Last weekend, my sister Raheli and I went on a field trip to the Gardiner Public Library for their annual Craft Supply Sale. They sell yarn, fabric, books, notions and other gently used supplies. I’ve been wanting to go ever since I drooled over her Ezy-Hem Gauge that she picked last year. We were determined to go early, since all of the good yarn was gone by the time she arrived last year. My shopping list was: double pointed knitting needles (sizes 5-10), embroidery hoops and a yarn swift.

15 minutes before the sale opened, there was already a small crowd of people jostling for a good spot. Raheli and I did our best to scope out the room over everyone’s heads. Our plan was to split up once inside, I was going directly to the yarn table and she was heading to the book stack. As soon as they let us in, I immediately deviated from our plan to check out what looked like a yarn swift. Unfortunately, it wasn’t, so I circled back to the yarn table.

Despite it being a small room, there were lots of supplies piled onto the tables. The supplies ranged from brand new and still in their original packing, to abandoned projects, to leftover bits and pieces. The fabric scraps were sorted into bags of similar colors, which my quilter sister loved. She even found a bag that contained a stack of finished quilt squares and pre-cut strips to make more squares.

There were lots of quirky items, like a slice of pizza costume pattern, a dog alphabet cross stitch book, and a large bag of yarn with a sad story about being salvaged from an non-fitting sweater project.

We found a note tucked into a bag of hand tatted lace.

Even the Raheli’s baby got into the excitement of the craft search.

I was tempted to take all of the acrylic remnants home. I’ve been thinking about making some more flowers, and these would make some interesting color blends. Maybe not the bright orange though…

In the end, I passed on all of the yarn. I have enough projects lined up already. Here’s what I did take home:

About 5 yards of muslin, 1/2 a yard of a pretty green and purple striped fabric and 4 upholstery sample packs in teal and olive.

An assortment of notions, including embroidery hoops, double pointed knitting needles (sizes 5 and 7), a cable needle and a more-than-slightly-used cape pattern. I found a different hem gauge than the one I wanted, but it’s from my favorite public access sewing guru, Nancy Zieman.

A cute vintage Niagra Falls tin, that held (I think) pattern weights, tacks and two bags of small magnets (not pictured). All of the above came to about $15.

All in all, a very successful and fun morning. I’m still on the lookout for a gently used yarn swift, if you happen to see one…

fabric knitting sewing shopping supplies yarn