I grew up on acrylic afghans. My Memaw never bought cotton or wool thread. I purchased the fishermans wool by lion brand when I wanted to do soakers for my son, and have purchased cotton to do various projects, but those beautiful yarns you all are using... How do you do it? They come in such tiny skeins/hanks, and cost so much more than acrylic. I havent been able to talk myself into using "nice" yarn yet.

I only buy yarn when it's on sale or I have a coupon. ACMoore has a 40% off coupon everyweek and many of the craft stores put their yarn on sale. Hobby Lobby has their Wool Ease Chunky and the T&Q! for 3.22. ACMoore has ALL yarn for 25'% off which makes the wool ease worsted weight 1.10/skein. I really prefer the wool ease when making hats/sweaters.
As for the 9-15$ yarns, I love my 40% coupon for those. I haven't purchased many skeins in that price range though because it's too intimidating for me:)

I am a sale hawk. When I find a good price I swoop down on it and buy as much as I can afford to in as many colors as I can. Then I have them here when I need them for a project. If I have a special thing I am working on with expensive yarn I tend to buy less than I think I need and go back for more. I did get in trouble with that method though when my LYS stopped selling what I was using. Thank goodness for ebay! :juggle:

It’s cheaper than therapy…..ha ha ha ha.

Isn't it terrible!! I can't believe how much they charge for yarn. All kinds of yarn. I even think the brands sold at craft stores are way overpriced too.

I save the expensive stuff for small gifts. Infinite is right, lol, it's therapy cause it's certainly not cost effective to knit it yourself.

Brown Sheep Lambs Pride is as expensive as I get! I only use that for slippers and mittens. I love Plymouth Encore (75%acrylic, 25%wool) for most everything else. I also like Lion Brand Wool Ease for basic stuff too, sweaters, hats, ect....

Oh, well, I take that back. I do buy sock yarn, and that can run about $8+ for a pair of socks. But, that's as expensive as I get.

I don't really like using eyelash, furry, or ribbon yarns. I don't really like how they turn out or feel when I knit with them. I'm just a simple plain knitter :D

Anyhoo, you're not alone when it comes to not wanting to spend that much $$ on yarn :p

I tend to like Cascade 220, not a bad size hank, 220yds, for $7-8/skein. Not too bad, for really really nice wool yarn. Lately, I have been buying paton's classic merino from ACMoore, it's like $5/skein, same amount as cascade, and can use a 40% off coupon on it. Woolease is OK, and cheap, feels much nicer than acrylic, but not as nice as real wool. I don't like knitting with cotton, just not enough give for me. I don't do huge projects, so the cost doesn't get outrageous. Definitely no afghans, I don't have the attention span for them, lol. But if I did, I would probably use woolease, just for the washabilty of it. But I really do prefer 100% wool, but really only like cascade 220 & patons classic merino, both are super soft, no itchies, and reasonably priced, imo.

I may be cheap, but I am really having a hard time accepting that it cost me $12 to make a scarf.

But if you had bought that handknit scarf it would have cost much more than that! Just think, you now have a 'boutique' $50 scarf, and it only cost you $12!

Ok, your right on that, but what happens when I get addicted then I want to make sweaters that cost $$$ to make, I don't have that kind of money, it's a slippery slope!!LOL...

But of course you are right, and the best part is I MADE IT!

Then you start buying lots on ebay, lol. I am not up to making sweaters for myself yet, but kiddie sweaters are not too outrageous- yet!

So how much does it cost to make a kiddie sweater? What have you spent? I definately think I will keep to small things until I am confident enough to get into something big like a sweater. I don't even know how to add/drop! Katie just taught me how to perl on friday now I'm doing a cable knit scarf. Very pretty.

And to the OP I was at Katies feeling up all of her yarn, it's sooo yummy!!!! I think once you start using the good stuff, there's no going back! Oh uh, very dangerous!

Originally posted by maxnmaizy
So how much does it cost to make a kiddie sweater? What have you spent? I definately think I will keep to small things until I am confident enough to get into something big like a sweater. I don't even know how to add/drop! Katie just taught me how to perl on friday now I'm doing a cable knit scarf. Very pretty.


