Thrifty Crochet

It seems like the yarn bidders at the online auction are all back to swarming, so I tried another strategy with bidding on two more big lots: placing bids on what I want right before the auction closes. I'm also bidding on one that ends in the evening to see if there's a difference in the results. All three of these lots had no bids when I checked them. Here's the lot that ended in the evening. In this lot there were some good quality yarns in the bag, and if there were as many as I estimate from with photos, the total cost would work out to about $1.50 per skein. I made my bid in the morning, and expected not to win it. I was very lucky and got it with no challengers. :) This 8 lbs. lot comes with one-cent shipping, and has a lot of the colors that I want for my stash. It's one of the morning ending auctions, and yep, I won it for the minimum bid without any challengers. Finally this 7.6 lbs. lot (also with one-cent shipping from the same source st...

To beef up my yarn stash I decided to try bidding on three more lots at the online auction, as long as I could get them for a max bid of $10.00. Here are the results: This seven lbs. lot with 26 skeins of new-looking yarn ended up being swarmed with bidders, and the winner (not me) got it for $21.00. Another 7 lbs. lot, this one with twenty skeins, went to a last-minute sniper for $11.00. The opening photo for this lot is a bit chaotic, but when I scrolled through the listing pics I saw some very nice yarn. Alas, another last-minute sniper got it for $11.00. Sticking to a preset max bid like I do often means not winning anything, but that's okay. It just gives me a chance to try again (maybe with the buy-it-now option!) Image credit: all of the pics in this post came from the original auction listings at ShopGoodwill.com.

I am blazing through my yarn stash with my summer projects, and will begin my winter projects next month. I'm also planning to ship a bunch of cotton yarn to my favorite person as yarn (and everything else) is insanely expensive where she lives. That's why my supplies are dwindling again (I also had a cancellation on a thrifted lot I was expecting to arrive, as they actually lost it, but they issued me a full refund.) I would rather thrift yarn than buy new, so I decided to try bidding on three more lots at the online auction, as long as I could get them for a max bid of $10.00. It's challenging because the bidders are now jumping on all the bargain lots. This is a seven lbs. lot with 26 skeins of new-looking yarn. I like it for the colors, the condition and the multiples. I probably won't win this one, but you never know. Another 7 lbs. lot, this one with twenty skeins. There are multiples of a yarn I want for a fall project in this one. The ope...

First night of working on the Premier Parfait Chunky Glitz ripple afghan (say that ten times fast!) This project has proved quite satisfying. For all their flaws bulky yarns work up really fast. Second night. I cut the back of my hand doing something -- it's always a mystery these days -- and because I'm on low dose aspirin for the clogged veins my blood doesn't clot too well anymore. So I have to be careful to wear a bandaid while I work so as not to bleed on the afghan. :) Third night. Fourth night. I don't have a size planned; I'm just going to keep going until I run out of yarn, maybe four or five more nights. Stay tuned to the blog to see the final results. :)

I mentioned that I was bissing on three different lots with my max bid at $12.00 or less. This book lot has a lot of appeal to me, and making one of the projects from one of them might be the way I can get myself back into quilting. My max on this lot is $15.00 but I was hoping to win it for $10.00. The Universe split the difference and let me win it for $12.00. I seriously doubted I would win this mostly brand new yarn lot for ten bucks, and I didn't. The winning bidder paid a whopping $31.00. I bid a max of $9.00 for this terribly photographed 12 lb. lot of yarn; it went to someone else for $13.00. I'm happy that I got one out of three without going over my max bid. :) Image Credit: all of the pics in this post came from the original auction listings at ShopGoodwill.com.

I had some birthday funds to spend this month, so I invested in another mystery bag of yarn from Etsy seller Curious Purple Pig , who had a 4 lb. grab bag available. This was a super value, and had tons of yarn I've never tried along with a skein of Wool Ease to add to my collection. I also invested in a bunch of Ronda's dishcloths, as I love the intricate stitches and colors. Since my favorite person has begun crocheting I'm going to share the yarns with her, and find fun ways to use my portion. Ho ho ho!

Since I finished the throw/wrap I was making with Premier Puzzle yarn I decided to test another line, Premier Parfait Chunky Giltz, by making a ripple afghan with it. This is a #6 super bulky yarn, although it's more between a #5 and #6 to me. Each skein has 109 yards/100 meters, 3.5 oz./100 grams, and it's 94% polyester and 6% metalized polyester. The silver bits in the yarn are as soft as the rest of it, so it doesn't work up like a brillo pad. I chose the colors White Glitz, Key Lime Glitz and Seaside Glitz for the afghan. #6 super bulky yarn works up just as fast as #5, and this is how much I got done in one night. At first it took some getting used to the hand of this yarn, as it's slightly unpleasant to me. I'm not sure why. It was not as unpleasant as the plain Premier Parfait, so maybe there's a bit of improvement going on. The thickness should make it fiddly but I guess I'm getting used to thicker yarns because it wasn't thi...

