Wednesday

Yummy yarn, found for $1 per ball;

Acrylic, but surprisingly soft.

Mohair, or at least part mohair and feels lovely to the touch.

Pure cotton, it's nice, soft and not like those horrid stiff cottons.

And now for the obligatory let down. I didn't pay $1 for this next ball of pure wool, but rather 50 cents.  I really don't know why I did not carefully check it whilst at the op shop, I must have had brain mush at that particular moment (yes, it happens to the best of us).  After I got it home, this is what I found;

I think there must be about 10gm more or less, of short and long strands.  Thankfully the rest was ok.  Ugghh!  Please check your yarn thoroughly before purchasing at the op shop!

Saturday

After collecting yarn for a few years now... I still don't get bored of finding a bargain.  Sometimes I know what I'll use it for, sometimes I don't.  Either way, it's all good and I will probably keep collecting it until the day my eye sight is no more.  I say that because my eye sight has diminished rapidly this past year and I fear the worst.

I've started wearing glasses to knit at night - something I shouldn't be doing because I make more mistakes when I'm sleepy/tired.  Thankfully day time is ok (notice I wrote 'ok' and not 'good').  Oh well, nobody can stay whole forever, this is true.  In the meantime I will enjoy finding yarn!  Found for $1 each (the Faith was both for $1) ...

Knitting on the cheap...

Loving my 50 cent knitting magazine.  This early 1980's mag is a valuable source for me, believe it or not;

 

Yarn at 50 cents each - bargain!  It has a little alpaca and mohair amongst the acrylic and polyester, and I think it will make a lovely scarf for next winter;

I found this furry yarn also for 50 cents and it's exactly what I needed because it appeared in front of me the day after I decided to make the Yultide Gnome knitted toy.  If you know what he looks like, you'll know I need this for his big beard.  How's that for destiny?

Cheap yarn

I love it when I find balls of wool for 50 cents each:

Better still, I love it much more when I find bamboo for 20 cents:

Pick a bale o' cotton...

This cotton set me back $10 last year.  Another one of those 'I really don't know why I bought it' things!

Cheap enough for 600g of cotton I guess.

It's about an 8ply and in the U.S. that means DK weight, so it's a bit thicker than what I'd like for cotton.

I've inspected it and it looks like I can separate it in 2 to make it thinner, but honestly... do I really want to go through that much trouble for some cotton?  And knowing me, I'll end up in a BIG pile of tangled cotton mess and my husband wouldn't be able to find me anymore.  Oh the horror...

Anybody know which language this is written in? 

Cheap habedashery

Found all these items for 50 cents each!

Cover your own buttons... pity one was missing but still very usable of course:

Loving the cute engraved design on this crochet hook:

And by the way.... that Cleckheaton bamboo yarn you see at the back was only 20 cents!!

Woman's Weekly knitting magazine from the 1980's and believe me, I wouldn't have grabbed it if it didn't have at least a couple of cute designs in there.  The sweaters on the front cover are NOT one of the cute favourites:

Finally, I don't know how large this beautiful piece of fabric is (possibly 2 x 2 metres-ish and is thick enough for what I need it for), but I know it's way more than enough for a project I'm trying to finish:  

Bendigo Colonial Wool

I scored 600g of Bendigo Woollen Mills wool.  I forked out $15 for the lot and it's the most I've ever paid for wool at the op shop.  I'm still unsure as to why I bought it.  

Mmmm.. silky...

I found 18 balls of Sirdar Silky Look for $10!  Woohoo! 

But then again, I don't know why I'm Woohoo-ing because it's actually 93% Acrylic and 7% Nylon.

If I were a yarn snob, I'd be disgusted with myself.  Seeing that I'm not a yarn snob, or at least not a COMPLETE yarn snob, I will give it the benefit of the doubt and give it a try.  

One never knows... it might knit up wonderfully.

The mother load.

A few years back I hit the jackpot.  Winning the lotto would have been nicer, but I had to settle for $10 worth of cotton.  Believe it or not, I've not used any of this as I'm waiting on a 'good reason' to start something.... but I say this with a little jest.  I don't really like working with cotton all that much, but seeing that I have it, I may as well think of something to make!  Funny how we buy things, just because it's a real bargain, and even though we could probably live without it.

It's cotton time

 Fabulous cotton finds from yesteryear.

 Gem cotton...

only $7 for all of this;

 Patons Stonewash cotton...

only $5 for all of this;

I love it when I score well!

