Valerean

Since I didn't win any of my wannabuts last time I bid, I'm trying again. These are items I want to thrift but only for a set minimum price. This brooch lot is bigger and nicer than the one I just lost, so I went a little higher with a max bid of $14.00. Lately jewelry is really attracting bidders so I'm not very optimistic. For this vintage linen lot I bid $10.00 as my max. These lots are 50/50; sometimes they get no bids and other times they attract bidding wars and last-minute snipers. I doubt I will win this big yarn lot for $10.00, but you never know. Stay tuned to the blog to see how I do. :)

To makeover my thrifted stuffies for Halloween I needed some supplies, but since our local Jo-Ann has closed all that's left in my area is Hobby Lobby, where I absolutely refuse to shop ( see this article at The MarySue if you'd like to know my reasons.) Since I had another excuse, off I cheerfully went thrifting! I found a lovely little pumpkin for my collection at our local church thrift for .99, and a bag of wee faux gourds and berries in autumn colors for $1.00. A trip to Dollar Tree surprised me when I found two skeins of chenille yarn, some metallic pipe cleaners and three fat quarters of fabric in Halloween colors that I needed. Not a bad haul for $7.50. I purchased five adorable Halloween novelty prints from an eBay textile seller. These were $13.00, but that's pretty much the only way I can get small amounts of holiday fabric now (plus I got free shipping.) Sorting my scrap bin earlier this summer made it easy to pull some Halloween and fall f...

Here are the results of my latest round of wannabuts, where I bid on thrifted items I want but only for a minimum bid, which this time is again $10.00. This lovely vintage brooch lot would make a neat collage picture, although I didn't think I would win them -- and I didn't. Winning bid was $43.00. I was hoping these three framed needlework pictures could find a new home with me. Nope, I was outbid at $11.00. Sticking to my $10.00 limit meant not bidding again (so hard sometimes, especially when it's just a dollar over!) This 9.2 pound lot of yarn has colors I need, but big lots are attracting lots of bidders. I was also outbid on this one, which went for $16.00. Oh, well, it was fun to try! Image credit: all of the images in this post came from the original auction listings at ShopGoodwill.com.

It's time to play another round of wannabuts, where I bid on thrifted items I want but only for a minimum bid, which this time is again $10.00. I'd like to make a collage picture out of vintage pins for the holidays, so I decided to try for this lot of brooches. I probably won't win them, as large brooch lots tend to attract a lot of bidders, but you never know. These three framed needlework pictures really charmed me, and I'd love to own them, but only if I can get all three for ten bucks. There are several colors of yarn that I need in this 9.2 pound lot. Yarn has become more desirable to bidders now that we're approaching the fall and winter holidays, so it may go for more than my minimum bid. Stay tuned to the blog to see the results. :) Image credit: all of the images in this post came from the original auction listings at ShopGoodwill.com.

Real time Valerean here. I'm almost fully recovered from the flu, with just a bit of residual congestion and a lot of weariness from lack of sleep. I'm also back to work at the day job after losing 2/3 of my vacation to illness. At the moment I'm finishing work on this crochet throw I started while I was sick. I did not really start my summer art quilt; the flu + stiff fingers derailed that project just as I was beginning it. I shifted to crochet because it's mindless and I needed to do something while I was recovering. Some of my favorite projects are those that I've done when I've been ill. I have a beautiful but slightly wonky tote that I stitched while I was waiting for cataract surgery. I love that silly bag so much; working on it helped me get through a terrible time in my life. Now every time I look at this throw I'll think about my summer vacation with the flu. Not giving into sickness but creating in spite of it is one of the ha...

Being sick with the flu really limits my ability to work on projects; the most I can manage at the moment is a bit of crochet. So I started a new throw in the free Ocean Tranquility pattern from Anastacia Zittel, which is just interesting enough to keep me engaged without having to overthink everything or deal with complicated stitch counts. It works up really pretty, and I'm making it in random blocks of thrifted yarn in colors that appeal to me. I pulled these from my stash this morning, although I may change my mind on the off-white. Stay tuned to the blog see how it turns out.

I love old sewing thread. I collect wooden and paper spools with old darning silks on them. I also have a couple hundred spools of vintage threads that came in old sewing boxes, bags of thrifted notions and auction lots. Most are still in good shape, but I rarely use them for anything except basting here and there. For quilting and textile art I prefer Gütermann thread, which I think is the best quality on the market. I have Gütermann in basically all colors. When I saw this video by Maeli Designs about turning sewing thread into yarn I simply had to try it, and pulled twelve spools of my vintage threads in different shades of blue. I did the technique from the video by hand because I don't own a yarn winder, and it works just like the video said. I then crocheted this little disk with a 4mm hook. The gathered threads are not like yarn, so they're hard to hold together. It's easy to turn the threads into a bunched mess with a slip of the hook (and I shou...

