So, say that you've just found that perfect new knitting pattern at some awesome website and you need the perfect yarn!  Most of the best patterns call for fingering weight yarn, which like all fine quality yarns, can get very expensive.  The best tool that I've found for getting high quality yarn at an affordable cost (which, as a grad student, is absolutely necessary!) is rip, reclaim, reuse.

There are many sites that will teach you how to take apart old sweaters and gently unravel them, but if you don't feel like scouring the thrift stores and spending an hour or so squinting with a pair of tiny scissors, please: allow me!   There's something about winding the yarn onto balls, seeing the colors enrich as each strand lays atop the other - it makes me realize that a good part of my desire to shop comes from my love of color and fabric.  This is an inexpensive way for me to sold my stash-hunger, and my shopping hunger in a way that I don't have to feel guilty about!

Well, except for the mess of fiber-bits that ends up on my living room floor, causing my sweet hubby-to-be no end of frustration, and my cat no end of glee.  Two with one stone.

I am now offering, through Ebay and Etsy, reclaimed yarns that I have selected myself.  These are all yarns that I would use for a project, and I can offer them to you at a price exponentially lower than you would pay for a yarn of similar quality and fiber content.

If you have any questions about how to reclaim your own yarn, or about my yarns, don't hesitate to shoot me an email!  I am working on my first project with reclaimed yarn as we speak - can't wait to share it and all the other things I've got on the burner with you!

Woo, what a couple of weeks it's been!  I got tremendously ill (don't worry, it's not swine flu) fought my way through a week of work, lost my engagement ring (or thought I had for a few hours, at least) and struggled not to injure myself while taking up yoga.  Typing it out, it doesn't sound like that much, but boy have I been stressed out.  And what makes me feel better?  Yarn, naturally.  But what doesn't make me feel better in these harsh economic times?  Spending money.  How, gentle reader, is one to handle these competing impulses?  The desire to partake of a healthy dose of retail therapy combined with a serious spending money guilt complex?

In a word: rummage.  I visited my local SPCA rummage store, which has the benefit of being inexpensive and supporting the wonderful animals at the local shelter.  And look what I found!  This picture is terrible, I know, but if you look closely, you can see four, count them, four recycled yarn sources!  The green is 100% cotton worsted, the white is the softest darned acrylic worsted weight, the orange is a light finger/lace weight 100% cotton, and the tan is a fingering silk/ramie combo.  It was the perfect solution to my new yarn needs, and each cost me only $2.00!  And, don't worry, all those kinks will come right out when I knit, plus I know they're enough for a sweater because they were all large sweaters to begin with!  The orange was even a men's large, which makes me very excited because I've been dying to take on a lace weight project.  I think it will be the next in my queue ... but what pattern?  Oh, the joy!  I need to finish my 1930's pullover so I can get going.  I've been so exhausted due to my illness that I haven't had the energy to do anything when I come home from work.  But, I promise that this will change and I'll have more projects and more updates to the site very soon!