A skein of Louet Gems Sportweight in colour #83 Mourning Dove; 100g; 225yds (one skein will make a pair of socks): (Note, photo has been replaced from the original post, but that's the only change to this post.)
A skein of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in colour #1284 Prune Mix; 100g; 433yds:
Two skeins of Mirasol Chirapa in colour #704 Spearmint Candy; total 100g; 330yds:
(one skein has been wound and a few yards knit & frogged)
My yarn is stored in a 2 cat home. Gladys' yarn is pet free. Both our households are non-smoking.
So how do you win? Leave a comment to this post and tell us "What extremes have you gone through for yarn or a project?" Let us know what lineups you've stood in to get a good deal on yarn or how far you've had to drive to get that extra skein to finish a project, or what online stores you've stalked at ungodly hours to score at an update, etc. Winners will be randomly drawn. Contest is open to everyone on planet Earth. Only one entry per person please. Contest closes Midnight PST on March 1, 2009. We'll do a random draw for the winners on March 2.
Looking forward to hearing your stories!
50 comments:
Ooh, I just popped over from Tienne's blog, this is my first visit... and you're having a contest? I hope I'm allowed to enter! I can't really say I go to extremes when it comes to knitting.. I knit a lot but hardly go to my LYS now because they never have the yarn I'm looking for. I ran out of yarn recently on some mitts I was knitting so I searched Ravelry for a skein of the exact yarn and dye lot in the hopes I could buy it.. I found it too and the lovely Raveler mailed me the little skein without me even paying a penny for it! I love the kindness of knitters :)
Happy Blogiversary too btw.
I love the name of your blog too, I used to be called 'Floozy' by my best friend in England years ago (I don't know why) ;-)
Damn. No stories from me. I usually knit from the stash and if I don't think I have enough yarn then I don't start the project. I usually just buy the yarn I like when I see it regardless whether I have a project in mind or not. Also my LYS is so far away I don't bother to go for their sales. Its really not worth the drive.
Happy Blogiversary!!
This is the story of the Moss Stitch Blazer. I once got some Christmas money from a dear friend to buy MYSELF something & I had to model it for the Gifter to prove I spent it on myself!! Since he was close to 100, that eliminated thong panties, push-up bras & anything in silicone . . . But - I found some Raspberry acrylic in my price range - yeah, I know it was acrylic but it was RASPBERRY. I had to have it. I knit up the Moss Stitch Blazer back in the 90s when I was first married, modeled the sweater & subsequently wore it to death. I can enclose a picture of the tatty object to prove it, too! So, one day while shopping at Birkeland Brothers, I spotted the identical Raspberry color in a nice New Zealand wool!! But I couldn't afford enough for a sweater at the time. So I bought two skeins to fondle. Every time I went downtown, I bought two more skeins. I bought two skeins at the BB booth at the first Fibre Fest & each subsequent one. I had Other People's husbands pick up a skein or two when they were in the neighborhood of BB on Main Street. Over the last 10 or so years, I've acquired quite a stash of Raspberry Dalesman yarn!!! A couple of years ago I started the Moss Stitch Blazer in wool but socks got in the way. I found the completed back a couple of weeks ago & have, just today, finished one of the fronts. I figure it have taken me 12 years to get this sweater!! I didn't have to get naked, sell my soul to the devil, walk the street selling my services or stand in line for two days to fight over the last skein but this sweater already has history & I haven't even got it on my back yet!!
Well Girls, you already know MY story. You two Floozies were in line, right behind me, at 545am today, for the 7am opening at 88 Stitches! ;)
Last Saturday, I asked my husband to take me to the Knit-Out at the Mall of America as my Valentine's Day gift. We then stood in line for 3 hours to get a couple free skeins of acrylic yarn. My husband was very cheerful about the whole thing. He must really love me!
Chrissy at knittodayAThotmailDOTcom
So I have a little addiction to Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight in 47 Green. Like, as in, 27 skeins worth of an addiction. Yeah, just a bit. It started when I walked into an LYS early in my knitting career and felt up the softest green yarn I've ever seen in my life. I only bought one skein, poverty-stricken as I was, and while I nurtured and loved it, it never multipled.
