Yarn Sales

Three of ’em!

The first two were all DH’s idea. No, really, he pretty much insisted that I go!

I had told him that I was going to stay faaar away from the Yarn with a Twist’s going-out-of-business sale, as that was the only way I could be “good” until it was over. But then he says, “You should go; you’d have so much fun!” I asked him what fun is there in being surrounded by tons of yummy yarns, if you’re not going to buy any?! After all, it’s not like I really need any more yarn. “But what’s the harm in getting a little more yarn?”, he says. And, “How about if I give you a budget; you have to promise not to spend more than say, $30?”

I wondered, what could I possibly get from a high-end yarn store for $30?

When I arrived, I was the only shopper in the entire store. The salesclerk reluctantly laid down the sock she was working on and we chatted as she gave me a tour. I told her about my $30 challenge and we laughed over how easy it would be to blow $30 on a single skein of hand painted sock yarn, laceweight, or cashmere. But you know that’s not how I spent my 30 bucks, not when every cotton and cotton blend yarn was 50% off!

It was like a treasure hunt; I went around checking the fiber content of every skein that tempted me, looking for the all-important word ‘cotton‘. I found myself leaning heavily toward yarns with looong color changes, which are relatively rare in big box craft stores. Eventually I pared my picks down to these,

which came to $29.73 with tax. The salesclerk reminded me to give DH all of his change. ha! – Gosh, that doesn’t look like much yarn for $30 does it? Guess I’ve really become spoiled by thrift store and tag sale yarn prices. –

When wool and wool blends went to 50% off, I made a second visit with another $30. – DH is such an enabler. –

I’ll quickly mention that the Sausilto merino from Haul #2 goes perfectly with this mohair, a much earlier thrift store find!

This is going to become a shawl. . . for me.

While matching project ideas to my new yarns, I decided that I wanted to stripe some charcoal and/or black with the Noro Taiyo Sock of Haul #1. How convenient that JoAnn Fabric and Crafts sells a few solid colored sock yarns and that she happened to hold a sale in celebration of Veteran’s Day. – You can see where this is going, can’t you? – But what you don’t know is that. . . each email from JoAnn that advertised the sale contained a coupon for 60% off any one regularly priced item! By Veteran’s Day I’d collected five.

With the coupons I got the charcoal* and black sock yarns for my shawl,

and some sportweight mill-ends

in three very girly color combos that will beautifully accent several charity ripples.

I also discovered a bin of clearance-priced yarns. My picks were fuschia Premier Home cotton for more washcloths, – 14 oz. $4.95 –

a few 5 oz. skeins of a wonderful boy color-combo for ripples, – 99¢ each –

and one lonely little skein of Premier Yarn’s microfiber Serenity Garden, colorway ‘Mountain Heather’. – 185 yd. $1.97 –

Yep, Santa came to our house a little early this year!

P.S. Actually there was a fourth yarn sale, one of a single skein.

On my way home from the second visit to ‘Yarn with a Twist’, I stopped at the Salvation Army thrift store over in Willimantic. I may have found only one skein of RHSS ‘Black’ – No photo necessary for that! lol. – but it was both pristine and. . .  99¢, a savings of about 70%! yay. It’s very nice to know that not every Sal’s prices yarn as if it were spun gold.

* In daylight, what I thought was ‘charcoal’ looks rather blueish. Turns out it’s actually ‘Navy’, so I’ll be heading back to JoAnn’s before long. Maybe she’ll have marked down a few more pretty yarns by then.