Skip to main content

Thing You Find

When you thrift yarn it sometimes comes with little surprises you don't expect. My most recent discovery was a hank of what looked like human hair in an exotic yarn lot (it's actually a silk and alpaca blend.)

The nastiest surprise of last year was finding a rusting sewing needle stuck in a ball of yarn (another reason why pink is not my favorite color.)

Often crocheters leave their hooks stuck in a skein and then forget about them. I have an entire bag of hooks I've recovered from thrifted skeins.

Knitting needles are more rare to find, but you will get these still attached to a project, too. My arthritis prevents me from knitting, so I donate these to our local church thrift store.

Unfinished projects are common finds as well, often still attached to the skein or ball of yarn used to make them. Last year I finished the final row of this baby blanket that came in a lot of thrifted yarn, and it made me very happy.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the Beach

Last week my guy and I went to walk Daytona Beach, which was mostly (and eerily) deserted. This is what our beaches used to look like when I was a kid. It was a beautiful day, cold and breezy but calm. It feels like 2026 is getting off to the right start.
Post a Comment
Read more

Eight Plus Numbers

When I was looking up the retail on the small lot of yarn plus a tapestry kit I got a lot of surprises. This Red Heart Roll with It Sparkle skein in "Diamonds" was actually a cake that sells $10.99 on Yarnspirations. The lot included two Red Heart Super Saver Jumbo skeins, which retail for $8.99 each, and stuck in the center of the buff color I found a 5.5 mm crochet hook. This is a skein of 100% Icelandic wool, which can be really expensive. It's marked with a price tag of $7.00, and I found it selling for $8.00 online. The needlepoint kit is the biggest surprise of all. It makes a pillow, and hails from the UK, where it sells for £45.00 ($60.76 US). Since it's flamingos I definitely have to finish it if I can. Altogether my eight plus lot retails for $125.04; I paid $21.30 total for the lot with the buy-it-now option and one penny shipping. I indeed got a very nice bargain.
Post a Comment
Read more

Halfway Month Blues

Last week I realized on the 14th that two weeks of 2026 flew right by me, and right now I'm writing during the third week. I wanted to be finished with more projects by now, but life and work have to come first. I think this might be when most crocheters start a new shiny project to boost their spirits. Not me. I kept working away at my first project for the year, and here's why: I don't like being surrounded by unfinished things. I also tend to get fatigued and abandon projects more easily if I've left them by the wayside to do something else. Finally, the payoff of the finished project gives me a much better spirit boost than messing around with several projects at the same time. I have a couple of strategies for sticking to working on one project at a time, which I can use to keep myself focused on reaching the finish line. Planning my next project is probably what I do most often by pulling the yarn from my stash, getting out the printed pattern for the...
Post a Comment
Read more