Skip to main content

Michaels Blows My Mind

While we were down in the city last week I asked my guy to stop by a Michael's Craft Store a few miles away, as I needed a couple things I had to see in person. I have not shopped at a craft store since JoAnn closed, and I thought I'd look at their new yarn prices. Hooboy.

I thrift 99.9% of my yarn, so I am not used to the price tag of new, but everything in the yarn section was SO expensive! $14.99 for these Caron cakes -- I thrifted two latte cakes for less than a dollar per cake last year.

Wool Ease is now up to $9.99 a skein. That's crazy. I thrifted three skeins a couple months ago in a big bag of yarn for five bucks.

Even the clearance yarn was $7.00 per skein or higher. I'm sorry, but I just can't justify spending that kind of money on it on a material I can usually thrift for less than a dollar a skein.

What did I get while I was there, you may ask? Not much, and no yarn. This bunny basket was marked down 70% and was still $7.99 (original price $24.99) but I splurged because I like it. I found three chains I needed for $4.49, a watercolor pad for $8.99, and a set of six safety amigurumi blue eyes for $3.49. That's it.

I think I'd better stick to thrifting. Less sticker shock.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

T-minus Day

This was our little Thanksgiving dinner last year, when it was just the three of us. Time keeps whittling down my favorite holiday; this year it will be just me and my guy, and we likely won't even have a turkey.* That will be a first in 35 years. I feel about Thanksgiving the way other people do about Christmas, and while it's a lot of work it's my favorite holiday. Of all the Thanksgivings I've had in the past sixty years, only three were truly terrible: one when I was a kid that I don't talk about (#1 most miserable); the time I roasted two turkeys together and hosted fifteen people whom I cooked for and served with zero help (the largest and #2 most miserable); and the one I spent in basic training (the #3 most miserable.) I have no pictures of any of those, thank heavens. In addition to doing all the cooking I'm the one who takes all the pictures, washes all the dishes and puts away all the leftovers. I suppose no one else cares because to them it...

Fell Off the Wagon

I did cut up that plastic dollar tote to make into something stronger, but got caught up with work and set it aside. Then last night some hand-dyed silk and pretty threads called my name, and, well . . . Felt SO good to do some handwork, except my neck began hurting about an hour into it. I tried changing the way I sit and work, but it's pretty obvious that the doc is right.

Old Loves & Such

My guy kindly bought me my favorite Chinese take out the other night, and my fortune cookie offered up an interesting story starter: This sounds sweet, right? Only the first thing I thought of was an old love coming back from the dead . . . . must be October. In other lovely news, my favorite hand-dyed thread artist, Lorraine from Colour Complements , is moving her business from Etsy to her own web site. Many of my favorite sellers on Etsy are leaving due to the whole "free shipping" coercion debacle, which has also soured me on the site. To show support I did a little shopping at Lorraine's web site and got in these: I love her threads and trims; you simply can't buy anything like them anywhere. Her work makes my specialty thread box look like a treasure chest: At night I'm spending just as hour working on quilting the scrap project runner, and I'm making slow progress: I'll keep quilting the runner while I try to decide on a design for t...