Tuesday, February 7, 2012

How to Spend Less Money on Yarn/Needle Crafts

So there were only two votes in the recent poll and one was not for the three available topics, but it piqued my interest and I have been jotting ideas down since.

The topic requested was "Willpower- how to resist buying yarn"

I have evolved this into how to spend less:
  1. 1. Budget yourself- We do it everywhere else in life why not with our knitting? If you don't spend the allotted amount each week/month then you can carry it over and buy more the next month.
  2. Work from your stash! If you are a knitter even one that does not have a closet or room full of yarn you undoubtedly have something in a "stash." Ravelry has this unique feature that enables you to enter all of your stashed yarn. What you can do is then look to see what patterns you can make with the yarn you already have! If you liked the yarn in your LYS or craft store, you will definitely like knitting with it!
  3. Go "stash shopping" with your friends. Chances are you are not the only knitter you know... If this is the case, you know me and we can go stash shopping with each other! To use this you invite your friends over and you can all knit, eat, and go shopping in their stash. Now, of course you have to return the favor... so if someone invites you over it is knitting etiquette to then invite them over to eat, knit and shop in your stash. (I made the etiquette part up, but it sounds like the polite and courteous not to mention FUN thing to do, right?)
  4. If you are in a knit group you can have a day/night where everyone brings a skein of yarn. You can set an amount of money so that it is fair and have an exchange and make a game out of it! I know this is more of a holiday type of game but you can play White-Elephant! I imagine the ladies in my knitting group fighting over two skeins of madelinetosh pashmina!
  5. YARNBOMB with your stash, or waste/scrap yarn!
  6. Find a project you can make with leftover yarn! My friend's blog j'eat yet? has the instructions on how to make the below! I made it this weekend for the GIANTS game and it was fun and easy! The Yarn I used was leftover from my Special Olympics project!

No matter what you choose to do to save money, make it FUN!


On a completely unrelated note I have started my first pair of socks and I am too excited not to show them now!  Here are two pictures I took while trying to figure out if the tiny little thing would fit! (Of course it did, it was super stretchy)



This is also my first attempt at DPNS, and let me tell you I am still a Magic Loop Fan! I have committed to finishing the pair in DPNS but I may buy another set (which will be the 3rd) - any recommendations?
My complaints:
  • They get in the way of my knitting
  • They clank and click A LOT
  • They aren't Magic loop
Okay- that is all I can think of....

The other selected topic will come in next week's blog!
 






2 comments:

  1. Hi, you need short double pointed wooden needles. What size are you using?? I am sure I have some you can borrow. Just let me know. I have lots of sock books you may borrow. And an entire notebook of patterns. Once you make socks you won't like any others.

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  2. I was going to say the same thing as Kathy. Use wooden needles, stitches will be less likely to slip off! I don't mind DPN's, but I haven't learned magic loop yet so I can't compare. I need a little lesson...

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