Monday, May 18, 2009

Crafting Cheaply

If you knit or crochet or spin or weave or do anything with fiber or yarn, you know how expensive it can be. Fancier wool or yarn is more and more expensive. In my opinion it's worth it, but sometimes I just want some yarn to try out something and don't want to feel bad if I mess it up. Enter thrift store sweaters! I've gotten 2 or 3 sweaters for a dollar. I just make sure it is 100% wool (or cotton or whatever I feel like knitting with) and feels good to me. I generally don't get acrylic sweaters (well, once I got one part acrylic because I want to make socks with it) and look at the seams. This tutorial is very good and make sure you read it all before you go out and buy. Just to give you an idea, I unraveled one man's sweater and I've made 3 pairs of socks from it so far. At least one more pair is in it, perhaps two. It's fun and I enjoy it and makes me feel yarn rich.