Coupon Commotion

Coupon Commotion was the name of last week’s sale at JoAnn Fabrics. I cut coupons from the flyer that came in the mail and more from the newspaper flyer. I had expected to print out even more on Sunday morning, the first day of the sale, so I was disappointed not to find any waiting in my emailbox. For some reason they weren’t sent until 11 a.m., long after I’d left on my adventure. sigh.

Somehow I managed to be satisfied with my small fistful of twelve 40 and 50% off coupons. HAha ha.

I did get to print out a ‘20% off Everything’ coupon from Big Lots though. There just happens to be a Big Lots store in the same plaza as JoAnns and Michaels, and another in the next town over. With coupons, shopping list and map in hand, I looked forward to a fun day of bargain shopping. DH was at a weekend business conference, so I had no reason to hurry home.

I hit the RHSS display at JoAnns first and found a new color of yarn there, Lemon! What a pleasing light yellow, falling somewhere between RHSS Pale Yellow and Bright Yellow.

I also got one skein each of my old favorites (top left to bottom right): Tea Leaf, Real Teal, Coffee, Baby Pink, Carrot, Cherry Red, Turqua, there’s the new Lemon, and Pumpkin. ($1.50 each at 50% off) Oh, JoAnns didn’t have any Teal, that came from Michaels. Unfortunately Michaels only lets you use one coupon per person per day or I would have gotten some Aruba Sea too. Mmmm, pretty pretty Aruba.

I didn’t find any Magenta at either store, which I really wanted, or the new Coral, but I’m happy with the colors that I did find. They fill holes in my charity yarn stash rainbow.

The sign saying all knitting and crochet books were 40% off took me by surprise! For some reason I hadn’t noticed that particular sale mentioned in the flyers. I chatted with another shopper, also named Linda, as we looked through books. She wanted an easy crochet afghan pattern so I couldn’t help but mention my free Wriggly Ripple pattern. tee hee. I had fun telling her about Ravelry too; she had never heard of it!

I rather gushed over the book, Knit Noro: Accessories, which gave me the idea to knit a striped infinity scarf/cowl with Lion Brand’s Amazing, a worsted weight 53% wool/47% acrylic blend. I bought two skeins in the Glacier Bay colorway. It was clearance priced at $3.97, which is about 40% off the regular price.

Click here to see how all thirteen different Amazing colorways look knitted up. I imagine that I will alternate stripes of Glacier Bay with those of a solid yarn from my stash. These projects in Ravelry, jtkoontz’s Winter’s Wardrobe and elevenfifteen’s 46 degrees, gave me some interesting striping ideas. I wonder how Glacier would look striped with black?!

I’m also sorely tempted to just copy this beautiful shawl, knitted from just two skeins!

I always look for knitting and crochet books over by the sewing patterns as well as by the yarn. I got rather giddy while looking through a crochet book ($11.00 at 50% off  – yeah, I hadn’t expected the computer to apply one of my 50% off coupons to a book on sale. Thank you computer! You saved me an additional $2.20, enough to buy another skein and a half of RHSS! lol).

If I’d considered only the book’s title, Totally Simple Crochet, I may not have bothered to look through it, but something about this cover photo caught my eye…

and when I opened the book to this page… Oh. My.

Ignore those lovely fingerless mitts, if you can, and really LOOK at the scarf that’s under them!!

I madly flipped through the rest of the book looking for the scarf’s pattern. I was starting to think they’d played a cruel trick on me, that it was only a part of the staging for the fingerless mitt photo, when I finally found the Flower Scarf pattern…

hiding just one page before the mitts! lol.

These dainty flowers are only 1 1/4″ in diameter when crocheted with two strands of lace weight yarn held together and a size C hook. Well… at least they’re joined as you go, which will speed things up a little! lol

Think of all the different color combinations of flower petals and centers you can create if you use nine colors of yarn as the pattern suggests! I imagine this scarf would be beautiful crocheted from a color-changing sock yarn too. I think that would be about the same thickness as two strands of lace and there would be far fewer ends to weave in.

Oh, the ideas this pattern gives me!!

I may have to make a summer scarf/shawl first as I’d love to see a single-color one made from crochet cotton!

I looked for more by the book’s author/designer, Tove Fevang, and discovered her blog. It’s written in Norwegian, so I’m thankful for Google translator! I look forward to getting better acquainted with Tove’s work.

Okay, okay, back to JoAnns and my treasure hunt.

I think this hand-carved turtle button ($2.48 at 50% off) will be a fun accent for my ‘new’ purse. I hope it’s not too close of a match in color. Do you remember when I got the purse at Savers?

I still had some coupons left so I went to look at knitting needles next. I recently read about knitting socks on a nine-inch circular. I want to try this technique cuz it sounds faster than knitting with dpns. I thought there was little chance of finding such a specialty item at JoAnns, but… there they were… Clover #1 nine-inch bamboo circs! ($7.50 at 50% off) HaPpY HaPpY HaPpY DaNcE!!

With such dainty tapered bamboo tips, I must remember to keep them out of Emily’s reach – one good chomp – Mmmm, crunchy munch! – and that would be the end of my new circs!! lol

I must admit, my stop at Big Lots was a Big Letdown after all the surprises at JoAnns.

The yarn inventory at the first Big Lots looked to be the same as when I visited a couple of months ago, a small mix of mediocre colors. I’d been hoping for so much more having read about other people’s wonderful Big Lots yarn finds here in Ravelry. I was especially hoping for wool sock yarns. sigh.

The display at the second Big Lots was even more pathetic.

Ah, but there’s always next time!

And I did find some great bargains at Big Lots, albeit grocery bargains: several cans of Progresso Black Bean Jalapeno Soup for 40¢ each, Nutrisystem’s Black Bean Tortilla Soup for 16¢ a cup and a couple of bags of tantalizingly flavored tortilla chips.

All in all I’d say it was a very satisfying shopping spree, made even better with coupons!