For Mary (small 5yo), it only takes about 2 skeins of Plymouth Encore, so about 8oz? Give or take, cuz it depends if I'm using a yarn hog stitch. So, that's only about $10-12 for a hand knit sweater :D

Once you get past the idea that knitting should be thrifty it's no problem at all :D .Or maybe it's a really big problem, I guess it depends on your stashing tendencies, lol.

I buy the more expensive yarn either on ebay or when my LYS has a sale - they have 2 sales a year.

Right now I'm working on a blanket for Eva. The yarn cost will end up being close to $100. That sounds like an awful lot for a baby blanket. But I don't think of it as a baby blanket, but an heirloom-to-be, and then $100 is a steal. Not to mention the pleasure that I've had from working with this yarn for the last 8 months.

The sweater I made for Anja used 2.25 skeins of Cascade Quatro at an average of $8 skein. I have enough left over from the last skein to have made a felted hat and some knit food with plenty still left. So, really the sweater only cost maybe $24 including the $5 pattern. Considering that it is 100% wool, hand knit, and big enough to wear this year and next - with possibly the next year if she stays short in her torso... it is a great deal. Add to that the incredible satisfaction I get when I look at it knowing *I* made it - just for my little girl.... :heart: As the comericials say.... priceless.


(and yes, cheaper than therapy! :juggle: )

I get a lot of my yarn supercheap from www.elann.com .

I'm knitting my first sweater right now, a pullover for ds. I'm using worsted hand-dyed merino from www.handpainted.yarn.com. The yarn cost me $21...well, would have cost me $21. They accidentally sent me two of the three skeins for free and told me to keep it. It's the softest, nicest stuff I've ever knit with :D

I am eyeing some superchunky merino wool/acrylic blend over at Elann right now for a second sweater for ds...it would cost around $20 as well. I think that's fairly reasonable for a kid sweater.

I am another mama who buys at AC Moore with the 40% of coupon. If I know that I will need 2 skeins of yarn, I buy 1 skein 1 week and the other skein the next week. That way they are both 40% off.

BTW, my ds loves your dd's cake in your sig pic. Very cute.:)

How did I get over it? Easy, I bought some nice yarn and I don't think I could ever go back to acrylic. Yes, it's far more expensive, but it's so much nicer and, unless you are doing an afghan, most projects don't really take all that much yarn.

I don't knit a lot, but when I do, I put a lot of time and effort into making something special - so I figure it is worth using yarn I really like.

THere's also something to be said for buying in bulk. I don't have AC Moore - for chains I've got Michael's and Joanns.

For example: I know Fisherman's wool will be just fine for long legged soaker pants or even soakers themselves. I dye it myself at nearly no cost (a oouple packets of koolaid), and I can buy a skein on sale. Right now, www.discountyarnsale.com has a 6 pack of fisherman's for $36 plus 6.95 shipping which works out to $7.15 per skein for 8 ounces(not fantastic, but cheaper than regular joann's price and delivered to my door). I can get a couple of soakers or a pair of soaker pants plus a soaker (or maybe capri length pants? I need to figure out how to knit both legs at the same time so I don't have to guess how long I can make them).

If you're willing to buy $100 worth of yarn Peace Fleece (www.peacefleece.com) will sell to you at wholesale which for a hobby knitter is the price of $3.90 per worsted weight skein, 4 ounces. THey have a lovely soft yarn (I'm using it to make a scarf currently), and the colors are just devine.

Sometimes people will do co-ops for certain brands of yarn. I know over at the wooly wonder forums there have been a couple of co-ops for different yarns.

~amey

I teach classes at a yarn store. My sock students generally use Cherry Tree Hill yarn: $24 a skein! Yikes!
I rarely buy yarn. I love to spin my own, and it's much cheaper that way.