A little good news on a dreary day.

Good news is rare for all of us these days, isn't it?

I received some this morning and although it was a small piece of news, it made my day.  My bank has finally taken away the majority of their banking (including internet) fees.  As far as I can tell, the only fee they have is the coin counting & depositing fee at 5% of the coin amount which I've never needed to do.

So what's the catch, I asked my husband?  No bank has no fees, so there must be some hidden fees somewhere - I've yet to find them if they exist.  How are they making their money now, with virtually no fees from their customers?  Hubby replied 'furg knows'.  (We have our own kind language that we share, but what couple doesn't?)

So, we finally have a bank that has virtually no fees.  I never thought I'd see the day and I'm still a little apprehensive and want to find out for sure so I'll be visiting my bank in the very near future to see if they are as fantastic as they are making out to be.  In the meantime, I'll enjoy my good news.

Onto something different... Wool!

I have a section in my work room that is overflowing with yarn.  I also have a section the bedroom wardrobe which is overflowing with yarn.  Then there is under the bed... and the cabinet in dining room.  It's getting out of hand and I can't stop.  I'm not talking a shopping bag or two full in each room, I'm talking 9 or 10 bags and possibly more!  Soon I'll be throwing out food from the kitchen pantry to store yarn.  Yarn is like a drug for me and unless you're a knitter, you will not understand.  I have the bad fairy telling me that it's ok, you'll find more spaces around the house to hide it in and nobody will be the wiser.  Then I have the good fairy telling me to sell it and make a pretty penny from it all. 

Sell my yarn?? No way and no how... or at least for now.  I have a lot of vintage yarn without moth nibbles - thank you very much.  I'd never buy moth nibbled yarn because it's useless and chances are if you see a nibble on the outside of the ball, there will be a few on the inside.  So before buying, checking it thoroughly is a must.  Then I have yarn that's just old, maybe between 5 - 10 years old.  Obviously discontinued and cannot be found anywhere unless it's hiding in some other yarn hoarders home.  Then I have small amounts of the newer stuff left over from previous knitting jobs.  How can I get rid of them?  They have sentimental value because I made a pretty penny from those!  With more knitting work coming my way, this means more yarn in my stash and it's a bit worrying.

 And of course I find most of my older yarn from the good old op shop so who can pass up such great bargains?  Not me.  I have enough yarn to keep going for 20 years or so.  But I love it and wouldn't change my habit for the world.  It gives me great pleasure to buy and knit with it.  And that's all that counts.  

Approximately 500g of Patons f.d.k (part cotton, part acrylic) for $5 and 350g of Passionknit (part wool, part acrylic) for $6.

For the love of wool.

275g of 2 ply angora for $2!! Plenty for a yummy lace scarf.

500g (plus a bit more) of 12 ply crepe wool for $5!!  Definitely enough for a cozy sweater.

I love it when I'm in the right place at the right time. 

Oh so long ago.

I remember the first time I entered a second hand shop.  We call them 'op shops' here in Australia, which means 'opportunity shopping'.  And rightly so.  So many opportunities to find so many great things out there, it's overwhelming.  The problem is where to put all these great finds in the house, or as I like to call them... treasures.

Anyway it was over 10 years ago when I entered that dingy, old and smelly op shop.  I was at my local shopping centre with my mother and we saw it, entered it and we were amazed with.  I'm pretty sure it was my mothers first time also, hence the fascinating comments that came out of her mouth.  We had a quick look around and I found what I was looking for.  An electric blue silky shirt.  It was faux silk of course, but I just had to have because after all, it was a measly $2.  I wore the shirt a couple of times within the year, but then gave it back to an op shop several years later.  Not to the same op shop, because it closed down months later.  I got caught up in how much the shirt was, rather than actually really liking it.  Isn't that always the way?

The second time was in Bunbury, a good few hours away from home.  My husband was sent to do some work and I tagged along.  Found the op shop, entered it and it took me about a minute to look around, then left.  Why?  I didn't know what I was looking for, I was the only one in there and I was embarrassed.  Again, why?  To this day I do not know.  I was new to the op shopping experience and had a lot to learn.  And so it began.  My hunt for more op shops and actually looking for something worthwhile.

Found many years ago....
A bunch of yarn cones, small cones were $2 and large cones were $5.  The large ones are heavy and I thought they were a steal!

Mostly wool, some cotton, and an acrylic.  I don't normally buy acrylic, unless it's soft and is an appealing colour.   Still, was elated when I found these.