Thrifted Gold!

So I've been thrift crawling for most of my adult life, and I've found some amazing bargains and amazing items. But I jut can't get over this bag of yarn I found for $5. Not at the Sally Bland or the Goodspill, but at a generic but always busy Thrift Store on Gratiot near Mt. Clemens.

Can you SEE those prices?

Can you FEEL those textures?

All I can think is that some lovely, classy older lady passed away and her bachelor, ungrateful son (ungrateful because he didn't cherish his mother's yarn stash which most likely kept his head and neck warm for years!)  bagged them up and shipped them off. I mean, who willingly gives away Noro?

Jiffy Pop Hat

I did do some Christmas knitting, but I had to give them all away pre-photo, so a quicky description will suffice: four cotton star dishcloths. Two yellow, one red, and one green and white. They were fun and useful!

On to my Thrift Store find of the year: over $120 worth of yarn for $4. All in one bag. All nice yarn, including this $20 skein of Noro nadeshiko yarn...on which I quickly went to town. I wanted a hat for church renovating weather. Church renovating weather means icy cold wind alternating with propane heated jets of smelly warmth. I had a picture in my mind, and I wanted a cable band. I wanted it to be full and warm, and to fit around whatever silly thing I was doing with my long hair that day. Usually braids or bun, sometimes ponytail.

Here's what I came up with:

Crafty!

I am knitting, but it's a lace shawl and I don't always have the steady nerves or fearless demeanor it takes to knit row upon row of lace.

So to keep the craft-on, I made my Ma an apron out of a thrift store sun dress. (Before you scream "Why did she cut up a perfectly nice dress for an APRON??" it was 1. too large and 2. didn't have a belt. )

Here's what I did: I took this pretty cotton dress, and cut it in half. Then I took some of the black trim from the back and made the background for the belt of it. As you see, Little One was very helpful overseeing my work and holding it down with his silken paws.

I dutifully pinned and then sewed. I thought the white thread was a nice contrast.

As you see, Iggy said nothing on the issue of the straightness of my stitching. He's so polite, he just silently looked on. Then I put the green grosgrain I had purchased (by far the most expensive part of this project- $7 for almost three yards, but I had to have it- green is Ma's fave color!)

Ouch!
Ack! Yuck! Where's my seam ripper????

At this point I should mention I'm a highly sporadic sewer- can't remember the last thing I used my Kenmore for, so my sewing is very organic- I had a vague plan but I let the dress tell me what to do. Right then it was screaming..."BLACK THREAD, GIRL!"

Ok I can live with this.
Next came the neck closures. The existing strap already had button holes, so I modified the structure and sewed on some new buttons. Now, I dug through my collection and found Rhinestones and Pearls. If it were for me: rhinestones, no brainer. But Ma...she'll get the pearls.
So here is the first draft. Nice, but it has a built in padded bra-type of thing going on, and it gaped. Drag. So... I used some grosgrain to put little buttresses on either side of the strap- I realized the error of design- aprons generally are triangular on top- so I fudged it with grosgrain. Then I made a little grosgrain flowery thing to frost the cake a little. After all, it was a birthday gift!
Happy Birthday Mamma Mia!