Video: Moving My Epic Stash

 

We are in the process of buying a house, and as such I have had to come face to face with the enormity that is my fabric and yarn stash. If you want to see just how much we are talking about, click through and watch this week's video :)

Temu Yarn: Is It What They Say It Is?

Like many people, I've given into the lure of Temu cheap yarn. At first, buying things there was just to satisfy my own curiosity. Was this yarn any good? Are the descriptions accurate? Or are they just taking advantage of unsuspecting people excited to get a good deal on their hobby? I felt it was worth investigating myself since none of the comments on the listings seemed to be anything mentioning what particular knitters like me would want to know - things like fiber content and gauge. So after reading through the little descriptions available, I made a few selections for us to analyze. 

My biggest tip with buying yarn from any company based in China is to read the description and examine the photos carefully. The main complaints I see are from people who bought a yarn that was called "Milk Cotton", but it turned out to be polyester. Sorry but those people didn't read the description - or even the label in this case. Milk Cotton was just the name of the yarn translated into English as close as they could. If those buyers had read the description, they would have seen it was 100% acrylic or polyester. I bought 2 skeins of this knowing they were acrylic, but they are fingering weight and I knew I could use them for something. At $3.50 for 2 skeins, I'm happy with this one.

This yarn was sold as Gradient Wool. The label (using google translate) says its 75% animal fiber and 25% nylon, so this is sock yarn. After a burn test, I agree with the label. This one cost me $5.29, so again - I'm fine with the price for what I got. The only discrepancy I had is that the yarn is less vibrant than the photo they showed (I have dulled it down in my stash to show the real color).

I got a bug to try out some mohair after watching several knitting podcasters talk about it. I'm very untrendy (in case you haven't noticed), so I had no idea holding mohair with another yarn was a ~thing~ but I've been kind of intrigued ever since. I decided to get a few from Temu just to see if I like it or if it makes things too hot for Florida. I grabbed there 3 different listings: The pale peach color was a 10 pack (250 grams total) of 95% acrylic with 5% wool for $10.79; the single skein of pink was sold as acrylic at $2.19; the gray was a 2 pack of acrylic for $1.88. All of these were so cheap that I'm totally cool with what I received. I plan on using the pale peach in a sweater sometime.

This listing is actually what first caught my eye and made me want to buy yarn from Temu, lol. This listing was for 8 balls of Mink Wool Cashmere Yarn for $25.59. This yarn is super fine - definitely lace weight - but it really is so soft. When I translate the ball band it says: 50% animal fiber, 20% Australian wool, 20% viscose, 10% nylon. To be honest the burn test on this made me a bit skeptical. This yarn lit up like a candle. It did have a hair like smell when burning, but it went so fast it's hard to say. I wouldn't have expected that from something that was 70% animal hair, but viscose and nylon do burn quick, so I'm choosing to believe the label since they did list the fiber content. There's no denying that the yarn is incredibly soft - definitely a real hair type feel. This pack also included thinner thread for sewing your creation together as well as little packets of wool wash, which was a nice touch. This is so thin that at first I thought I would have to hold it with something else like the mohair, but I'm toying around with using it on my knitting machine. If it goes well, I would definitely buy this again in another color. My only complaint is that there is a distinct petroleum type smell to the yarn - I'm just hoping I can wash that out and it will be great.

These last few listings are the only true yarn brand item I've bought, but I can say with confidence this one is 100% legit. This is Lotus Yarns Swan Lake, which you can look up online and even on Ravelry. It's a 50 gram skein of 50%Cashmere/40%Wool/10%Angora blend and it is just heavenly soft. This was actually an extra deal to entice me to make a purchase - they usually list it for $5.39 per skein and offered me one at $1.79, so of course I bought it. It had to be this color and only one skein to get the deal, but I'm fine with that for such a nice yarn. This one came in a hank with an all English label and everything. This same yarn sells on Amazon for $11.99 per skein, so that's a pretty great savings even at the full Temu price. I liked this one so much that I ordered 2 other colors and I plan on using it in a shawl soon.

