Welcome fellow crocheter!Oooh, I looove crocheting! I'm glad this thread exists. I've done several chunky blankets, some amigurumi, a pillow, Woobles, etc., but realized I get through them too quickly, so I started a blanket that uses fingering thread and a 3.5 hook. It may take me the rest of my life to complete.
Are we all yarn collector-aholics? I didn’t use to be. I’ve always had a moderate stash of worsted weight acrylic yarn. I started a granny square and a multi color zig zag afghan 20 years ago to use up that stash, and for these 20 years the stash hasn’t grown. But this spring two things happened around the same time: Jo Ann’s started clearing out all their stores, and I took a knitting class.
JoAnn’s prices weren’t low enough at the beginning, so I started bargain hunting. I think that’s really what was to blame. I think it’s the thrill of the hunt that got me. There’s no more Joann’s to haunt every week anymore. For a while Michael’s was handing out 40-60% off one item coupons and/or having 30-40% off codes for on line. I collected a lot of stuff that way that I would never pay retail for.
I discovered Hobby Lobby, Hobbii and Temu. (HL is good yarn at good prices that they even take 30% off of on a regular basis. Hobbii is nice. It comes from Denmark, but I only had to wait 10 days for my delivery. But their weights run thinner than ours in the US do, so that could be tricky. And Temu is just not a good platform. So far every yarn I have gotten from them has turned out to be way thinner than the listings made them seem. I don’t know what I’m going to do with a bunch of #1 or smaller weight yarn. Probably double it up.)
That leaves garage sales and thrift stores for bargain hunting. Unfortunately for me, I live in an area that has 5 Goodwills in my normal errand ranging distances. Plus a couple of other thrift stores. My shelving system in the basement holds 64-quart Sterlite totes very nicely. I keep buying new ones and filling them up! I keep telling myself I need to stop. But it’s just too fun to run in real quick to see if GW has anything new that isn’t overpriced.
Fortunately they seem to think they can price it at close-to-brand-new retail prices, so I am not tempted by most of their yarn. But unfortunately (I say this tongue in cheek because I always feel very lucky) I can almost always find one skein or one grab bag that has something I would like for a price I’m willing to pay. It’s like a slot machine that pays out so I keep going back for more.)
if I loved the yarn, I could frog it, and then re-crochet it in a different stitch. I will have to start looking a little more closely at the scarves.
