Well, I still have a number of projects in the works, but nothing that I have taken pictures of yet, so we'll just have a picture-free day today, I suppose!
Aside from the things I have mentioned in earlier posts about why I love knitting and crocheting (read here: I love my needle arts). I think I also like experimenting with a large variety of yarns. I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but I am a graduate student, which means I am insanely poor. Most of the yarn that I have purchased has come from thrift stores. All of my collection of straight needles, some of my circular needles, and almost all of my crochet hooks have all come from various thrift stores in town. Now, I am extremely lucky to live in a college town that has AMAZING thrift stores! So I admit that I have gotten super lucky in finding as much as I have. I have also brought home probably 25 skeins of 100% wool, some of it worsted and some DK, that were all about $2 a piece at the thrift store. I have gotten baby yarn, I have gotten 1lb skeins of yarn, and I have purchased some sweaters that I then took apart for the yarn because I loved the color. I admit to having entirely too much yarn. I justify it to myself by buying it at the thrift store, though! Granted, some of what I have gotten there is less than fabulous, but most is at least worth the price I pay for it. If it hadn't been for the thrift stores around here there is no way that I could knit and crochet nearly as much as I do.
So, back to cool yarn. As I said, I have gotten baby yarn at the thrift store as well as 100% wool. I have gotten cotton/wool blends, cotton, DK, worsted, lots of crochet thread, thick gauge yarn, too. A good portion of it has been acrylic, but, as I have said before, that doesn't bother me. I have found places to use it that I think it has worked wonderfully. Just last week I found a bag of a huge variety of beads - from seed beads up to larger than the size of a green pea. They are in all different colors, some of the larger ones have painted decoration on them. In any case, I am really excited about them and I can't wait to add some of them to various things I make! The huge variety of yarn that I get this way (sometimes something I want is bagged with something I normally wouldn't pick up) leads me to try projects that I might not otherwise think of. Pompom yarn, various types of variegated yarn, crochet thread, this baby blanket that I started the other day and lots of other stuff. It is just a bag of excitement waiting for me to figure out what I am going to do with it!
The other place I shop for yarn (when I don't have a 50% off coupon for Joann's or Michael's) is Craigslist. I am looking at about 15 skeins of a wool blend yarn in some really nice colors for $10. This is usually a hit or miss spot - either someone has nothing that I want (when it is advertised) or they have lots of yarn because they are giving up a craft.
Basically I am just a patient person when I am waiting for yarn. I managed to hit it big at the thrift stores when I first started (I don't think many people think to go there for knitting needles, crochet hooks, and yarn,) and now I have a large enough stash to keep myself occupied until I find something else I think I can't live without. I'm sure this is money that would be better spent elsewhere, but I love it. It is a great way for me to relax, I can do it while reading for class or watching TV and it makes me feel much more productive. Plus, now I am having fun trying to find ways to reduce my stash some because it has gotten a bit out of control. So I am getting lots of really fun things made, and it is fabulous!
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