I’ve had it in my head this week to find some poor ugly sweater made of lovely fiber and frog it. I caught the bug when I frogged the thrift store scarf this weekend.
This became this and I don’t just luv this yarn I wuuuuv it. Definitely going into “core” stash.

  So I went to a thrift store this afternoon (i needed the cheer up my part time job is most likely over), but this just made it worse. I was thinking I could drop maybe five dollars on my next victim.If there’s a chance I destroy it in this process I don’t spend to much. But this wasn’t to be. Anytime I found something I liked, it was to cute to ruin, not in good enough condition or more likely to much. I found at least 3 sweaters that I wouldn’t shed a tear over style wise, but their fiber was lovely.
They where also 15 dollars! What?

And yes, that last one (made of Lambs wool at 9.99) had a golfball sized hole in it.

Now I realize a lot of these places send their profits on charitable foundations. So the more they can charge for a brand label, or really nice item the more they can send on. Some of it goes to pay for things like labor and overhead and the such, but a lot of them also get volunteers. Like the thrift store I worked for , (which was not for profit and an okay place to work) but they had a person who’s main job was pulling out the more valuable donations and listing them on ebay. To make sure they got as much as they could for them.
So guess I get the WHY it’s happening, the cost of everything is going up. And these places often do us a favor by taking our old crap off our hands. But it often isn’t saving much from the landfills. I’ve also seen what they throw away.
But what made them so much fun, was finding the deals and the weird treasures. Now you have to contend with people who re-sell the stuff at their own shops, or on ebay. They have no emotional link to it, it’s all profit. And it isn’t as cheap as it once was.  My old navy-blue cardigan that I bought many years ago for probably well under five dollars, would probably go for 6.99 and up now.
I guess when you think about it, that 100% cashmere sweater maybe cost 50 or more originally. And at 15.99 it’s still a good deal, I guess.
But it’s just not the same…

And so, I was so devastated by my trip and lack of treasure, I forgot to check the craft section, so when I did check out with my one sad sweater the women ahead of me had already got all their actual yarn.