Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Actual Wool Yarn!



Today I found actual wool yarn! I am queen of all I survey. It's labeled "Crewel Wool" by Bernat, but I'm not really familiar with what that means. Any elucidation is welcome. In knitting terms, I would call it fingering to light sport weight. It is 6 ounces or 1260 yards. I would call it a dusty dark teal. Not the softest wool I have ever encountered, but well within the norms of the wooly spectrum. $12 for the whole lot.

Vintage Sugar Molds




I found this today. It uses a sugar and water mix to mold sugar shapes (like the flowers on those cupcakes at starbucks). Unfortunately, the instruction booklet has been lost to the vagaries of time, but all but one of the molds are in good condition. Sadly, the giraffe is a little bit smushed, and the early plastic used for these guys is not very forgiving of stress. But for the rest of them, there's nothing wrong that a loving dunk in the sink wouldn't fix. I'll be checking to see if there are instructions elsewhere on the internet.
I'm pricing this at $11. Email me if you're interested.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Things I see a lot of in my travels

but do not normally buy.

- shower curtain rings, some cool, mostly plastic, but if anybody out there is desperate for, say, some Incredible Hulk shower curtain rings, let me know and I'll keep an eye out.
- needlepoint yarn - 100% wool in 8-10 yd lengths, useful for felting or anything, really. Tons of it out there, again, let me know.
- fabric, unless it's really really special. Or, I buy it because I think it's a tablecloth.
- metal straight needles and crochet hooks.
- acrylic and very occasionally dishcloth cotton yarn.

Things that I almost always buy when I see them in thrift stores

- Interesting tins to keep crafty goods in (requires the sniff test, first!)
- Knitting notions (stitch holders, needle gauges, circular needles, double pointed needles)
- Knitting magazines, unless they are directly marketed to the older set.
- Embroidery transfers
- Interesting crafty goods (eyelet tools and the like)
- Ribbons, trims, beads and sequins
- star wars action figures (mostly the small ones, but I'll take the big ones, too)
- Workbasket magazines with embroidery transfers (you have to check, most are already gone)
- Anything unique and crafty
- Cool snaps
- Unique handbags and scarves
- solid colored neckties
- Whatever else catches my eye, and makes it to the checkout before I can talk myself out of it.
- And in case you are wondering, these are items I would be interested in trading or discounting for.

And then there's a third category which is
Things that come home with me, as there was an interesting item also in the bag with them
- vintage gift wrap ribbon (maybe useful for scrapbooking?)
- random unidentifiable notions for stitching
- even more random things, they'll have their own page, check it out

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Hello World!

Hi. I have a thrift store problem. I see this fabulous stuff and know that I will never get to use it all, but I hate to leave it there, when it could be really really useful to someone else. So I'll be posting random things from time to time, with a suggested price and also a list of items I would be willing to trade slash discount for. Also, let me know what you're looking for and I will see if I can find it. So far I've got

- vintage safety eyes of various colors, styles and sizes
- embroidery transfers
- vintage snaps and eyelets
- circular knitting needles
- vintage patterns, books and crafty materials.

I don't have provenance on anything, but most of it is vintage. If I suspect it is fairly recent, I will tell you so. Please let me know if you have any questions.