That Cost Me How Much!?

According to the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the average knitter spends between $500 to $1,700 a year on yarn, patterns, needles, and books. Since I haven't gotten my annual credit card summary I can't confirm this fact, but I fear I'm somewhere on the higher end of that range rather than the lower end. Actually, I don't know that I'm actually going to review 2008's annual summary. I'd like to start 2009 with a clean slate and not dwell on past purchases.

For a non-knitter this probably seems like an unbelievable amount of money just for knitting. However, it's really easy to run-up that $1700 tab.

The adventure to $1700 starts with the innocent purchase of that one pair of needles you need for your first project. For me it was a pair of size 8 needles so I could make a scarf (a typical beginner project). Then of course that morphed into a pair of size 8 needles for my famous baby blankets. Now one would think that I could just use the same pair that I got for the scarf, however that isn't the case because the length of that first pair were WAY shorter than I needed for a blanket. Before I knew it I was looking at purchasing circular needles and DPNs.

I remember the day I purchased my set of interchangeable circulars. I was at Joanne's mulling over the age old dilemma when it comes to purchasing circular needles - what length cable do I want/need? Oh, and don't get me started on the metal vs. bamboo decision. Sidenote: No matter what type of needle I needed, I would diligently go through the pros and cons of purchasing metal or bamboo needles. I can't even begin to tell you the looks I got from people as I analyzed it all. Getting back to the circular needle tangent . . . So I'm trying to figure out what type of circular needles to purchase. Then I saw the interchangeable set. It was on sale (a dangerous, enabling word) - half price! I must have danced around that aisle for at least half an hour debating in my head what to purchase. In the end I selected the interchangeable set because it was an "investment" (another dangerous, enabling word) .

Investment is word the I would use many, many, many more times over the coming months. Each project required a different size needle and I finally got to a point where I would spend hours on Ravelry just trying to find a pattern that used a size needle I already had so that way I wouldn't have to spend more $ on another set of needles.

So, I've covered needles; let's move onto knitting accessories. Yes, accessories such as a project bags, stitch markers, mini pair of scissors, ball winder, swift, tape measure, more stitch markers because you lost 90% of your other set or you don’t have enough for the project you want to make. The list goes on and on. Most of these things have a small price tags when you are buying them individually, but when you put the receipts together the total adds up!

Then there are swap gifts. Now, don't get me wrong. I love sending gifts to others. Dish Rag Tag was a blast and I did eventually get the reverse swap box out as well. However, the swaps I enjoyed the most were the ones where I didn't expect anything in return - a.k.a. RAK gifts.

Another side tangent: Speaking of RAK, I will never forget the response I got from seamsheavenly when I told her I had a camera for her. It was about 4 years old and , to some, grossly out of date. However, you would have thought I told her she won million dollars. That makes the list of top memories of 2008.

Back to swap gifts. . . Depending on the magnitude of the swap, most of these packages run from $10 - $30/$40 (again, it all depends on the items you include – if the swap requires you purchase yarn that is at least $20 you then need to factor in goodies and shipping).

And, last but not at all least, there is cost of yarn. I miss the days when going to Joanne's for yarn was all I needed. I would stalk the Sunday paper with great enthusiasm as I knew it held a 40% coupon for Joanne's and Michael's. Those were the days when Bernat Baby Coordinates was the bomb to me. Oh, and Patron's and Lion Brand were as well. I had yet to step foot into yarn heaven and sock yarn was just something I heard about, but had never used for one of my projects.

The cost of yarn can be outrageous if you let it be. Case and point, the $130 hank that I saw in Indianapolis. Of course I would never get a hank of yarn that cost that much - I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror without a lingering sense of guilt. It's just ridiculous. In all seriousness, I think I've done a good job of keeping my yarn costs down. A major of my stash was bought at Joanne's or Michael's and I actually have made it through yarn heaven once or twice without making a purchase. However, if you don't budget for yarn the chance you will go overboard is likely.

Two other factors that contribute to high annual yarn costs. . . Yarn Hops (sometimes called Yarn Crawls) and Yarn Clubs.

This is when a group of knitter go together to a yarn shop, or two, and knit and shop and knit and shop some more things can get dangerous. Yes my friends, you've put yourself in a situation were you've gone to a yarn shop with a group of enablers. These people will not tell you that the hank of yarn is too much and they will not tell you to put the yarn down because you really can't afford it. Instead, they will encourage you to purchase said yarn by telling you about all the great things you can make from it.
Then there are yarn clubs. For a flat fee you can be part of an exclusive group that receives custom colorways, patterns and gifts that will not be available to anyone else (at least not for the next 12 months sometimes). However, this privilege comes at a premium cost. The minimum monthly cost averages somewhere around $30 and goes up from there. Now, if you do the math and back out the cost of shipping, the pattern, the yarn and any additional gifts then yes you can see the value in it, but it still isn’t cheap.
So where is this all leading?

I don't plan on reading my annual credit card summary because I want to live in my happy-go-lucky world of denial. I don't really want to know how much I've really spent on this hobby I'm so enamored with. All I need to know is that I've probably spent somewhere between $500 and $1700 this year on knitting. With that in mind I do have to say, yesterday I won the knitting lottery.

Let me explain . . .

Awhile back I mentioned that my mom told me she was going to get me some free yarn because someone she knew got all this yarn from a yarn shop that went out of business. Well, yesterday afternoon I took a trip over to where this yarn was being stored to sort through everything because mom told me there was too much for her to know really what to take for me. We both decided it would be better for me to come over and sort through everything and take what I wanted. Honestly, I don't know what I expected, but what I experience was much more. I'll put it this way - imagine you are in a candy shop and someone told you that you could eat whatever you wanted without any physical repercussions. That's right! No weight gain, no elevated sugar levels, NOTHING. That is what it was like. Anything and everything under the sun was at my disposal - Needles, crochet hooks, buttons, ribbon and trim, books and many other knitting necessities.

Oh, yeah, there was yarn too! It was insane! In the end, I walked away with a crazy amount of stuff. So much so that I think I made up for the hundreds of dollars I have poured into this hobby (passion) of mine throughout the year. Now I have no right to say I don't have a yarn stash. Before I run off to a yarn shop I am required to sort through all my goodies to make sure I really don't have anything at home. I do feel the need to say that there wasn’t any sock yarn for the taking so it’s ok for me to purchase that without reviewing my stash first.

Here is a picture of all the stuff I got . . . .




I'm hoping to have it all sorted and organized within the next two weeks or so.


All in all, I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to raid this stash. It amazes me what was left after this individual's going out of business sale. I'm thinking my knitting budget for 2009 just shrunk by leaps and bounds as a result of this opportunity (at least I hope).

Until later. . . Ciao!