Until the economy perks up, most everyone is cutting back on expenses wherever possible. But pity us poor crafters -- forced to deny ourselves the indulgences in fabric, yarn and other delights that make what we do possible!
Naturally, I was rescued from my pity party by another crafter -- the wonderful Sandy Wiseheart at Knitting Daily. As she points out in her latest post, it's possible to indulge without guilt by simply scaling back -- that is, buying just one skein of awesome yarn at a time. (I know -- the thought of one skein makes me shudder, too -- but desperate times and all that!)
Not only does your one skein purchase help the local yarn store stay in business, but it can also be made into something very cool -- especially if you have a copy of Leigh Radford's book, One Skein.
Another idea: I've read about groups of crafters who live in the same area getting together and trading items from their stash, which sounds like so much fun!
Finally, if you've never unraveled a sweater to recycle the yarn, what are you waiting for???? Here's a great tutorial. Seriously, thrift stores sell wonderful, barely used sweaters for just a few bucks. And you can get a whole lot of perfectly good yarn from one sweater. Not to mention the fact that the unraveling process is great mindless fun ... and who couldn't use some of that these days?