One day when I had acquired money and went online to try and buy more green alpaca yarn, only to discover (gasp!) they were discontinuing it! In a panic, and not really understanding how much yarn is required for making a sweater, I bought 20 skeins of yarn online.
Then about a year later, I saw six more skeins of my favorite green yarn languishing in the corner of an LYS and naturally, had to rescue those as well.
27 skeins later, I am now the proud owner of loads of green yarn, and I've discovered that I only ever needed about 8 to make the sweater in the first place. Doh! The craziest thing is that while I've given and traded away some if the yarn, I've reached my limit (meaning I still have 16 skeins left) and I worry that i don't have enough. If I had the money, I'd probably go beg and buy the rest of the 47 green alpaca off of other people on Ravelry.
Slight obsession does not even begin to cover it. Please help me expand my yarn horizons (and resist the green alpaca). :)
LadyDanio on Ravelry
Okay. My parents are in the bookselling business, and so I'll tell you about one of the most complicated ways I got some yarn. There's a biannual booksale in NY that happens in spring and fall. We always go because it's a huge booksale.
The only problem is that people line up for this sale the night before it starts. But you can't just write your name down on their list and sleep in a hotel overnight. Oh, no. You have to sleep on a sidewalk, in the middle of a city, in early spring or fall in NY.
One fall, it was freezing, and it rained. We set up our tent and could NOT find the tent covering. Anywhere. We had to go and buy a large tarp and pull it over the tent to keep out the rain and wind.
Not only was our sleep damp, it was interupted by the VERY loud trains that went by very early in the morning. Yes, there are trains nearby. And a bar, that plays very loud music.
Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep. (Bear with me: the knitting comes in later)
In the morning, the booksale finally opened and the rush began. When I reached the craft section, my eyes found a beautiful, out of print knitting book on the shelf. The cost? $25! But I had plans for this book.
Once home (thank heaven!) I put that book up for sale on the internet. Months later, it finally sold, for much more than $25.
And *then* I took that money and I went to my LYS and I bought myself some very, very well-deserved yarn!
I'm not sure if this counts for the contest, but I thought it was a funny story you might enjoy!
Well, Gail sent me here...... I was inu the same line-up as everyone else this morning. I got up at 5:30 on my birthday and it was worth it all the way. My husband suggested I bring my daughter's elbow pads so I could get to the yarn with all the other "crazies" but he imagined maybe a line of 4 people.... he was surprised when I showed him the picture when I came home. To top it off, I brought home my bag of goodies and my yarn/fibre/knitted items loving kitten stoel the redish Araucanian Rancho sock... he seemed to like that one the best. He ran and hid it behind the couch.... go figure. Nothing is safe in my house. I knitted myself several hats this winter, mostly from my own handspun and I had not a one hat to wear this morning because said kitten has chewed holes into each and every one of them.
so that's my story and I'm sticking to it but it was the highlight of my birthday this year.
a couple of weeks ago there was a sale at my lys and i had only one day free to go, but there was also a blizzard and bus service was at a standstill. the wind chill was -44 and the snow was falling and blowing and generally limiting visibility to about two inches, it seemed.
but that didn't stop me.
neither did my lack of a car.
neither did the distance to the lys - about five miles. seriously. i thought i might die. but i kept talking myself out of turning around, since going home meant
a) not having yarn and
b) not getting to warm up in the lys with all the lovely yarn.
it really sucked. but i got there and filled my backpack with yarn, thawed my poor nosie, and headed back out.
just then a bus came by. the wonderful thing about the lys is that the bus takes me straight home from there. it was like the gods of yarn took pity on me and provided me and my new yarn with transportation.
My story isn't that spectacular....I'm the one that everyone hates! I actually happened upon a WM update at The Loopy Ewe and scored the two colors I wanted just before her whole site crashed from the onslaught of activity. I checked them out individually so no one could yank them from my cart while I was still shopping and nearly earned a divorce because my husband got in my way as I tore through the house to get my credit card when my "forms prefill" failed me which had my number stored. LOL
Look at my stash on ravelry (knitiot) I have no problem scoring yarn!