This one is sold as mink cashmere yarn, and it turns out to be Lotus Yarns Mimi Plus, which has been discontinued. These were sold in packs of 3 for $15, which again feels like a great price. The yarn is 37% Mink/ 33% Rayon/ 18% Cashmere/ 12% Wool in a lace weight and this really does feel dreamy. I got enough to make a sweater of this as well.

And finally this lovely bright green linen yarn. This is another from Lotus Yarns - it's called Linen 100 here. The yarn is 100% linen in a lace weight, so this is another candidate for my knitting machine. I just couldn't resist the color and the idea of knitting a linen shirt. These sold for $5 each on Temu, but on Amazon they sell for $11.99 per skein. Again - I'm thrilled with the savings on such a nice yarn.

So my verdict is that Temu can be a great place to buy yarn as long as you pay attention to what you are buying and don't just see the price and get too excited. Anything that sells with the Lotus Yarns labels is definitely good stuff and they are almost all half price of what you can buy it for on Amazon or from other yarn shops. I have several of their yarns in my wishlist  to possibly pick up in the future sometime. Most of the other yarns seem to come in much thinner than you would think compared to American acrylic yarns, but that's not a bad thing. I'm glad to have a source for fingering weight acrylic yarn on the cheap, personally. As long as you make sure you know what you are buying, you can find some really great deals with Temu's yarn :)

If you would like to try any of Temu's yarn, you can use my referral code afd76596 to get a special bonus - right now you can get a $100 coupon bundle AND 50% off your first purchase!

*I have included affiliate links above that give me a percentage of your sale if you make a purchase. All these items were bought with my own money and with no agreement to post - I just wanted to share what I've learned.

Sewing Studio Trip

So, in my bi-annual grand tradition, my Independence Day was spent in the best of ways - fabric shopping! The Sewing Studio in Maitland puts their entire store on sale for 40% off on July 4th and New Year's Day every year - and the 40% off extends to items already in their clearance sections. I love this store anyway just because of the quality of products they sell. If you need really high end fabrics to make a wedding dress or a good wool suit or anything like that, this is the best store in Central Florida to get them from. They also have an enormous quilting section that carries Michael Miller and Alexander Henry and Riley Blake and other big names in the quilting cotton world, so this is a destination for those as well. I you live in the vicinity of Orlando, I highly recommend heading to their store - you will not regret it! So, in my grand tradition of bragging documentation, I'm gonna show off what I got. Be warned, it's a lot this time. Don't judge!

Anyway, since this was their big sale, the place was packed with sewists of all kinds. Once again I forgot to take pictures of the mayhem (bad blogger!), but trust me when I say it was cramped in there. This time we went earlier than we have ever gone before in hopes of snagging more goodies before they were gone. I certainly wasn't disappointed :) I started off in the clearance sections, like I always do - how can you resist an additional 40% off their already 50% off prices?!

 These were my first grabs - the folded pieces are quilting cottons. The emerald green with pin dots is from Dear Stella and I grabbed 3.5 yards for a dress for $3.39 per yard. The green with medallions on is a Moda fabric and they only had 1.4 yards left of this so I grabbed the whole piece for $4.75 (this may be a trim on a dress I have planned). The blue with polar bears was just too cute to pass up - it's from Timeless Treasures and I grabbed 1 yard for $3.30. The dark blue with flowers is a satiny polyester material remnant - it's a 1.1 yard piece and it was $3.00. The pink is 1.38 yards of 100% linen and it was $3.00.

My next stop was the "sale annex" room where they have old stock as well as garment industry remnants for really cheap. The fancy printed orange material is actually a Robert Kaufman Laguna Jersey, which I have always heard praised but been too cheap to buy myself. I grabbed 2 yards of this for $8.70 to try out and see if the fabric is really all it's cracked up to be. The teal fabric is a mystery industry remnant piece - it seems like some kind of cotton spandex, though I'm not sure at all of the content. I grabbed 2.5 yards for $7.50. The dark gray is actually silk habotai that has a small dark spot that repeats throughout the bolt. Since I would only use this for lining, I don't mind the little spot, so I grabbed 3 yards for $9.45. The coral pink is just a polyester lining material that I grabbed 3 yards of for $7.20.

