2022 Frugal Living Challenge

cw18

Tried the large charity store.   One "£3 the bag" which was almost all shades of mucky brown and beige - and over half was chunky wool.  Then a load of new 50g balls - at £1.75 each    The lady I asked (no price on the basket) gave me the price apologetically, said it seemed dear to her, that they have no control over the prices of new items, and suggested I tried the pound stores as she'd seen cheaper there.

Nothing at all in H0me B@rgains - and it's a big one there (the largest I know of in the area).   BnM had a few, but not a great combination of colours in any one thickness of wool.  And I was reluctant to pay £2.50/100g when I wanted more than 1 colour to play with.  (When did wool get so expensive?   I haven't really done any knitting since my older son turned 1, and he was 33 this year!!!).   Ended up getting some in £Land.  3 colours at £1 for 50g, so it was the cheapest I came across today.  Not perfect colours for my living room, but close enough to practise Granny Squares to make another throw to use in it - though I'm sure I'll have to go back for more if I want to make one that's big enough to be of any use.....

My crochet needles should arrive tomorrow, but I may not get them until Friday (my order is going to a drop-off shop so that I don't need to hang around the house all day).

Bluegreen143

Wool can be expensive @cw18, especially if you want nice stuff.

I’m a knitter and if I’m going to go to the effort of knitting something I want to use a beautiful yarn which is pleasant to knit and looks really great in the final garment, I only knit a few projects a year - currently knitting a lovely Aran jumper for my 6yo.

I’ve found that if I stock up on wool because I find it cheap (say at the charity shop) I never use it and I ended up with a huge cluttered stash. So I actually wasted more that way. So now I always pick my project first then go to my local, independently owned yarn shop and buy a nice wool that fits the pattern. No clutter and I always finish that project before buying new supplies. This is just what works for me though!  

Jellytotts

I found some gorgeous merino wool at a bootfair back in the summer. I paid 50p a ball for it and have been making crochet wrist warmers and cowls from it.  There was only 1, 50gm ball of each colour so enough to mix and match some stripes.  

MadamMim2013

cw18 said:

Tried the large charity store.   One "£3 the bag" which was almost all shades of mucky brown and beige - and over half was chunky wool.  Then a load of new 50g balls - at £1.75 each    The lady I asked (no price on the basket) gave me the price apologetically, said it seemed dear to her, that they have no control over the prices of new items, and suggested I tried the pound stores as she'd seen cheaper there.

Nothing at all in H0me B@rgains - and it's a big one there (the largest I know of in the area).   BnM had a few, but not a great combination of colours in any one thickness of wool.  And I was reluctant to pay £2.50/100g when I wanted more than 1 colour to play with.  (When did wool get so expensive?   I haven't really done any knitting since my older son turned 1, and he was 33 this year!!!).   Ended up getting some in £Land.  3 colours at £1 for 50g, so it was the cheapest I came across today.  Not perfect colours for my living room, but close enough to practise Granny Squares to make another throw to use in it - though I'm sure I'll have to go back for more if I want to make one that's big enough to be of any use.....

My crochet needles should arrive tomorrow, but I may not get them until Friday (my order is going to a drop-off shop so that I don't need to hang around the house all day).

Hiya, de-lurking to say that when I struggled to find good wool for my mum (she knits for charity, arthritis permitting) I searched online and found marrineryarns (.com) worth a look, they had some amazing colours and in all fairness wasn’t that expensive.
Hope this helps  

Thrifty_Taylor

If you sign up.to Hobbycrsft's emails, every now & then you get a £5 gift card or discount code, which can be used online & be delivered to your house. I live on an island & occasionally order things. We do have a couple of good local woolshops though. My mum bought lots from Deals/Poundland, she knits lots of baby cardigans & crochets blankets. I try to challenge myself each winter with a project (though knit all year round). This year I'm knitting myself an Icelandic jumper, with wool from my stash. It's made from the neck down, on a circular needle. Enjoying it so far!

2childmum2

I would second Marriner's for yarn - it's about the cheapest place I have found.  Lovecrafts have a sale on at the moment, and WoolWarehouse are usually pretty good too.  GoodVibesYarn has some lovely multicoloured yarn cakes.

Aldi wool from Turkey is good quality, but that from China less so.  Recently it has all been from China.

Be aware that US crochet terms and UK terms are different - they use the same name for different stitches!  And the size of crochet hooks is different too (as are knitting needle sizes)  So you need to be aware of which system your pattern is using (or is being demonstrated on YouTube!)

You can easily find charts comparing the crochet terms (this was the first one that came up when I googled    -https://crochetdreamz.com/2017/09/us-to-uk-crochet-conversion-chart.html

Sometimes the pattern doesn't tell you if it's uk or usa, but if you look out for single crochet you will know it is US as we don't have that in the UK

mandy47

I was lucky enough to be gifted 2 bin bags of wool earlier this year. All excellent quality and a good range of colours. Friends sister had a stroke and could no longer knit so I was offered the wool.
I crochet blankets and donate them to charity. It keeps me busy and my lap warm! I'm currently working on my 5th blanket this year.
 Hopefully they are useful to someone. 

bupster

My money saving on holiday tip is probably a pretty common one, if breakfast is included then eat enough that you won't need lunch and if you're able then take a pastry or piece of fruit as an afternoon snack -

I know this is from several pages back but it did make me laugh - to eat enough at breakfast so I wouldn't want lunch I'd have to eat UNTIL lunch. At the very least, they'd have to roll me out of the breakfast hall, which does limit the sightseeing a bit 

Debsnewbudget

I made a jam sponge in the microwave tonight. 

I was very uncertain that it would work but 5 mins cooking and 5 mins resting and it was delicious. 

Just grease a pudding basin, put loads jam in bottom, try and put some up the sides. Mix together a sponge mixture, add it on the top, put grease proof paper on the basin with an elastic band and microwave.
enjoy

cw18

Well, it appears making Granny Squares is just like riding a bike - once you've done it you don't forget how

It must be over 35 years (possibly over 40) since I last did any crochet, but I'm now one large square down !!

I always hated sewing them together, so I considered just doing one huuuuuuge square that made up a square throw.   But I've decided that wouldn't be very portable as a 'work in progress' project, and would probably get hard to work with.   So I've done a square that's 11 rounds big (22cmx22cm).   I'm actually quite pleased with it, as I don't remember by teenage attempts coming out quite a square despite only being about 6 rounds in size      I figure once I sew them together I may want/need to do a couple of 'all the way around' loops just to neaten up the edges??

My wrists and right thumb are now aching a bit though, so I think I'm going to have to pace myself at least for a while !!

Time for bed now, but when I get up I plan to try and figure out how many squares I may need (a quick measure up against the fleece throw I'm using tonight suggests I can get away with 28 if I'm doing a 2 row outer border), how much wool I've used for the one I've made, and how much I'll need in total (will have to guess for the border, but I reckon 2 rows of border will be the same as 2 full squares if I'm right about using 28 squares!).    I can then try and get back to the store to get more wool before these colours become obsolete stock......