They Were Right

You'll here it from a lot of knitters: Goodwill, Savers, and other like thrift shops are often diamonds in the rough for finding good yarn.  I often thought that was true ... if you lived in a cooler climate and in an area with a lot of knitters.  NEVER where I live (which is in a warm climate although there's a decent population of knitters here).

Plus, where I'm from, many of the prior generation of knitters were really thrifty knitters and loved their cheap(er) acrylic yarn, like Red Heart.  Even my grandmother loved that cheaper acrylic stuff: it's cheap, it comes in a ton of colors with a lot of yardage and you can throw it in the washer and dryer - what's not to love? (Besides the fact that it's really hot to wear in an already warm climate and it can be itchy! :P)  Even I admit it, I starting off with a stash of One Pound of Red Heart yarn. :P

As my hubby and I love to troll through our local thrift stores (they are great places to find great kitchen wares and other household goods - At one of my local Goodwills, I found a Le Creuset pan and even a Wolfard lamp!), I usually just glance to see what kind of yarn they may (or may not) have.  Often, if there's any yarn at all, it's Red Heart or some other acrylic stuff.  Admittedly, I've become a yarn snob and love natural yarns; if it's going to be acrylic, it'll have to be something other than Red Heart for me. :P

But today, the world showed me that even where I lived, I could come across a diamond in the rough as this is what I found today at my local Savers:  Real alpaca-silk and Icelandic Lopi yarn!  OMG!!! THIS is the find of the year!!! :D ♧

Each ball seemed to be intact (i.e. unused); only the second ball of Lopi was missing its label band.  In total, I only spent $11.45 on eight (8!) balls of Aarlan alpaca-silk and two (2) balls of Reynolds Icelandic Lopi yarn.  (For those non-knitters out there: THIS is a steal!!!)

It looks like I'll have enough to make a sweater (with the Aarlan) (*yay* another sweater!!) and a hat or two (with the Lopi).  While it'll probably be too warm to wear these items here (I'll be lucky if it cools down enough in the winter to use it once), I'm totally going to take these babies with me on my next winter trip (presuming I can come up with suitable pattern and complete it by my next winter trip)! :D ♡ 

I'm still getting over the shock of actually finding this stuff here, much less at a thrift shop! :P