This set was the most exciting to me - the coral pink is cotton voile! It's buttery soft and I can't wait to use it. I've always heard everyone say how great it is, but I could only find Amy Butler prints for $17 or $25 per yard, which just wasn't happening. Well this time around, they had solid colors of voile for $6.49 each (regular price) and oh my gosh they are soft like buttah. If the lighter colors weren't so sheer I would've bought more, but wanting to try it out for the first time I just grabbed 4 yards of this awesome coral pink for $3.89 per yard :) The black is 2 yards of cotton batiste since it seems to come in handy a lot for accents and it was $3.48 per yard. The green was really hard to accurately photograph - it looks much too blue in this photo. The green is actually a more pea green color than the emerald shade shown here. It's a Robert Kaufman Classic Cotton (or something like that - I know it said classic something) and it has a chambray looking weave and it's soft and thin, not quite like the voile but close.  I grabbed 3 yards of this for $2.79 per yard.

I'm always a sucker for the clearance fat quarters since they always seem to come in handy when I least expect it. I grabbed all of these for $0.90 each :) I got a few duplicates because I plan to make a bag or something for my sister eventually. The sale annex had quite a bit of upholstery fabric this time, and I grabbed this 3/4 yard remnant for $2.25 and 10 yards of pretty brown satin trim for $6.00 - how can you go wrong there? I'm going to use these for a coffee table turned bench :) And I was thrilled to find so many invisible zippers in the sale annex - I have a rather ridiculous stash of regular zippers that I got thrifting, but I never have invisibles. I grabbed the neutral colors for around $1.50 each just to have in my stash since they always come in handy (white, gray, black and brown), but the other more vibrant colors were all $0.90 or below (the cheapest being $0.45). I even grabbed a few fancy metal separating zippers and that white on in the bag is separating with about 7 pulls on it - those were $1.20 each - can't go wrong there! The trims were just super cheap (the white was only $0.40 for 10 yards, lol), and I've been embracing the idea of tasteful trim usage on my makes ever since my floral plantain (I love that neckline trim!) so I thought these would be a fun way to try things out. The needles were just to stash and that Olfa mini cutter is so cool! It was only $1.50, so I grabbed one.

So, obviously I bought a whole bunch of stuff at The Sewing Studio and had a ton of fun. But of course that wasn't enough :) After a reviving lunch, we went by Joann's to shop more. I have to admit, I've been a pretty big snob against Joann's fabric. It used to be that every time I would go, I was just surrounded by synthetic fibers that I had no interest in working with. This time though, I was quite impressed by the quality I found - Joann's had really stepped up their game! First off I went to the Gertie fabric section ...

I was pretty taken aback with the discount on the designer lines - these were 60% off and then you could use the 20% off your whole purchase coupon on top of that! I grabbed 2.5 yards of the gray with kitties poly chiffon for $4.79 per yard, 2.5 yards of the swiss dot roses for $4.79 per yard (and I am totally going to make Butterick 6217 just like the pattern cover photo!), 1 yard of the teal with cherries rayon (it was all they had) for $4.00, and 2.4 yards of the white with cherries cotton poplin for $4.15 per yard. 

These were all from the red dot clearance section, which was already marked down then 50% off and then the 20% off that. The pink floral is called "Vivie Bloom" by DeLeon Fabrics for Alexander Henry - they only had 1.4 yards and it was $4.12, the blue flowers is a gauzy cotton only had 1.36 yards left and it was $3.80, and the black and white flowers is a nice rayon that only had 1.5 yards left and it was mistakenly put in the 60% off section, so I only just now realize that I was charged full price for it - ugh. Apparently I paid $12.00 for this piece, when I thought I'd be paying $3.20. Thanks a lot, Joann's.

