Thrifty Crochet

Last week I decided to take a break and play with this skein of Red Heart Super Saver Pink Camo I got in that excellent BIN Bundle lot. The colors intrigued me, as I've never tried a camo yarn before. I wondered how the color shifts and repeat would work out. I also wanted to try out these pompom makers from that loom set I got in my brick and mortar mega thrift. I've never used these things, and they seem like fun. That's why after watching a very helpful pompom making video tutorial I made this little basket and these three pompoms, using up almost the entire skein. I like camo yarn well enough; the shifts are interesting and the final result is pretty. The pompom makers will come in handy, especially when I start making more bunnies, winter hats and gift wrapping trims.

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 ...

I took a couple days to test out another of the sport weight silk yarns I got from Darn Good Yarn, and learned quite a bit about working with this beautiful fiber. The first thing I crocheted with it was a no-pattern pocket for my purse-size hand creams. I have extremely dry skin, especially on my hands, so I'm constantly using hand creams. The little black tops sometimes unscrew and come off while the tube is getting jostled around in my purse, so I thought a button-up pocket would prevent that. As with the Gumdrop silk yarn Icicle was lovely to work with, and made a pretty pocket for my hand cream. I can fit two inside! Ha. I also crocheted the yarn in single crochet stitches in the round to see how it worked with a tighter project. The mug rug for my office desk came out fine, and I had no problem with the yarn, although the stitches in any sport weight yarn are small and hard to see. The smaller the yarn, the more noticeable the increases are, too. ...

I know, I've already done one Q & A on the blog. After watching the latest podcast from the Secret Yarnery I thought the fifteen "non-yarny" questions that Christa answered were so interesting that I decided to give them a go: 1. What was your first concert? I saw Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band with my friend Charlie in 1978. I know, that was almost 50 years ago. I'm old. :) 2. What was your dream job as a kid? I wanted to be a doctor. 3. Do you have any quirky collections? Bracelets. They are the only jewelry I wear every day, but not to look pretty. I use them to remind myself which hand is weakest by wearing them on that particular wrist. 4. What tiny moment in your life felt way bigger than it should have been? Seeing some white roses tucked in a tree on top of a mountain in Tennessee. 5. What personality trait have you had your entire life? Shyness. 6. What's the most unnecessarily unnecessary thing you're weirdly ...

My other Easter gift from my friend B arrived looking a bit squashed. They're doing the vaccuum packaging thing with yarn now, it seems. :) According to the gift card she wants me to review the yarn and the two hooks that came with it on the blog. Isn't she sweet to be giving me more work to do? Ha. I've never heard of the brand Lpalats, but the yarn is very pretty. It's appears to be a loosely spun roving-style cotton/acrylic blend yarn that is probably a light worsted or DK weight (there is no weight listed on the label.) Although the balls weigh only 3.5 oz. they contain 240.5 yards, which is a lot of yarn in one skein. Oddly they included a 6 mm and a 6.5 mm hook, which look like my generic ergonomic hooks, but the yarn calls for 4 mm. Okay. I will find a project pattern for this sort of yarn and get to work on something. Thanks for another crochet adventure, B. :)

When I got out this skein of silk yarn from Darn Good Yarn to test the fiber I went through my memory files to recall if I've ever crocheted with silk before now (I believe so, around 2004. I was experimenting with a lot of fibers back then.) As I recall I made one wrap out of recycled sari silk yarn, and I did love the colors yarn, but it was a bit nubbly. This sport weight silk yarn is not nubbly or stiff at all. It has a wonderful texture and glides through my fingers like silk (of course!) The colors are vibrant and the changes are lovely. There's this little blip of orange between the yellow/gray and pink/gray sections that I find utterly charming. It works up fast, too -- this is how much I was able to crochet in about an hour. I usually avoid yellow and pink yarns, which in the past were unhappy memory trigger colors for me, but thankfully I've gotten over myself and no longer avoid any colors. I like how this yarn is working up, too. I'll proba...

Since we've looked at how retail is sometimes cheaper than thrifting, we should also do the opposite. Here's a nice lot of embroidery floss at the online thrift auction that appears to be DMC (the numbers on the winders give that away) with approximately 150 skeins. They are used, but not much. The four containers are nice, as are the needles, card sorters and what I believe is a needle minder. Minimum bid for this lot is $9.99, shipping to me is $19.45, and handling is $3.50. If I won this lot for the minimum bid I would pay $32.94 total, which if my estimate of the number of skeins is correct is about 22 cents per skein. Even with the high price for shipping, this is a solid bargain. DMC floss is currently $1.15 per skein retail. You can find some bundles on Amazon like this one, but that actually works out to $1.16 per skein, so always figure out the price-per before you buy. You can find very good bargains in some brick and mortar thrift stores. Here'...

I often see crochet kits like this one at the online auction site. This one was listed for a starting bid of $49.98, with a buy it now option of $69.98. With a penny shipping that seems super reasonable, right? Here's basically the same set you can buy new on Amazon for $31.99 (with free shipping if you have Prime or order the minimum required.) While it's always nice to thrift instead of buying new, I think there's a common sense limit involved in when you choose to do so. I never thrift what I can purchase new for much less (I also avoid these type crochet kits, as the yarn is very basic and in small quantities, and the tools are not very good quality, either.) If you want to buy supplies in bulk, shop sales for yarn and pick out the colors and fibers you want versus these kits. Crochet hooks and tools are also up to personal taste. I'd advise trying out one hook in your favorite size from a brand if possible before investing in an expensive set. If y...

Avoiding thrifting for the month of March was very tough (even though I did give in to temptation once.) After I filed my taxes and April arrived I gave myself permission to thrift whatever I wanted while staying within a budget of $50.00. I can thrift a lot for that. :) Let's start with this gigantic bag of yarn. It was a bit pricey at $19.99, but it contained a lot of neat yarn. The three balls of purple are I believe from one skein of Pound of Love. The dark gray big yarn is jumbo bulky, a type I've never tried. The Wool Ease is a bigger variety than what I'm collecting but I'm sure I can use it. The two unused O'Gos in #5 Bulky weight, which are discontinued and retail for a minimum of $15.85, were the reason I dropped almost twenty bucks on this bag. Everything else has a resale value of $5.00 per skein. That makes four O'Gos I've thrifted in this weight, and the colors will work nicely together. If I can find a couple more I'll ha...