While on vacation I wanted to work on an easy crochet project that I could pick up or put down whenever I wanted, so I picked the Glorious in Green pattern from the Make in a Weekend Textured Lap Throws booklet by Rita Weiss. I did not choose to make it in green yarn, but went with this colorful Premier Puzzle bulky yarn in the Marbles colorway, which reminds me of summer. The finished size of this throw is 36" X 56", which to me is a wrap, but okay. There are four rows to start and then you repeat rows three and four for the rest of the project. I crocheted the first four rows on night one, mainly to get a feel for the pattern. This one is easy to memorize. I took the project with me on my birthday road trip, and this is how much I got done in the car (not quite half.) I spent the next night working on it until I got tired and went to bed. That night I got within 7" of finishing the throw. I think if I wasn't on vacation and setting it asid...

If I want to buy new shorts for myself I'll have to fork over between $15.00 to $20.00 per pair -- and that's at Wal-Mart, which is supposed to be cheap. I'd rather save money and make them, which is why I thrifted these two pair of pants to alter on my recent trip to our brick and mortar Goodwill. Both were $13.98. To alter pants into shorts, you put them on, mark with a safety pin where you want the hem of the shorts on one leg, take them off, and cut off the leg you marked 1-1/2" below the mark in a straight line. Fold the pants in half, cut off the other leg at the exact same spot, then turn them inside out, double fold the hem inside out by 3/4" on both legs, pin and sew on a sew machine. You can sew them by hand but you'll need to use small stitches. The white pair of pants (I was tempted to keep these as trousers for winter, but I kept imagining how easily I'd stain them.) Here are the finished shorts. They fit me perfectly, they...

I'm currently bidding on three different lots with my max bid at $15.00 or less. This book lot has a lot of appeal to me, and making one of the projects from one of them might be the way I can get myself back into quilting. My max on this lot is $15.00 but I'm hoping to win it for $10.00. I seriously doubt I will win this mostly brand new yarn lot for ten bucks, but nothing ventured etc. Although the pictures are terrible this is a 12 lb. lot of yarn that my max bid is $9.00; I saw some interesting things while scrolling through the listing pics. Stay tuned to the blog for the results. Image Credit: all of the pics in this post came from the original auction listings at ShopGoodwill.com.

Future me here -- I need to double up on posts until August 1st or I'll get too far ahead of myself again. :) Yesterday I made a trip to our local brick and mortar Goodwill to thrift some pants. I needed some shorts, or pants I could alter into shorts, a pair of shorts for an art project, and a pair of comfortable jeans. I absolutely refuse to pay retail for them, either. The store was having a 50% off yellow tags sale so I looked for those first. I got very lucky with the yellow tags, and found a beautiful pair of jeans exactly tailored to my height (the previous owner was awesome at hand stitching the hems, too) for half off. The brown shorts are for the art project, the gray shorts are a bit tight but not unwearable, and the rest of the pants I'll alter down into more shorts. Everything is like new except the jeans, which are softly worn and extremely comfortable. I got everything plus I made a round-up donation for a total of $23.00. An excellent haul.

I didn't get a chance to post about my last yarn haul from Premier back in June, so let's take a look. These are the yarns I ordered; the Premier Puzzle in Marbles is for a weekend throw project; the Premier Parfait Chunky Glitz is for a holiday present project. I also ordered a mystery box because 1) they were in stock and 2) I love them. I'm already falling deeper in love. :) Now you saw the baby bird I've already made from the Parfait XL Pom Party, and the rest are almost all new to me yarns. I'll have fun experimenting with these.

I celebrated my 65th birthday last week by spending the day in Cocoa Village with my two favorite people. While we were there we stopped by Knit & Stitch to get some yarn for my girl, as she is teaching herself to crochet, and I picked up a bag of Noro yarn, which I've always wanted to try, that another maker was selling. I also bought a ball of Juniper Moon Farm yarn because I used to belong to their coop and try always to buy something when I see their yarn. We also stopped by Hello Again Books, where I invested in a stack of lovely used books to enjoy during my vacation. My friend B surprised me by finding a copy of Red City by Marie Lu that I've been wanting to read, and an interesting mystery -- both were bargain books, I believe. Could a birthday get any better? I don't think so. :)

I started on a liner for my art yarn gathering basket by crocheting a modified version of Jayda In Stitches' big beautiful basket , just working it so that the right side was in rather than out. You do this by turning the work on the base rim row. I also made it to fit my basket, not according to the pattern. After a semi-rough start the Premier Parfait yarn was okay to work with, as it turns out. It's not the greatest chenille on earth but it works up soft and the stitch definition is okay. It worked well as a liner. Here's the completely finished basket. The liner makes it look a lot nicer. I stitched the liner to the basket using the Parfait yarn, and it didn't shred quite as much as when I tested sewing with it. That's probably due to the bigger spaces on the basket. I am super happy with my results for this project. I've never made anything imaginary come to life, and I really want to do that again.