And these are the knits I snagged - so exciting! The first one there is actually a charcoal gray rayon spandex jersey from the red dot section and I paid $7.20 for 2 yards. The fun print there is from the Doodles collection, which I am really pleased with so far (it's designed for kids clothes, but not all of it is super kid-ish), and I grabbed 1.5 yards for $9.00 (which is yet again more than I was supposed to have paid, but only just realized ... maybe I'm not so enchanted with Joann's after all ...), and the teal and gray stripe is a poly rayon knit from the red dot section that I got 2 yards of for $7.20.

This is the piece I am most excited about! Sally from The Quirky Peach posted about finding this awesome knit print at her Joann's a week or so ago, so when I was in the store I searched all over and finally found it - I was elated :) This is from the Doodles collection and it's a 100% cotton jersey (just like the blue and green print above) and I got it for the correct price - $5.19 per yard. I grabbed 3 yards not knowing if I want to make a dress or not, but at least i have enough to do what I want when I decide. Isn't it awesome?!

And I can never pass up the sale patterns and buttons - this time it was McCall's so I grabbed the ones on my list I always have on hand. The buttons were all 40% off and then another 20% off, so I grabbed a few I liked. The black ones are contenders for my Emelie cardigan, and the pink ones have a pretty iridescence to them and are flower shaped - so cute!

So there you have my weekend shopping spree :) I just finished washing everything last night (and there were casualties - I'm trying not to let it get me down!), so hopefully tonight I will at least get to whip out a t-shirt or something. It's been too long since I had a successful make and I'm starting to get antsy, lol. At least now I have plenty of stash to work with so I need to get going on turning these into wearable garments :)

Sewing Studio Haul - A Hopeful New Year :)

(Just a sneak peek of my favorite part - read to the bottom for this pile!) 

This New Year's Day, in spite of all the crap going on in my personal life, I decided to go to The Sewing Studio in Maitland as I had planned all year. Sometimes you just have to do something fun for yourself that you've been looking forward to, you know? I went with just my mom this time, and while it was a bit difficult to really focus due to everything else going on in my mind, I still managed to find some great deals and now I am all prepped for some really great projects this year :) So, what did I come away with? Get ready for some #fabricporn lol.

First off I'll show you the knits. These were all in the bargain annex of the store, which means they were already marked 50% off, then you got an additional 40% off on top of that - total score! The fuchsia is a nice thin jersey - it happens to be the exact same color as my Classy Parisian top, but it was a nice fabric for a great price - 2 yards for $6.00. Maybe it will become my signature color, lol. The blue is a sort of hounds-tooth pattern that has blue and teal with the black and there's a little glitter in there too. This one is a sweater knit and thicker than I've tried before, but I thought it could be fun to try out. This one was 2.4 yards for $7.50. The light blue is another thin jersey like the fuchsia, but it was a remnant piece. This one was 1.15 yards for $4.00. I admit I had hoped to find more fun knits for t-shirts since I've enjoyed making them so much, but I';ll just have to survive off these and my stash until the next sale I can attend.

This next shot is of the potential linings and slippery stuff. All of these are most definitely polyester, but they are slick enough to use as fun linings if I so choose. I make no promises though - they may end up as something on their own - we'll see :) The black and white is a matte fabric that might be a poly crepe - it's nice and drapey, and I think it's slippery enough for a lining as long as I'm not wearing tights (which I have not been known to do) This was 2.5 yards for $7.50. The black/white/teal splotchy one is a shiny poly and it was 1 yard for $3.00. The black with multi-colored honeycomb print is more matte and this one is 1.75 yards for $5.25.

From the notions wall, I was a little more sparing this time - I have so many that I really don't need many more. I just grabbed a new turning tool and seam ripper, along with some universal needles, a jersey double pointed needle (I'd been using a universal one before), some wooly nylon thread for knit hems (they only had gray and colors, so I grabbed gray), some Mettler white thread, and 3 zippers for some of the other fabrics I bought.

I always grab a few cute fat quarters from the sale section if I see them. This time I came away with 8 - two of them are the same fabric. All of these were $0.90 each!

