Thrift Report!

One of the things I've missed the most over the past month of not having any days off is not being able to visit my favorite local thrift store. It's been about a month and a half since my last visit and it seems like they'd been saving things up for me in my absence, lol. I made out pretty good last week and I just had to share. All of this is from the same shop:

First off I found a really cute embroidered skirt - and it fit me! I've already worn it a few times and it's light and perfect for summer :) I also got two pieces of fabric - a teal-y blue interlock knit remnant (it's still enough to make a t-shirt) and a camel-ish colored stretch twill (at least 2 yards there). I snagged 3 patterns from the 70s and 80s as well as a homemade "turner" - it's a piece of wood with a clothespin on one end and a tiny nail head on the other so you can pinch whatever you need to turn inside out with the clothespin and then pull it through (obviously it only works for fairly wide tubes, but still ...). And I saw a mystery bag with yarn and needles in it for $1.00 - I saw that the needles were Clover Takumi bamboo so I was sold right then. When I got home I discovered a striped scarf in the making with more yarn to finish it :)

These are all the newer crochet and knitting magazines and leaflets I snagged :) Several of them are from the 1980s, but there are a few from 2004 :) One leaflet is leg warmers and socks! How awesome is that? And who doesn't need an "evening sweater" from the 1990s? Some of these I'll keep, but some will end up in my Etsy shop.

And these are the old pattern booklets! The one on the left with no cover is a "Learn to Crochet" booklet from the 1940s that's designed for teenage girls. The Jack Frost booklet is pretty roughed up, but it's from 1953. The others are from the 1950s through the 1970s. I was so excited to find these, for real :)

And there were even some newer knitting books! This is a big time rarity with thrifting - most people keep any books from the last 10 years simply because they bought them to use them (duh), so I'm always beyond thrilled when I find new-ish craft books. And this one happens to be the Harry Potter knitting book - Charmed Knits by Allison Hansel. I can make my own house sweater! And the 200 Knitted Blocks is kind of like a stitchtionary of squares, so really you could just learn new fancy stitches to incorporate in other projects if you don't want to make a patchwork blanket. The Great Crochet Bazaar Book is full of slightly frightening gems, lol, and that red book is The Complete Book of Crochet, published in 1946! How cool is that? I love old patterns and this book is chock full.

And finally ... look at all the yarn! Most of these are brand new, unused skeins that were purchased at least in the last 10 years. There were 2 skeins of Cotton-Ease, 6.4 skeins of Wool-Ease, 1 skein Vanna's Choice, 2 skeins Patons SWS, 4 skeins Lion Brand Wool, 5 half skeins of Patons Classic Merino, and then 4 rolled balls of unknown acrylic partial skeins. Obviously this came from the same person as the Charmed Knits book since all the Patons wool are Griffindor colors, lol. I've now got enough Blue Heather colored Wool-Ease for a sweater if I want it (I already had 1 skein and there were 5.4 in this lot), and the Lion Brand Wool will be perfect to try out some felting. And I've always wanted to try out Cotton-Ease, so I'm excited I was able to grab some so cheap. I need more yarn like I need a hole in my head, but I just couldn't pass up this amazing deal. I'm really to the ridiculous point with my yarn stash, lol, so much so that I'm gearing up to put some up for sale. I'll be keeping my 'nicer" yarns (i.e. non-acrylic and brands not sold by Joann's, lol), but I'm going to start selling some of the ridiculous stock of acrylic that I bought from Walmart when I first started out (like Caron Simply Soft) as well as some of the 70s acrylics (like Sayelle) and some of my crazy novelty yarns I've inherited (like Fun Fur and Boa). Let me know if you're looking for anything like that and I'll hook you up :)

And here's a consolation prize for enduring my shameless bragging post, ha ha. This came from one of the 1980s magazines.