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What you can get for a dollar....

Krakovianka

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Krakovianka Community Regular

Krakovianka

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I was at a flea market yesterday--Rogers in Ohio, for those who are familiar with it.

 

Mostly, we were just looking and enjoying the atmosphere, planning to buy some produce before we left. I paused to examine a wicker basket full of yarn, just for fun. There was a hairpin-lace tool in the basket, which I sort of wanted, because I've always wanted to try it. There were quite a lot of other things in the basket--knitting needles, crochet hooks, *candles*, and the yarn, of course (baby yarn).

 

The I-really-want-to-get-rid-of-this-stuff seller urged me: "You can take the whole basket for a dollar."

 

Me (trying very hard not to collect more than I can take back to Poland): I really only want this (pointing to the hairpin lace tool).

 

Seller: Hey, it's only a dollar--you'll find something to do with the rest of it.

 

Me: I don't know--I don't really need all this other stuff.

 

Seller: Just take it--for a buck!--you can the throw the rest away and it won't matter.

 

Me (realizing this is true): Okay. (I'm sort of stupid that way.)

 

The real "cost" of buying this basket, of course, was that I then had to carry it around. When I got it home, I examined the contents more closely, and this is what I had:

 

1. The hairpin lace tool, which I fully intended to buy and keep.

2. 3-4 skeins of baby yarn (clean in plastic bags), some of which was "in progress" on the hairpin lace tool.

3. 5-6 vintage pattern books with knit and crochet patterns.

4. two sets of knitting needles

5. four crochet hooks

6. A bag of embroidery thread and a small vintage embroidery hoop

7. At least 10 unlit tall candles--I have no idea why.

8. A partially-finished doily in green variegated thread, and the faded remainder of the thread on a ball.

 

Daughters A and B, who are into doll-making right now, claimed the embroidery thread. Daughter B who crochets got the in-line crochet hooks because I don't like them. Daughter C sweet-talked me into giving her the basket for a baby-doll bed, AND crocheting the baby yarn into a blanket and pillow for the doll. I decided to keep one set of the knitting needles to make a simple garter-stitch scarf (that's about my level for knitting), and the other set disappeared. (They will probably reappear at some inconvenient moment in the future.)

 

About the only things I'm going to lose are the candles and (most of) the pattern books, and (believe it or not) the doily and thread.

 

I look at the pile of stuff, and can't help thinking that it was a really hot day, and I was thirsty, and I could have used my dollar for a bottle of water and saved myself this headache.

 

But I bet it will be fun figuring out how to make hairpin lace, and I have a Japanese pattern book back home in Poland with doily patterns that incorporate the hairpin lace. So I guess it was a dollar well spent, after all.

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allieliz Collaborator

allieliz

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Well, at least you (and your daughters) found purposes for the extra items.

 

Have you seen the Ukranian magazine Duplet? There are always tons of hairpin lace patterns in them too.

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