The Value of Thrifted Yarn

Here's a small lot of thrifted yarn for which I paid $7.99, and had no competition at all for it, probably because it was such a small lot. So why did I bid on just thirteen skeins?

Unlike most thrifted yarn I've bid on or bought locally, most of the skeins had labels that I could clearly read. For me figuring out the value of yarn depends on three things: condition, amount, and labels. Sometimes only one of those things matter. Since the amount of yarn in this lot is small you'd think it's not worth much, right?

Think again. These five Premier Isaac Mizrahi Craft Yarn skeins retail for $7.00 each. You're looking at $35.00 worth of yarn right here (and it's stunning, too.)

The same goes for these Deborah Norville-endorsed Chunky Serenity skeins. Add another $21.00 to the lot's value.

This wool blend is particularly pricey at $16.47 a skein. In fact, expect to fight for any pure wool or wool blend yarn in a thrift auction, because they're expensive and highly prized by yarn lot bidders.

When you don't have a label you can still estimate value, depending on your knowledge of yarn. I have pretty decent basic knowledge, and I've been educating myself on the new types and manufacturers since I got into thrifting it. Of the unlabelled yarns, the large variegated skein is a cotton blend that retails for $8.00, the two balls of crochet thread retail for $3.00 each, and even that little ball of thick/thin acrylic is probably worth $2.00.

When you add up the value of these 13 skeins, you get a total of $84.96 -- and remember, I paid $7.99 for the lot (or about sixty-one cents per skein.) That's a savings of $76.97.

Comments

Stuff

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.

Better than Fried

I cut some chives from the kitchen garden to make garlic-chive baked fries for dinner. This is a great side dish for veggie burgers. Click here for the recipe from Taste of Home.com.

The Mercantile

If you don't mind walking 33K square feet in retail space, The Mercantile may be the vintage/arts store you'd enjoy visiting if you're ever in Orlando. I certainly did. Because it was busy I didn't take any photos in the store, but it's absolutely amazing and chock full of antiques and artisan creations, most of which were pretty reasonably priced. For $21.00 I invested in a picture of sailboats for the guest bathroom I'm redoing, and a fairy mystery jar of cool stuff. The jaw was hand-painted and decorated, and utterly charming. I think I wanted the jar more than the contents. As you can see the contents were both generous and pretty cool, too. I finally have some vintage gloves to use for my art quilter bingo challenge!

Rayen

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