Well, I was going to post, but since that chick literally walked five miles in the snow to get yarn, my story seems less interesting. But I once recovered a bunch of fingering weight ecru lambswool from a sweater I bought at the thrift store.
howabout the fact that i knit 3 right fingerless mitts to get a match to my left mitt?
see my blog entry here:
http://bellybuttonknits.blogspot.com/2009/02/and-it-takes-four.html
sad but true.
I'm not nearly as exciting as the rest of these people, but I've driven from the top of my county to the bottom to collect old and unwanted acrylic yarns for the scarves I knit up for local charities and food trucks. It's often wild goose chases, and I've gotten lost lots! But I've also been able to give warmth to a bunch of families... which is worth it.
I'm naughtyknots on Ravelry.
Well, once I woke up at 4:30am so I could go to Joanns for a great yarn sale. Had to wait outside the store in the freezing cold, waiting for them to open the doors. And when I got to the yarn section, nobody else was there. I couldn't believe it. I got some really cool bargins though.
KJo
(on Ravelry)
Okay Gail said I had to do this.
I don't have a story about standing in line for yarn but I do have one about the first sweater I knit for my DH. I was going to knit him this very basic pullover with a coloured strip up both sleeves. I was 24 at the time and had not had much experience altering patterns so when he suggested I make it a little bigger for him in the chest and shoulders .........I listened ................................ foolish me.
At that time in our lives he had broad shoulders, narrow waistline and flat stomach. I don't remember how many extra stitches I added but I do remember swatching and calculating what I thought would be good. So I started and knit and knit and knit and knit........................ it is done. Now to sew it together and let him try it on. aaaaaaarrrrrggghhh
................. IT IS HUGE.................. it measures 100 inches around the chest ............ His was 54 inches. The sleeves are 4" too long and the sweater comes to mid-thigh. I told you I wasn't good at altering patterns at that time plus he kept saying "Are you sure it is going to be big enough."
BIG ENOUGH!!!! BIG ENOUGH!!! IT WAS BIG ENOUGH TO FIT HIS HORSE!
What to do? What to do? Maybe it will shrink? Hand wash in hot water rinse in cold.............. hum. Nothing ..................... Bill's Mum says "Lets put it in the washing machine!" Okay we do that and low and behold it shrinks .......................... one direction only ................................. It is now the right length but no narrower. Lets try it again. (You may have guessed by now that I didn't have any knowledge of felting other than the washer will shrink it) After the second time through the washer it still is way to wide and STIFF because now it is REALLY , REALLY FELTED. Bill will not wear it but his Dad says let me have it I can wear it outside in the winter. I loved that man.
But this isn't the end of this sweater. Years later (26 approximately) after Bill's Dad had past away, I am helping his Mum sort through Dad's clothes. There in the bottom drawer is this nightmare of a sweater, carefully folded, never worn but lovingly kept.
Wow, there are some great stories here! I have so enjoyed reading them. Mine, of course pales in comparison - I've a lot to learn apparently!
The best I can come up with, I'm afraid to say, regards some cute purple Merino et Soie DK yarn. I got three balls from the sale bin at my LYS, for about $2 each. Great bargain - it's usually around $9. So, I thought I would just need to get 4 more and I'd have enough for a vest. No more there, so I went to the other yarn store in town and bought 4 more balls at full price. Get them together and they were not just the wrong dye lot, they were a completely different colour! Soooo, long story short, I had to race back to second shop and buy the remaining balls (at full price) in case I ended up with 7 unusable balls of yarn instead of 3. And as it happened, I managed to make three Christmas presents from the 3 original balls of wool - a Tretta hat, a wee beaded bag and an Tudora cowl. Cheap gifs, even if my vest (if and when it gets done!) ends up super expensive.
Mine isn't so strange, but - I once waited on the phone for 1/2 hour while KnitPicks checked their stock for me. I needed 2 more skeins to match a colourway I'd bought months before..... and they found them!
teabird / ravelry
Happy anniversary!
Happy blogiversary!!
