How I Channeled SweetPea65, or...

[DesertCrocheter]

My First Yard Sale Yarn Score

 

Well, after getting a forwarded craigslist notice about a yard sale from SweetPea65 two weeks ago that was a bust (or maybe I just arrived too late), I decided to check out craigslist myself during breakfast this past Saturday. Lo and behold, a yard sale was listed that was less than a mile from my house. I'd walked my dogs in that neighborhood many times. The ad said it started at 7 a.m. It was 6:50 a.m. "I'm going over there right now!" I thought to myself.

 

I bought a Rubbermaid box and a cardboard file box full of yarn (I took the fun fur out and left it behind). Most were small 3 oz. skeins, but there were lots of multiples of the same color (example, 5 3-oz-skeins of a lovely rose WW). One even had a price sticker dated 1985! Dusty and a little musty smelling, I threw them in stockings (yes, I do own stockings, I used to wear one pair, once a year, to our annual conference) and washed them and they are perfect.

 

So Mom, my blanketeer in arms for Project Linus, is getting about 60 or 70 skeins of yarn next week. Not the baby yarn she prefers and which SweetPea65, yard sale maven and great finder of fabulous treasure troves of huge amounts of yarn for super cheap, tracks down effortlessly, but not bad for a first try. I probably should have haggled, but hey, I figured $15 for 60+ skeins of yarn, a circular knitting needle (size 10, I think), a K hook, and one of those large hooks with a hook at each end (all of which were hidden deep down in the piles) wasn't bad. Plus I got the Rubbermaid box.

 

And the woman who sold them to me was delighted it was all going to be used to make Project Linus blankets. Win, win, all around.

 

Patty

 

PS Unless I decide to keep some because it can't fit in the box for Mom, I'm not adding these to my stashbusting score. Upfront disclosure, this may be a technicality, but I intended it all for her anyway, so the buying and the sending would cancel each other out in my score anyway.

[shana0923]

Awesome!!

[jeannej]

Nice find, Patty!

[craziebunny]

Wtg!

[carovan]

Awesome score!!! Have fun.

[TurtleLvr]

Awesome find! We had a sale like that here a month or so ago, but I was too late.

 

[MarciMarie]

how fun! I wish could get that lucky!!

[SweetPea65]

That's my girl - way to go Patty!!! BTW, $15 for 60 skeins is a great deal and I'd have scooped it up in a heartbeat. Plus, isn't it exciting to find hooks and needles buried in the yarn or at the bottom of boxes. I love it.

 

Another trick to get the smell out of yarn is to put it in a garbage bag with a box of baking soda and seal it up for a day or two. The last batch I got was pretty musty and baking soda worked like a charm.

 

P.S. There's another yard sale this weekend advertising: "Enough Yarn to fulfill your hearts desire ....". It's way up north though. Sorry for enabling you. Not. Hee Hee.

[Momcrochets]

WTG!! for you (where are those kinds of sales around here? :look) What a great find! Have fun with it all

[oliveoil]

!! Way to go!! :clap Why can't I ever get that lucky!!

[oliveoil]

That's my girl - way to go Patty!!! BTW, $15 for 60 skeins is a great deal and I'd have scooped it up in a heartbeat. Plus, isn't it exciting to find hooks and needles buried in the yarn or at the bottom of boxes. I love it.

 

Another trick to get the smell out of yarn is to put it in a garbage bag with a box of baking soda and seal it up for a day or two. The last batch I got was pretty musty and baking soda worked like a charm.

 

P.S. There's another yard sale this weekend advertising: "Enough Yarn to fulfill your hearts desire ....". It's way up north though. Sorry for enabling you. Not. Hee Hee.

How far up north??? :lol

[Tampa Doll]

Great going. Sounds like a good price to me and the extra little goodies make it even better.

[SweetPea65]

How far up north??? :lol

 

You're a bad girl OliveOil. It's at Ina/Thornydale in Tucson.

[DesertCrocheter]

Too far north for me today (I'm weed whacking the backyard to seed rye grass today; one of my dogs developed a hot spot last night, probably from rolling around the dried Bermuda grass, wrestling with my other dog, and getting it stuck in his thick coat). But if it were Monday, I have to go to Marana for a meeting, it would be right on the way, but instead there's a Goodwill I've been wanting to check out...

 

Thanks for the baking soda tip, SweetPea. THere are two skeins of chenille that can't be washed. And I accidentally felted a small ball of wool that I didn't realize was wool from the second batch of yarn to be washed, so a non-wash option is just what I needed.

 

Patty

[CrochettingMama]

Wow!! What a great find!

[oliveoil]

You're a bad girl OliveOil. It's at Ina/Thornydale in Tucson.

Darn, that's too far north for me--I'm way out by the CA/NV borders!! :lol

[DesertCrocheter]

Well, I packed up most of the yarn this morning (about 65 skeins and balls) to send off to my mom. But I couldn't get them all in the large postal box, so 17 are staying here with me (which adds -23 to my stashbusting score for this week, and it's only Sunday! ). Some will wind up in Project Linus blankets, the others in scarves for the Knit Your Bit campaign for WWII vets. Looks like I'm set for the winter for yarn, but I think I feel the yard sale bug biting! SweetPea65, a.k.a. The Enabler.

 

Patty