Thrifty Crochet

There is a lot of nice yarn going up for auction lately, and I've caved into my curiosity and looked around the site to get an idea of the prices and how the bidding is going. Competition is very fierce for basically every decent yarn lot, but there are still a few gems the snipers and resellers seem to be ignoring. I let myself bid on three, but only for $10.00 each. Take this small lot of yarn and kits -- it had no bidders until I put in mine. There appears to be a sock kit, as well as a mystery bag from Annie's along with some interesting yarn. It's worth ten bucks to me to find out what's in that bag. :) Jumbled mess lots generally don't get any bids, but I see some interesting yarns in this one, too. The case in the front has both knitting and crochet vintage needles in it. KnitPal Wool Wonders is very soft yarn, too. I'd buy this at a brick and mortar for ten bucks, so I bid. I have a chance to win this gigantic lot for my ten buck bid be...

I decided to document everything I do in one day. I was curious about how much I get accomplished (more than I thought.) I also never really think about how busy I am. It's just life. If you'd like to know the details, and you're not easily bored, you can walk through 17 hours of April 15th with me via this photo album here .

I rarely mention on the blog the things I thrift that are not yarn, such as my clothes. I thrift 99.9% of my wardrobe, and that includes a pajama shorts set for $8.99. It's Alice in Wonderland, and has the word Sweetie emblazoned on the shirt, but I'm just going to sleep in it. :) A comparable set at Wal-Mart (and this is the very cheapest sort) now costs $16.98 new. For $5.99 each I scored two bags of hundreds of fabric strips, which included five packages of binding. It's enough to make a good-size throw quilt. This will save me time (and hand pain) when I sew a new patchwork pattern I've been wanting to try. Finally, and this is not the best photo, I bought a wood framed ceramic tile for my kitchen, not to display but to rest hot pots on as I transfer their contents to serving dishes. That protects my counters. The trivet was $3.99, but I got it for half off at $2.00.

Last week I decided to use the buy it now option to purchase this yarn and floss lot at the online thrift auction for $19.95 several reasons. Primarily it has yarn I need for some upcoming projects, including a hard to find Bernat yarn. That used up the rest of my thrift budget for April and a few bucks more, but I wasn't trying not to spend this month. I'm going out thrifting this weekend, too, so I expect to spend again. I'll just have to tough it out. :) I had a very good feeling about this lot, and not just because I got it for a very decent price. I've already thrifted one skein of that black/gray/white striped Bernat blanket yarn, and it retails for $14.99. As for the rest, it looked to me as if it was definitely worth $5.00 per skein resale, or $119.99. I counted 22 skeins of yarn in the listing pic for this bundle (it's a pile, so I knew there might be more), and that made the price I paid break down to about ninety-one cents per skein. In contras...

Let's talk some more about how to estimate the value of yarn lots you can thrift online before you place a bid. Here's a nice lot of 30 Red Heart Super Saver skeins that has an opening bid of $15.75. This is where you do simple math. $15.75 divided by 30 is .525 cents. Now, if the winner lands this lot for the minimum bid, and the shipping is another $20.00, that brings the total cost up to $35.75. That's still $1.19 per skein. Red Heart Super Saver retails for $4.49, and Jumbo runs about $7.99 now. So Let's say you get 27 regular skeins, and 3 Jumbo. These would cost you $145.20 to buy new. Small yarn lots can have value, too, and they're a bit easier to price if they have the labels, but you need to watch the cost of shipping. There were 11 total skeins in this lot (four are not pictured in the opening listing shot) and I estimated them to be worth $38.27 retail. The opening bid on this lot is $8.99, but shipping is probably going to be anywher...

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. Everything in the yarn section was SO expensive! $14.99 for these Caron cakes (I thrifted two latte cakes for less than a dollar a cake last year.) I don't know how anyone can afford new yarn. 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. 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 ...