Hmm. I'm blanking on extremes for yarn or a project. I'm not a very extreme person, I guess... Now, if you were asking about procuring the next book in a series, I could tell you stories.
I entered a blog contest called "You Put Yarn Where?!?
And blogged about it with a picture of me knitting on the um toilet here is the blog post link:http://darcyknottyknitter.blogspot.com/2008/06/you-put-yarn-where-contest.html
knottyknitter40 on ravelry
Happy Blogiversary:)Hugs Darcy
Last year, I was on a yarn diet where I had to finish X projects to be able to purchase that type yarn (e.g. 2 lace shawls/stoles for 1 new laceweight skein). So, it was pretty extreme! I had to count projects and when the need for a yarn fix got so bad, I would be in a knitting frenzy to finish more projects. The things we do for yarn.
Happy belated blogiversary! : )
happy blogiversary!!!! Also a newbie here!I cannot think of any funny or weird stories...i mean, can't all yarnaholics rationalize their behavior?? (smile)
Aside from the norm stories of being so excited to finally have a yarn store open in your town, less than 10 minutes from your home....and being first in line...., or making a list of all local yarn shops when going on vacation (hubby actually was great as he got to play with his GPS system to locate them!), or talking hubby into yarn shopping during a heat wave as the yarn stores were air conditioned and had comfy chairs, the ladies even offered him crayons in case he got bored..... none of that is truly weird.
Happy Anniversary! Years ago I went into a store in Wales just because it was called "the Oldest Store in Wales". Or the smallest, I forget, it was a long time. This was just after Colinette was discovered by me, and declared the most beautiful yarn for $20 a skein! I was poking around the store and found a whole pile of their most beautiful yarn, for about $10 each, half price! It was the only yarn in the store. I bought most of it, and made a beautiful jacket I still wear!
abridgmanathotmaildotcom
Happy Blogaversary!!
I never seem to have enough of a yarn to finish a project, but always convince myself that I do in my stash rather than just going out and buying what I wanted in the first place.
I was/am making the Elephante pattern from Susan B Anderson, and didn't want to do multiple stripes, so was going to try a self-striping yarn - good idea right?
1st I started with a yarn in my stash - color repeats too short. Then I bought some Noro sock yarn (on sale that I had stalked) in what I thought would be the perfect colorway! - to skinny and scratchy for a baby toy - Then I saw on Ravelry, another "perfect" yarn, and ran aournd town, but couldn't find it at any of my local stores, then thought a mirasol yarn would work - same as first problem - color repeats too short.
FINALLY - I ended up with a skein of reggia yarn that is working out well- now if I can get the pattern repeats on the body, head, legs and ears to work out.... :)
Just wanted to let you know that I posted about your contest on WiKnit, my knitting contest blog.
Happy blogiversary!!
I made multiple trips in and around North Hampton because I really wanted a type of yarn... difficult when I was working at a camp 45 minutes away and had no transportation and my time off was minimal. Finally got it, but not in a way I was expecting.
I haven't done anything really crazy for yarn... yet. I try to knit with natural fibers but I don't have a lot of disposeable income so it's more that I don't allow myself to go into debt accumulating luscious skeins that I cannot afford. I have the strength to go to my LYS and pet all the lovely things and walk out with none or one.
I haven't really done anything crazy .. yet.... I did ask Chris to mail me some from the US to finish a sock though..
I make Stitch Savers
(5elementknitr.etsy.com). I've given up actually being paid for them - trading with people who have sock clubs and want to use them as swag. Need the money, but want the yarn more!
Oh my. I have to confess. My LYS has an bin in which there are odd balls sold very cheap. Always on a budget, I used to go in all the time and prowl through the bin, but the owner would always sort of growl at me. So I begged my husband to go in and get me anything that was a natural fiber. She NEVER growls at him. SO now for my birthday, Xmas, Valentines day, my gift is whatever he's gotten me from the bin.
I'm on a typ of "yarn diet", the only rule of which is yarn must be bought from thrift shops. There are several Goodwill stores here in SF, two of which I visit regularly. Goodwill has a central distribution center, and I've discovered that when large lots of yarn are donated, they are split up and sent to several stores. When I found yarn that I really liked in both my usual storea, I bussed all around SF to visit the other 7 stores to see if I could get more.