While out thrifting I picked up a bag of yarn with other stuff mixed in (and promptly forgot to take a pic before I opened it.) Here's everything, includin 16 skeins of yarn. There were lots of surprises in this bundle, like nine little fabric gift bags. I often give earrings or other small items as gifts so I love these. The big surprises were two upholstery needles, a spool of upholstery thread, tacks for a upholstery gun, and some gorgeous faux diamond buttons. My neighbor does custom upholstery so I'm going to offer the tacks to him. There were even some big buttons, beads and sewing-related items in the bag. I paid $8.99 for it, making it a very nice bargain.

Back in April I had a lot of fun working on my fourth crocheted throw of the year, but I ran into a snag: I didn't have enough of the Lion Brand Mandala orange/white/teal yarn to make a complete throw. I decided at first to use a one-pound Caron skein in a pretty light orange color to fill in the center of the quilt. Although the Caron and the Lion Brand yarns were the same weight, they were very different. The Caron was noticeably thicker, and had an unpleasant stiffness to it that might or might not be chemicals, which often don't wash out. I ended up yanking out a row of the Caron yarn I'd added and went hunting in my stash. This time I found some other Lion Brand Mandala yarn in an orange/white/pink ombre that could work, along with scrap balls of the same. The orange and white scraps worked much better than the Caron, as they matched the orange/white/teal yarn I'd been using in thickness and softness. I weeded out the pink sections and just us...

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.

Making three different throws from thrifted yarn taught me a lot this year. While I followed a free pattern for this Ocean Tranquility throw, I used my own color scheme. so that it resembles the beach and the edge of the ocean. That was fun and gave me confidence to try more/different palettes. I'd like to make another, this time in rows of garden and sky colors. Learning new stitches has also been fun. This shell stitch variation pattern, also known as drunken granny stitch, helped me expand the range of the one-row stitch patterns I know. I'll definitely be using it again for another crochet throw project. Revisiting my crochet past has also been good for me. It was a little difficult and time-consuming, sewing together all these squares (I much prefer row patterns for this reason) and I made some mistakes with the finishing that I had to correct. Yet this brought back some good memories, too. I might make a rectangular gigantic granny square out of scrap ya...

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 ne...

When I decided to do a crocheted throw by asking AI to suggest a pattern I pulled about twenty different skeins of thrifted yarn in colors I like from my stash, and ended up using fourteen or fifteen of them (some came to me in balls, so I have to estimate here.) Again I was able to save these prefectly good skeins from ending up in a landfill, which always delights me. It's excellent physical therapy for my hands and fingers. Making the granny squares also allowed me to revisit the first crochet pattern I ever tried on my own (my grandmother taught me to use single stitch to make hats when I was very little.) It was a bit like going back to high school; I crocheted a lot in those days. I also didn't know I'd be diagnosed with arthritis in my twenties, so I had no fear or worry. I thought I could do anything if I just kept trying (which turned out to be basically true of everything I wanted to do as a youngster -- except be a ballerina, ha.) I know AI is ge...

Since prices on yarn have been increasing lately I went through my latest thrifted lot and priced all the skeins that I could. Here is what they would cost retail: Caron One Pound White: $16.98 Big Twist Twinkle Red: $6.49 Mandala Sparkle Serpent: $8.99 Patons Grace Cotton Blush: $6.99 Yarn Bee Through Thick and Thin (discontinued): $11.00 Caron Latte Cakes Blueberry Mist, Gray Velvet & Earl Gray: $13.00 each Lion Brand Ice Cream Parfait: $5.99 Coats & Clark Wintunk Frankie: $4.99 Lion Brand Hometown USA Cambridge Tweed: $5.99 Lion Brand Homspun Montana Sky: $8.99 Caron Simply Soft Sunshine $5.99 Lion Brand Hometown USA Oakland Black $5.99 Impeccable True Gray: $4.99 Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly Bib Baby Pastel Ombre: $14.99 These seventeen skeins would have cost $160.37 if I'd bought them new. Many are no longer offered for sale except as used or vintage. The four that aren't labelled I can price at $5.00 each and add on for a total of $...