological need to hand wind yarn, it seems, because I can't resist a messy yarn lot like this one. It will need a lot of TLC, however, so I am sticking firm to my minimum bid. This lot combines yarn and fabric, which also prompted me to wannabid. :) I really, really doubt I'll get this DMC floss cabinet, as the thrift auction buyers fight ferociously over them, but nothing ventured. Before I could write this post I won this wannabut yarn lot for my max bid. It's a bit of a jumble, but almost all of the skeins have labels and are in colors I want. It will arrive soon, and when it does I'll show you why it was a real bargain. Stay tuned to the blog for the results on the other lots. Image credit: all of the pictures in this post came from the original auction listings on ShopGoodwill.com.

Here's another small lot of yarn I bid at and won at the thrift auction. I counted 25 skeins of yarn, some quite vintage (the three skeins of Dazzleaire are probably 30 to 40 years old) but what interested me is one type of yarn that I go through at the speed of light. There are something like ten skeins of white acrylic worsted yarn in this lot, which is my most-used yarn. It's also quite unusual to find ten skeins of matching yarn in any thrift lot. Although the white is what I really want, the other skeins are interesting, too. I see some that look like mohair, a couple of variegated in colors I like, and even a skein of Christmas red and green metallic yarn. When the lot arrives I'll show you what it looks like in person. Image credit: all the images in this post came from the original auction listing at ShopGoodwill.com.

I'm at the county quilt show today, and I'm also almost two weeks ahead on pre-published posts for the blog, so it's time to start doubling up again. Today I have a rant about health insurance, and how the current regime is making my last seven months before I go on Medicare a nightmare. First, I should point out that I have type 2 diabetes, moderate to severe arthritis in most of my joints, and artherosclerosis, which is a serious cardiovascular disease. I am treating my conditions with diet, exercise, and (for the diabetes) medication. I'm a ticking time bomb for all of these reasons, plus the fact that I'm 64 years old. There is no way I can live safely or even afford physician care without health insurance. One hospitalization would bankrupt me; we'd lose our house and pretty much everything we've worked all our lives for. Before the Affordable Care Act I paid about $800.00 a month for health insurance (I am self-employed, and this is one of...

Once I had the foundation of the pink-only quilt put together, I needed to create my own template for the destroyer, and work out where I would put my poem. An hour and a lot of erasing later, I cut out a very rough template for the destroyer element. I also thought the bottom right would be the best spot for the poem. Th top, sides and bottom of the quilt will have flamingo appliques everywhere, and I want the poem to be easy to read by the beholders. During my breaks (and mostly out of idle curiosity) I started making the scarf pattern I found on the back of the label for the self-striping yarn, using a thrifted jumbo skein of Red Heart Super Saver Wildflower yarn. It's fairly mindless and pretty enough that I want to finish it, so that will be my next side project.

Last night I had a bit of a quandry as I discovered the fabric I thrifted for the backing of the pink-only quilt had stains from being soaked in dirty water, probably from a garage being flooded. It's so light I couldn't see it until I had it under the sewing room light. Since I don't know if I can get the stains out, I decided to use the dark pink fabric I thrifted for the backing. I then put it together with thrifted batting and the top made out of thrifted pillow cases and pinned it. I'm ready to start adding the fabric elements. On my breaks I made a winter hat out of a skein of thrifted variegated yarn using this pattern plus four extra rows to add a brim, which I flip down to keep my ears warm on cold mornings. The leftover yarn is about 1/3 of a 5 oz. skein of Red Heart Super Saver Macaw, so it took 2/3 of a skein.

While I'm working on my pink-only art quilt I'm also going to be crocheting some small projects on the side, which helps keep my trigger fingers from locking up. This 5 oz. skein of Red Heart Super Saver Polo Stripe was included on one of the bags I picked up in the Villages; I've never before tried self-striping yarn. Some folks think you can't make a lot with one skein, but actually there are a ton of projects that required only a skein or even smaller amounts of yarn. I decided on my no-pattern scarf. I just crochet foundation row of chain stitches in the length I want for the scarf (in this case, 65") and then just do rows of double crochet until I run out of yarn. This skein lasted for nine rows. Here's the finished scarf, which took me two nights to crochet while I've been quilting. The yarn does stripe and the color shifts are gradual, so it doesn't have sudden changes. That little bit of aqua yarn is all that's left of t...

After much experimenting, fiddling, trying alternatives and avoiding related problems, I've now settled my morning beverage (if you remember, I gave up coffee in favor of tea back in March .) Yes, I'm back to drinking coffee again. There are many reasons. I love tea more than coffee, but the experience of drinking tea in the morning was less than satisfying. I went through caffeine withdrawal headaches for longer than seemed reasonable. I did find a caffeinated Asian osmanthus tea that I liked lot, but then I came across some controversy over the actual versus claimed ingredients. I did more research. There were disturbing reports about heavy metals in Chinese tea that made me decide to stick to home grown, which actually is very expensive (I did try a few, but none appealed to me.) The only teas that seem to be safe are the herbal tisanes grown in the US. Meanwhile, I got headaches more frequently. I'm not sure why but it might be psychological; I've ...

I'm back to making my morning coffee in a drip machine, this because unfiltered coffee (which is what I was making in the French Press) has a substance in it that raises cholesterol, which is bad for me. The coffee drama in my life (more on that tomorrow) will never end, it seems. It did give me a topic for this post, which is namely no-calorie drinks. As a diabetic I drink a lot every day -- probably close to a gallon -- so I have to be careful not to drink anything sweetened or that has too many calories. Hot coffee with stevia is a zero calorie drink; I add about 40 calories with the tablespoon of nonfat drink milk that I use for creamer. At night I drink one or two cups of herbal tea with stevia, which is also a zero calorie drink. Since I'm a chronic insomniac I've been testing various brands and blends of chamomile tea to see which helps me fall asleep fastest, and Celestial Seasonings' Honey Vanilla Chamomile is the winner. Without fail one strong-br...

My guy and I went out to walk a park in Lady Lake near the Villages, and ended up stopping by a very neat Goodwill we'd never before visited. This one had a lot of brand-new merchandise that had been donated, and also bags and bags of yarn in their bins section. I invested in four bags of the latter. I ended up with fourteen skeins of basically new, clean, odorless yarn. Here's some advice from a seasoned thrifter: try to hit brick and mortar stores in wealthy retirement areas. These people donate nice things. What caught my eye at first were these three matching skeins of Red Heart variegated yarn. The color, Monet, enchanted me. I also like the colors of these three skeins; the one in the center is self-striping, a kind of yarn I've never before tried, so that should be fun. Each bag cost $4.18, and I also made a rounding-up donation to the thrift store, which made my total $21.00. That's about $1.50 per skein, more than I usually pay for thr...