I've stayed up until 3 am looking for just the right yarn at just the right price...and not finding it...then a few days later...going with my first choice.
I'm afraid I can't match these stories, I'm pretty calm about my knitting. The farthest I've ever gone to get a certain yarn is to scour the net. I was disappointed not find it, but I lived through the experience.
One online yarn store I like has a quarterly contest - for every newborn hat you send them (which goes to their local hospital for newborns and preemies), they enter you into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to their store. Now, I'm a poor college student and don't have a lot of cash to spend on fancy yarns. But I did have several skeins of baby yarn laying around. For about three weeks, I spent every spare moment knitting and crocheting fifty-five hats to enter their contest. And I won! First time I ever experienced fine wool and silk yarns.
before ravelry was around, i was wanting to do some scarf knitting--but i'd become homebound with chronic illness so i couldn't go to a LYS to pet the yarn. i ended up calling store after store online, and asking them about different yarns and softness and scarfability. the yarn i'd favored for scarves previously had been discontinued, and i was a relatively new knitter who didn't really know much about yarn. ppl on the phone were courteous despite the vague nature of my questions, and i ended up using a gorgeous colorway of cascade pastaza.
I've literally worked for yarn. I was looking at a LYS and fondling yarns I knew I couldn't afford. The woman kept asking whether she could help me and I kept saying I was just looking. Finally I said, what I love I can't afford, so I'm just looking and storing up what I love in case things change. I was wearing a sweater I'd designed and she asked me about it. When I told her I had designed it, she asked whether I'd like to teach some classes. Well what do you pay, I asked. When she told me, it was pretty low, so I asked would she pay twice as much in yarn and she said sure (since the markup was about double)
Several weeks back I decided to cheat on my yarn diet and buy a skein of alpaca to make a hat for a co-worker. about 3/4 of the way into the hat I realized that the color work looked awful so I frogged it back to the ribbing to contemplate my next move. As I stroked the soft, squishy ribbing I thought about what a wonderfully soft sweater the yarn would make. The next thing I knew I was increasing and had made a yoke for a sweater. One skein wasn't going to be enough so I ran back and picked up the rest of the yarn in that color that the store carried. Now that the sweater is well on its way to becoming wearable I've realized that I'm still not going to have enough to complete the arms so I'll need to go on-line to hunt down more. And to make matters more complicated I've still got to find yarn for and make the hat originally promised for the co-worker. Yikes!
One year I was knitting a sweater of my own design and I was absolutely sure I had enough yarn for it. Well, as things proceded I didn't. I planned to go yarn hunting in my hometown for more yarn on a Saturday - but happened to get a few too many ales on Friday night and barely made it at all. Arrhh, the horror - imagine not beeing able to knit all weekend...
Somehow I managed to get through all 7 yarnshops in my city before they closed on this given Saturday - and in the very last one I found something I could use. There was only one single skein in the right colour, but I was sure it would be enough. It wasn't...
I knew there was nothing more to do in my own city, so I called my best friend in a bigger city 4 hours away. She was so great - she went all over the place for me the following monday - more or less into every yarn shop and she is not even a knitter... She found two skeins for me and the next day I could sit home and comfortably finish my sweater. (Which, by the way, is one of my absolute favorites...)
And yes, I have thanked her multiple times and she has recieved lots of handknit things after this - she deserves it...
(And as a comment: She has now asked to lear how to knit, so every time I see her, we have a lesson over a cup of tea... Someday I'll hunt down great, great yarn for her too...)
oh, good question.. I don't really remember going to extremes for a certain project, BUT I guess I always go to extremes for my "potential new project" and store this huge stash which I wil most probably never use but I use some of it sometimes and then I don't have to run around looking for yarn, because it's there when I need it... ;-)
not many difficulties (dont tell my hubby) if i see a sale .. then i find yarn buying irresistable
happy belated blogiversary!
diane
fraid2fly1@yahoo.com
I got into trading yarn. I would decide I NEEDED some particular yarn. Often it was discontinued or not available in my LYS. I found a yarn swap site and you could post a "in search of" and offer something in exchange. Not only have I found yarn that way, I've also gotten yarn I never even dreamed of trying when someone else offered it for trade.
