THRIFTY CRAFTING

Crafts make us feel rooted, give us a sense of belonging and connect us with our history. Our ancestors used to create these crafts out of necessity, and now we do them for fun, to make money and to express ourselves.
~Phyllis George~
 
 Here's the pictures of the scarf I knitted from twenty-five cents worth of yarn from the thrift store. Mind you, it hasn't been blocked yet. Now that I know that the pattern is "doable", I'll knit another one in expensive yarn from the yarn shop for a present.  The sweater in the picture is pure Shetland wool purchased for fifty cents at the winter clearance at the thrift store.  I'll unravel it and use the yarn for socks or a scarf.  To unravel  yarn, deconstruct the sweater at the seams, then starting at the top, unravel the yarn.  Crew-neck sweaters work the best for this purpose.  And if the seams are over-locked, forget it!  You'll just end up with short pieces of yarn. Did you know that during WWII they unraveled socks and knitted lovely Fair Isle sweaters with the yarn? Necessity is the mother of invention.

While the clearance sale was going on, I also purchased a sweater with over a dozen lovely little mother of pearl buttons, that I'll salvage for a sweater that I've been knitting off and on for the last few months.   Thrift stores are a great source for buttons and sewing materials.  Not only do they often have lots of vintage zippers and trims in their original packages, the actual clothes can also be reused.  I found a 100% pure linen skirt that I intend to make into pillows. If you have little girls, the woman's dresses and skirts can often yield enough fabric for a skirt or pair of trousers.  My sister made her granddaughters Christmas dresses from a thrifted evening gown.  When I was a girl, we didn't have thrift stores.  Once a year, the church held a huge white elephant sale.  My mother taught us to look for the good quality fabric and buttons to refashion into lovely things.  It must have worked because people often commented on how well-dressed we were.We also were the recipients  of an older, wealthier cousin's hand-me-downs, that we spent hours remaking into more youthful, trendier fashions.

Currently, I'm working on a sampler.  The pattern, floss, and fabric were all purchased at Goodwill.  It will give me hours of enjoyment for a few pennies. And when I'm finished, I'll have a lovely sampler for my wall.  Provided I can find a suitable frame on the cheap.

PS:  The scarf is Ulla's scarf from Knitted Gifts by Ann Budd.