Battle of the Scrap Bags

 On Veterans' Day (11/11/24), I went to a local thrift store, AmVets, knowing they would have 50% off all items. My husband needed a pair of jeans for gardening, and I was looking for a pair of jeans for myself, too. I figured if they had any yarn, that would be a perk! In the past, I got several full skeins of Bernat Blanket yarn for $2 each at that store. 

I hit the jackpot with yarn! I picked up 18 bags, a whole cartful! I spent $30.80 on yarn, and managed to find a pair of jeans for my husband, and a pair for myself! 

When I got home, I made a YouTube video about the yarn haul: Thrifting Haul Video

I pulled out a bag and got started.

 Bag 1

One of the first projects was making granny squares from the small scraps. Why? Because the jeans I bought myself were too short! I made some granny squares, sewed them together, and sewed them to the bottom of the jeans. 

In all, I made 10 projects from the bag, with an estimated sales value of $105. Some of the items sold already! (Marked with *) I worked on bag 1 from 11/11 to 11/21. I was busy on some other items because of a large custom order and craft shows. 

1. Variegated Pink Loaf Cat*

2. Granny Squares for my jeans

3. Blue-Green T-Rex

4. Variegated Pink Stingray* 

5. 3 eggs

6. Ballerina Kitty*

7. Camo sea turtle*

8. Flip Octo

9. Denim Cat

10. Ocean Ombre Turtle

I summarized the projects made from this bag in this YouTube video. There were a total of 10 projects with an estimated sales value of $105. Since I made these items in the middle of my fall craft shows, I already sold $36 worth of them, thus paying for all 18 bags of yarn already. 

On to bag #2 - started on 11/22

 This bag was a tangled mess. It took me an hour and a half to wind it into neat cakes. There were 36 balls/cakes of yarn. 

Projects: 

1. Rainbow Kooky Owl*

2. Green Snake

3. Green Axolotl

4. Rainbow Patches the Bear*

5. November Monster v. 1.0*

6. November Monster v. 2.0

7. November Monster v 3.0

8. Rainow Loaf Cat

9. Green Snake

10. Happy Coffee (Matcha) Red

11. Red T-Rex

12. Christmas Snail

13. Christmas Snake

14. Green Angry Coffee

So, 14 items from this bag, with an estimated sales total of $96. I sold three items from the list, for a total of $34. I finished on 11/28 (Thanksgiving), thanks to craft time at my daughter's house, and somebody else cooking Thanksgiving dinner! 

On to Bag 3, which had a lot of small balls of Red Heart Neon Stripes yarn. This video

 goes through what was in the bag. 

Here's what I made from that bag: 

1) Neon Stripe Loaf Cat

2) Purple Monster - November Monster of the Month

3) Hilde the Highland Cow - Brown

4) Happy Coffee - Rainbow

5) Micro Octo

6) Purple Whale

7) Black/Rainbow Gecko

8) Gray Whale

9) Axolotl sleeping bag

10-12) Owls (Gufo Ernesto)

13) Rainbow Gecko (purple to red)

14) Super Scrappy Snake

15) Rainbow Dinosaur

16) Tanner the Mini Triceratops

17) Brown Mouse, red shirt

18) Neon Stripe Turtle

So, a total of 18 items, with an estimated sale value of $197. So far the most items from one bag! 

I opened bag 4 just before a trip down to PA (Dec. 13-15) for our family Christmas. The bag had a lot of white, which I needed for a Christmas gift for my granddaughter Lyra. She watches a show called "Hilda and Twig", so for Christmas she got a book and her own amigurumi Twig (a white deer-fox). I don't think I got a picture of Twig, but it is in this video.

1) Twig

2) Highland Cow "Curly"

3) Tanner the mini triceratops - Blaze

4) Snowman

5) Stegosaurus - Brick

6) Chubs mouse

7) Ombre Rex

8) Mouse - Purple Shirt

9) Stingray Purple

10) Stingray orange

11) Mouse - Blue & White

12) Hilde - Snowball

So only 12 projects from that bag, but many of them were bigger, more expensive items, so the estimated sales value was $218 (the best so far as I'm typing this). I finished up that bag 12/19 

Bag 5 - This bag was pinks and purples, one pound, 3 ounces. 

1) Ballerina Kitty - pink dress

2) Pink Jellyfish

3) Macaroon

4) Ankylosaurus (purple and gray)

5) Pink penguin

6) Purple Dachshund

7) Pink Monkey

8) Pink/Purple Turtle

9) Purple Bear, Pink Scarf

10) December Monster Pink

11) Pink Axolotl

Only 11 projects, estimated sales value $177

Bag 6 had lots of small pieces. It had 11.4 ounces of bigger yarn balls (27 of them) and 2.4 ounces of tiny scraps

1)  Blue penguin

2) Green Penguin

3) Purple Tail Merkitty

4) Rainbow turtle

5) Crazy Daisy Giraffe

6) Merkitty - white / pink

7) Pink Possum

8) Blue Brown Camo Cute little dino

9) Mico octo sad red

10) Micro octo angry blue/brown

11) Micro octo angry blue

12) Loopy Chicken Blue

13) Loopy Chicken Pink/Brown

14) African Flower Sea Turtle Pink/Blue/Brown

15) Pink/Purple Turtle

16) Navy Blue Monster

Pretty good assortment from this bag: 16 items made, $166 in estimated sale value

Bag 7 - started January 8 

1 pound, 1.3 oz of yarn - 16 good-sized balls and 40+ pieces of small scrap yarn. 

I set aside the yarn in the box for my first project. 

Bag Summary: 

Bag #   # of items made, Estimated sales value

1    10    $105

2    14    $96

3    18    $197

4    12    $218

5    11    $177

6    16    $166