Armed with 40%-off craft-store coupons that specify "one per customer, per day," I've handed a coupon, a skein of yarn, and a $10 bill to my three-year-old and made her go through the line in front of me. Hey, I'm obeying THE LETTER OF THE LAW, aren't I? :)
In college I loved a certain LYS that was on the way from my college and my parents home. Only problem is that it wasn't open on Sat or Sundays. So every week I would get out of my Friday class and make a mad dash to the yarn store... er... home... 3 hours away. I would be able to make it one hour before closing and would always make one or 2 indiscreet purchases... To this day my mother is convinced that the reason I was rushing home was to see my boyfriend... as if!
I guess the extreme I went to was about a year or two ago a friend called me to tell me amazon had cotton on sale for .49 a ball. I ran to the bank to deposit $$ and then bought oh maybe 100 balls. I thought about it later and decided to go back and get more but Amazon relaized their error it was supposed to be .49 off not .49 total.
Happy blogiversary...
I think the wackiest thing I've done for a project is buy a whole bunch of Kureyon at a discount to trade for other skeins of Kureyon on Ravelry to make myself a Lizard Ridge blanket. I felt a little like a horse merchant when I did that. The blanket is now nearing the one-year anniversary of its start, and I still have two more squares to go, but I didn't pay full price for a single skein in it.
-cthulhulovesme on Rav
My friend and I drove 3 hours to a yarn sale and dug thru literally dozens of bins of yarn to get it on sale. In fact I have not yet used a single skein of the yarn I bought, and I'm not even sure I like it. Sigh.
I've become a yarn contest junkie. I never win, but I do try. I think that counts.
The LYS near work - about an hour from my house - had an annual post Xmas sale. Great prices, but you had to get there early on the 26th. Every year we went to visit my parents in FL over Xmas and I would miss the sale. I offered one of my colleagues who lives near the store money to go there, but she said that she was going skiing that day and really didn't want to be responsible for possibly getting the wrong stuff given that she wasn't a knitter.
Finally, one year I went to the store the day before we left and begged - I mean begged the owner to sell me something on sale. NO DICE. Not fair. SO I thought I came up with a great solution - I would pay halfway between the full price and the sale price. NOPE.
The next year I convinced my family to come back on Xmas day so I could go to the yarn sale. I NEEDED TO GO.
So guess what. She decided not to have the sale that year and there was a blizzard in NJ when I could have been in south FL. I think it wasn't meant to be.
I had a sex change operation so I could fit in better in the yarn shop. Only joking! I mostly stalk on-line shops. Too many people make assumptions about men who prowl around yarn shops.
okay my story it was close to my moms bday time a couple of years ago. so well I wanted to finish my moms scarf and run short on money and I really wanted to finish it for her birthday so I spent a week we were packing at the time in order to move just collecting change around the house recycling all the cans and bottles and plastic i could just to get enough money to buy the yarn to finish the scarf finally i got the money and finished the scarf and she loved her present. thatas my story vbarton24 at gmaildot com
Ladies,
Yarn gathering must be a sickness!!! To get up & stand in line for a sale in the wee hrs. of the a.m.!!! I have a stash but must refrain from shopping as I knit way to slow to get thru anymore!! No intersting stories except my weasling my way into the Wed. Night Knitters club. While stopping for a coffee treat my hubby & I would see the ladies knitting & spinning & of course liking different kinds of crafty pursuits (especially the fibre kind) I had to be nosey & investigate. My hubby's question was "why bother to spin when you can just go & buy". (The same could be said for his fly-tying) Gail & Sharon were kind enough to let me join their group. They have been very patient with their teaching, especially Sharon with the various "heels". I have managed to finish 1/2 dozen pairs of socks & am looking to broaden by knitting pursuits @ some point.
Happy Blogiversay!
Kathy
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