Wednesday, September 05, 2007

The Queen of the Discount Bin

I admit it. I'm a cheap yarn snob. Or perhaps a frugal fiber aficionado. I like good fibers. I've learned over the years how much nicer they are to knit with. (Although I do also believe that good acrylics have their place too...especially for things that are going to be worn and washed hard.) And I love a good bargain. Which is why I always scour the sale bins at my favorite shops.

On the upside, I can get a lot of something I might have otherwise passed up. Last summer, I picked up a bunch of Berroco Denim Silk for $3 per hank. A few weeks ago, at the same shop, I grabbed about 900 yards of Berroco Lullaby for the same price. And then there's the 100% cashmere I added to the stash when my favorite yarn shop went out of business ($8.50 a ball...I bought all that was left).

The downside to this, is that I have to work with what I find. And usually these yarns are discounted because they've been discontinued. So, I have to search for patterns that fit the yarn.

Back when Mission Falls stopped making their 1824 Cotton, my now defunct favorite yarn shop had a small collection of the stuff in the sale bin for (you guessed it) $3. I grabbed it up, thinking someday I'd find something to do with it. But everything I looked at seemed to require just a little more yarn than I had available.

Then Mission Falls came back! Matching the yarn/dye lot was not going to be possible, but complementary colors could work. And thus:


My version of the Tomato top from No Sheep for You. I'm calling it the Raspberry. I also have a pale green that I may use for the neckline, depending on how much of the raspberry (actually it's called Cosmos) is left.

This is my first attempt at fair isle. I've done some color work before, but not like this. I love it! It's not perfect, but my floats are pretty even. I tried to be very conscious of holding the yarns loosely, but not too loosely. I have this squished up on a pretty small needle, so I can't be sure for a few more inches of exactly how successful I've been (a lot of my Denise cords have broken, probably my cat's fault, and I haven't replaced them yet, so I have limited resources).

I see more fair isle in my future. Time to go raid another clearance bin. Anyone know of any good fair isle socks?

1 comment:

Zarzuela said...

What a find! I love the color combination. Fair isle is a ton of fun! As for sock patterns, there are several stranded ones in the Sensational Knitted Socks books.

Jessica