I'm really glad I thought to look at the ribbon wall this time since I usually skip over it. I'd hoped to get real rayon petersham or grosgrain for my hand knit sweaters, but they didn''t have any :( Looks like I'll have to break down and order it online. I did find all these cute cotton tapes though. I'm not sure if they will work to stabilize button bands, but if not I will use them as waist stays and fun hem details :) The only one I remember the brand is the thing one with the bird - it's Riley Blake and it was the most expensive. The others wrapped on the card are all from the same brand (I can't remember it now, but it started with an M) - they are natural colors and one has butterflies, one has music nots, one has flies, and one says "handmade with love". I got 3 yards of all except the handmade ones since there was only 2 on the roll. The measuring tape is thickest and cheapest and I got 6 yards. I didn't pay more than $3.24 for anything shown here.

And now for my favorite part - the cotton fabrics :) It just so happens that all of these fabrics were in the clearance bin, so they were 50% off and then another 40% off. So, let's work around clockwise, shall we? The brown with dashes is called Beach House, Town House, Guest House by Michele D'Amore and I plan to cover some old ottomans with it for my living room. This was 26 yards for $8.40. The gems fabric was the first one I pounced on and I carried it forever while I shopped. It's called Diamonds and Denim by me-O-my for SPX Fabrics and this will absolutely be a dress so I snagged 4 yards and paid $13.50. I had people following me around the store to get the bolt next, lol. The square design one is a Michael Miller fabric called Don't Be A Square - I got 4 yards for $13.00. One the bottom row coming right to left - both the floral and the little dashes are Flori-Logic by Pippa Moon for Studio T. The floral only had 3.3 yards on the bolt and it was $11.00, and I was able to get 4 yards of the dashes for $13.30 The final teal fuzzy dots is called Splotch by Ty Pennington Impressions (I know, I almost gagged when I read who it was from, lol) and this was $3.45. All of these are high quality quilting cottons and they will probably all become dresses :)

So, I came away with quite a few project plans and supplies to make them :) I'm excited to have time to make some of these up - I'm not going to beat myself up about deadlines though. Sewing is meant to be a fun thing for me, so I will just take it as it comes!

Latest Acquisitions - Awesome Yarn and Needles!

I've had a few projects planned that needed specific colors or types of yarn to complete. I've been putting off finding them, but as the time is fast approaching for at least one project deadline, I decided to take the plunge and buy some yarn. Big sacrifice, I know lol. Since I was making an online order already, I had to look at the clearance yarn too, right? These are the latest additions to my stash!

This first set came from WEBS (yarn.com). I have always looked around on their site and longed for their beautiful yarns, but never actually made an order til now. I am really happy with them :) I received the yarn within just a few days and their customer service was great - I highly recommend trying them out. Even better than all that were their prices. When looking through their clearance yarns I came across a few I just had to snag.

• The purple and beige yarns are SMC Northern Worsted with Wool. These are 100g balls that are 75% acrylic and 25% wool. I grabbed 2 skeins in lilac (for an upcoming project) and 2 skeins in Taupe for only $2.79 each. The taupe was a bit of a gamble - I was hoping it was more of a skin color that I could make a baby doll with. It's a little darker than I wanted, but it will still work. 
• The 2 coral skeins are Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. They are 50 gram balls of a merino wool and cashmere blend and they were $4.79 each because this is a discontinued color. I've always wanted to try this stuff out and I do love coral right now, so it was just meant to be. This stuff is so wonderfully soft! I'm not 100% sure if I will make a scarf or a hat or something, but I'm leaning toward the scarf so it's nice and soft on my neck and face. 
• The last thing I have in this photo is a nice pile of Cascade Sierra. I noticed that the Sierra was super on sale because it has been discontinued - it must have happened recently because WEBS still has a ton of colors left. I knew one of the sweaters I liked from Andi Satterlund recommended using this yarn, so I looked through her patterns only to find out it is the Miette which has been on my to-make list pretty much since I learned to knit. I very rarely use the recommended yarn with the pattern because it's generally very expensive and I just don't have the funds, but in this case it is only $5.49 per hank! That's almost half price which is a huge discount for such a quality yarn. Since it was so marked down, I was able to get 5 skeins (enough to make my own Miette) in the Water Lily colorway. I am seriously so excited about the minty color of this yarn. It was one of those colors that looked like it might have been a bit more blue, but I was hoping for a true mint green and that's exactly what I got. This is 80% pima cotton and 20% wool and I'm looking forward to knitting with it. My only other experience with cotton has been in crocheting and I wasn't a big fan then, but people really seem to love it in knitting so hopefully this will come out fun and pretty. Also since it's cotton it should be a little cooler to wear than the wool, meaning I would get more wear out of it here in Florida.

