starting the New Year in the right way

How?
By adding to the stash, of course!

Last week, I visited the Big Box Store (not the real name of the store; it’s a crafts and home-wares chain store) to buy some fabric to bind Dotty Bright. While there, I found myself in the yarn department and picked up a couple of bargains that weren’t advertised in the catalogue (they were specials in this store only).

Let me explain: The store had some yarn they wanted to clear so they marked it down to clearance prices. It wasn’t moving quickly enough, so a sign on the table advertised 50% off the clearance prices!

So here are my purchases:

Firstly, sock yarn (as if I needed any more!): I don’t have these two colourways and at $2.50 for 100g I couldn’t resist! This particular yarn, at full price, is $11.99 for 100g.

And no, I’m no trying to brag; I want overseas readers to understand how much we pay for craft materials here. Remember, this is a chain store with discount prices, sock yarn at my local LYS starts at $24.99 a ball!

Secondly, what I consider my bargain of the month – not only was it heavily discounted, but the sale yarn included my favourite colour!

It’s a 90/10 blend of cotton/silk. It was marked down to $3.00 a ball and to clear it out, they were taking another 50% off. Twenty balls (all in the same dye lot) for $30.00 – what a bargain!

On Saturday I returned to the store. This time I had DD with me. It’s a rare treat for her to get out without the boys so she made the most of it. I could say it was all her fault but it wasn’t really; I had already made up my mind what to buy before I got there.

Before I go any further, overseas readers probably need to know that fabric in this chain store normally starts at $12.99 a metre, and in Australian quilt stores, fabric starts at $24.99 a metre. (Just take a moment to absorb that…     Okay, you can resume normal breathing now!)

So you can understand that when I say “bargain”, I mean BARGAIN (sorry for shouting)!

I bought three metres of each of these fabrics for $4.00 a metre (yes you read that correctly!) That amounts to a discount of 67%-75%!

These fabrics were purchased with the intention of using them as backings. I’ve used the top one already! (yes, that means there's quilting in progress but that's another post)

And I bought at least two metres of each of these solids. The normal price of homespun in this store is $6.99 a metre – at $4.89 a metre it seemed like a good time to stock up. (What’s that? How much is homespun in LQS? Oh, $14.99 a metre! Do I need to remind you to breathe again?)

Navy, Natural, Black, Sand, Petunia, Grass Green, Chestnut, White, Fig, Iron, Regatta Blue

 This fabric was bought for sashing and binding.

DD found these two fabrics in the remnant bin and somehow they found their way into my purchases. The one on the left is homespun, more reddish than shown here. The one on the right is flannelette.


And finally I bought this fabric to make a quilted tablecloth for our new glass topped (outdoor) table. There is enough there to make a couple of placemats for when there is only WM and I.


And, it doesn't stop there: I won these eight fat quarters from a give-away late last year on Wish Upon a Star blog.

Thanks Mrs A! I don’t know what I’ll do with them but I’m sure I’ll think of something!

So, I guess I’d better get sewing!

Yarn shopping

Last Thursday I found myself looking at the yarn section of the online Lincraft catalogue. Normally, I read the front page and delete but for some reason...

On Friday I visited Lincraft. They had all the yarn shown in their catalogue. Ooo, Cleckheaton Cocoon - it's so soft! It's labelled as Baby Cocoon but it's 4ply, 70% wool/30% nylon - that sounds like sock yarn to me!
And the mauve and deep pink [not red as it shows up here] - yummy! Did I happen to mention it's soooooo soft?

Over to Spotlight - it is, after all, only five minutes walk from Lincraft. All their new yarn is in and there were very few people in the store [mid-afternoon, wet, cold] so I almost had the whole department to myself. More fondling of Cocoon and Bamboo: that's even softer! Cleckheaton has a new range of solid colours. I like these two best!





Really, I just needed yarn to knit a baby blanket for our niece/god-daughter who is expecting in April and having her baby shower on 28th February. For her, I bought 10x50g balls of white Bella Baby Layette [80% bamboo/20% wool] - another very soft yarn but an awful colour range. I have started it so there will be another post about the blankie soon.

Then I found the bargain bin. Well, that's not exactly true; I knew where it was, I'd glanced at it a couple of times. Now I gave it my full attention. WM got a second basket [did I happen to mention he's called "Wonderful Man" for a reason?] and these found their way home with us!

16 balls of Magnum Baby 4ply [100% acrylic]

12 balls of Moda Vera Jacklyn [50%acrylic/50% tencel] - another very soft yarn that may be turned into chemo caps. sorry about the blurry photo - I needed to get close up to get an accurate colour!
15 balls of Bamboo Wave [60%bamboo/40% cotton] which I used to start a scarf for MIL [whose 75th birthday was yesterday] and I loved it; it was drapey and soft but so-not-my-MIL, even WM agreed so it's been frogged and is waiting to be something else [perhaps a lightweight cardi for me?].

All for just 50c a ball people! What a bargain!! And so soft! [are we detecting a theme here? LOL]

As for the Cocoon, it's still there waiting. Perhaps mauve Pomatomus socks? I only wear socks under trousers inside full lace-up shoes [ever practical and comfortable, that's me]! My socks can't be seen so, while I love knitting socks, I feel really bad spending all that time/money then hiding the socks anyway! Plus I already have two purple sock yarns in my stash! I need to think on it some more.

And MIL? She was given a gift voucher for the ABC shop for her birthday [half the fun is choosing something you don't have to pay for!] but I'm leaning towards knitting something 'just because'. Perhaps Aran socks or gloves to go with the Aran jumper I knitted years ago and which she loves. I'll let you know...

postscript to "Topsy Turvy Socks" or sock bargains!

My first pair of socks from the Moda Vera grey colourway - the topsy turvy socks - weighed in at 60g. I still have several skeins of this yarn.

I picked up some of this yarn in a clearance sale for $2.99 per 100g skein. I still have 40g of the first skein left. That's ten pairs of socks from six skeins!! Or, given that I paid $4.99* for the first two skeins and $2.99 for four more [a total of just under $22], that's ten pairs of hand knitted, wool/nylon socks to warm the feet of those less fortunate for just $2.20 each! More feet kept warm is always a good thing! Just pray I don't get bored with knitting all that stocking stitch. [There'll be more complicated patterns in other yarns along the way to break up the monotony].

*Sock yarn generally sells for $12+ per 100g skein

Jean Greenhowe's Knitted Animals

I haven't officially signed up for Blogtobefest having been away for the first five days but I thought I'd see how long I could post every day [at least while I'm not at work]!

In the last week before spring break began, I was looking through an op shop [thrift store] for acrylic yarn to complete the crocheted blanket. I didn't find any but I did find this - in as new condition - for 50c! A copy sold recently on Oztion [Australia's answer to Ebay] for $6.50 so I think I got a bargain.

You can see the rest of the patterns contained in the book here. I think it will keep DD and I busy for a while!