I am just tinkering with it, but the lady I met at 4h lives down the road. She sells wool out of her home for $3 a skein/4 oz

Kathy

OK, so last night I was thinking over my response to this thread, and saying to myself, "How can someone who asked for and received the expensive drop spindle that dh got me for Christmas claim that spinning is cheap?" I guess what is comes down to is that is is easier for me, phychologically, to justify spending a lot of money on a tool that will be used for many projects that on yarn for one project.
That said, one of my favorite ways to save money on fiber, wether I'm buying yarn or spinning it, is to use fine yarn, especially when I want to make something beautiful, but not necessarily practical. For instance, a few years ago, my grandmother sent me $20 for my birthday. I spent it on a skein of gorgeous, soft merino/silk blend laceweight yarn. That might seem like a lot for one skein, but it was cheap if you consider how many yards it was. It took me more that 2hrs just to wind it into a ball. I knitted it into a fairly large shawl, and I have enough left over to make a pair of socks.

When I started crocheting 8 years ago I used cheap acrylic yarn because that was what was available to me. I then bought some cotton yarn and used that for dishcloths and baby blankets.

A couple of months ago I decided that I was going to learn to knit (still haven't done it yet) and bought some wool yarn (I paid $6 a skein for Paton's Classic Merino, now I buy it from Joann.com for $4.66 a skein). Well, I couldn't ignore that lovely yarn so I crocheted a scarf for myself using 2 skeins ($12) and one for DS#1 using most of 1 skein ($6). I consider that a bargain.

I have since learned that it would be best to learn to knit with a light color, so I bought some cream 100% Peruvian alpaca for $5.50 for a 50 g skein. Now I can't stand to use it for practice so I am going to learn with some of the Paton's and then use the alpaca to knit a scarf.

For me, the cost isn't a factor when I consider that it is a real, natural fiber vs. acrylic. When it comes time to make afghans you can bet that I will only be making them for people I really love...LOL!

Kimberly

I struggle with this. We are not spendeous, or in a position to be.

Having said that.

Acrylic, nylon, and polyester are manmade, oleaphilic. Acrylic is not dimensionally stable. Having sweaters permanently oil- stained, wet- doggy scented, and sprung from too much heat, and not able to block------ it's cheaper in the long run to work with natural fibers. The sweaters last, are washable, repairable, blockable.....

I did spring a wool baby blanket that I'd crocheted, and put in the washer, however. It's also sprung holes. I think that's more a function of cheap wool being abused. It was supposedly "superwash." Supposedly.

Also, wool isn't a major US industry- cotton is. Rayon was. Acrylic may still be. I have doubts. The textiles industry in the US has been gutted over the last fifty years. So there isn't major spinning going on for commercial ventures, with lots left over for hand knitters, the way there is in the UK, or in Italy, or in Japan. I"m not sure of the situation in Australia or New Zealand. And the dustbowl- seventy years, and the cotton industry was cut off, more or less.

So, for Americans, knitting with wool is mostly import activity, which, by definition, is a luxury.

Also, a lot of handknitting isn't designed for SAHMs. It's designed for women with jobs and disposable incomes. I started knitting in the eighties, when an expensive sweater cost $100 worth of yarn. Now, the top price I've seen listed is $400. I bet a certain pattern I've seen has $700 worth of yarn in it. And, the books sold, and promoted- if they are English- they arent' aimed at the middle class. Princess Michael collects Kaffe Fassett sweaters. I don't feel bad not being able to pony up $200 for yarn for a sweater. Before I felt ridiculously poor. But that's like feeling sad that I can't afford a Chanel suit on my sahm yarn allowance.

I comfort myself with the idea that I am making hierlooms that will last 100 years. or practical garments that will last at leats five children.

ari

I agree w/ once you buy good natural fiber yarn you don't want to touch acrylic. I love the warmth of wool as I work w/ it, I love the smell of it. I love when Lydia says thank you to the sheep for giving us some wool for her hat, etc. :D

Also, when I started knitting, I swore up and down to myself that it would not become like sewing is for me. I find that buying fabric just because it's on sale and stashing it really, really hinders me actually. Part of the thrill for me is picking out the fabric/yarn so if I have to sew from stash, I just don't want to. Then i feel guilty for not using up my stash.

So I promised myself knitting would not be a hobby that I could derive guilty feelings from. My reward for not stashing a bunch of yarn is being able to indulge in buying the yarns I really want. That is how I can justify the cost, b/c I know I don't have a ton of yarn sitting here going unused.