Every Bit

Whenever I thrift yarn I try to imagine what I'm going to make with it, too. I'm always inspired by the yarn itself, and figuring out what I can make keeps me from investing in more yarn than I can use.

Here's a lot I thrifted last year. I'm slowly collecting thrifted Wool Ease yarn to make a blanket, so those are going into my collection for that. The two Caron Jumbo Ombre skeins in the back really tugged at my heart, and wanted to be a wrap.

So I used both skeins to make a nice, warm wrap for winter, and had only a tiny ball of scrap left.

To challenge myself with using scraps I got this box of leftover yarn balls and tried to make as many things with them as I could.

I ended up making a collection of small items, and used every one of the scraps.

When I saw one of my favorite yarns in a thrift lot I had to get it. I was so happy to add this yarn to my stash, and it only took another two months before I used it up to make a throw for a friend who loves these colors.

I used all but six inches of that yarn to make this throw. I mailed it off this week to my friend.

When you want to thrift yarn for a particular project, it's a good idea to figure out what you want to make first. From long experience I remember how many skeins it takes to make my favorite patterns, so those numbers are in my head. You can carry around a cheat sheet with the project names and how many skeins you'll need for each one. Remember to include the ounces required as thrift skeins are all shapes, sizes and weights. Also, keep in mind that if you thrift partially-used skeins you can't expect the yardage on the label.

If you've never tried thrifting with a pattern in mind, you might try first with some one-skein projects. Those are the easiest to match to the yarns you find thrifting, as you'll usually be able to find at least one skein in the colors and weight you want.

One thing I wanted to mention on the blog is the headache of regret I have in purchasing a pattern on Ravelry. I debated about even doing it (March being a no-spend month for me) but I had a couple of bucks left from February's budget, and I thought it's such a big site that it wouldn't be a problem.

It's been nothing but problems. They took my Paypal payment right away, of course, but then claimed they didn't get it and would not send me the pattern. I have been e-mailing the site for two days now with no response. Evidently if I ever do get a response I have to prove I purchased it by showing them the receipt. Look, it was just five bucks, so I'm not going to cry over it, but this will absolutely be the last time I purchase anything from Ravelry.