This next order contains the real reason (a.k.a. justification) for shopping online at all. I'm making a cute baby hat and the recipient specifically requested it be in the same colors as the pattern example photo, which meant needed Cascade 220 Superwash in Strawberry Pink and Salmon to make it. I looked on WEBS for this first, but they didn't have these colorways and I was worried my monitor wasn't calibrated correctly and I would pick the wrong colors if they were under different names. So, I turned to the next online yarn shop I could think of: Jimmy Bean's Wool. This is my first time ordering through this site as well and I am again extremely pleased. The order came in without a hitch and it only took a couple of days to arrive - how great is that?! They had both colors I needed and then I had to glance through their clearance yarn :) Here is what I got:

• The two pink skeins are Cascade 220 Superwash in Salmon (the lighter color) and Strawberry Pink. These are just lovely as always - I really love this yarn, for real. I just want to squish the skeins all the time :)
• The other 4 skeins are all Stitch Nation's Bamboo Ewe. This whole line has been discontinued so there is a very limited amount of colors left and Jimmy Bean's is the only online source you can still get any from. I've never worked with it, but I felt it back when Hobby Lobby carried it and I knew it was nice and soft. The red is called Geranium and the blue is Periwinkle and they cost $3.43 each. These are 100g skeins that are 55% bamboo viscose and 45% wool. I'm not completely sure what I want to make with them, but I'm excited to entertain ideas!

I've been on a toy/baby knitting roll lately. This means I've been using a lot of patterns that call for smaller double pointed needles. I have quite a few sets of metal dpns that my friend Tara got at a yard sale, but lately the holes in my collection have been showing themselves. For example, the Itty-Bitty Giraffe was knit on size 7 dpns - 3 that were 7" long and 1 that was 10" long because I didn't have a full set of 4 that were the same length. That doesn't sound like too big a deal, but if you've ever tried this you will understand how annoying it is. It made the toy take longer a lot than it would have otherwise. I've been eyeing these Stitchberry needle sets on Amazon for a few months now and finally decided it was time to buy some. Stitchberry makes bamboo knitting needles and they actually make all kinds - dpns, straight and circular. They sell their needles in complete sets, as in all sizes come together for one price. 

I have really grown to love the shorter needles for all the small toy pieces I've been making, so I opted for the 6" set of dpns and it was only $19.99 for 15 sets of 5 needles each! That's an incredible price considering that Clover Takumi bamboo needles sell for $6 and up for each individual set! I read the reviews thoroughly before buying these because the price makes them seem a little too good to be true. The reviews were mixed, but most of the average ones said they were great for the money but not always so sharp. The best reviews also included that you could just sand them down at the tip to make them sharper and then rub them with wax paper - done and done! I'm really happy with my set. I noticed a few needles that had some bumpy spots, but seriously a few swipes with a fine grade sand paper and you would never know they weren't always perfect. I used these to make my latest toy (to be revealed tomorrow!) and I am really happy :) Now I have a complete set of 6" dpns for any and all my toy making adventures!

So, thanks for letting me brag about my latest buys :) If you want to grab any of these deals yourself, just follow the links in my post and look around. I can't wait to make beautiful items with all these fantastic yarns - here's hoping I can do them justice!