Monday, December 8, 2008

Make it yourself not always cheap

Friday, I went to the mall for some winter stuff. I also ended up with a cute sweater. My mom saw the price tag and went a little crazy. $55 for a sweater that she can easily knit herself (mom is very handy). Actually $40 after discount but she didn't know that at the time.

Now she wants to make me one instead. No complaints from me if it means I save money. This weekend we went to a few places to find the right yarn. We went to Walmart, Zellers, and Michaels. All the yarn with the right color and thickness cost about $4.99-$6.99 per oz. Estimating about 6 oz. for the sweater, it would come to about $30-$42 and not to mention all the time and energy involved. Even mom agreed that maybe it's not worth it.

I guess it is not always a good deal to make things yourselves. Unless does anyone know where I can find cheap but good quality yarn?

2 comments:

Headstrong Damsel said...

For knitting I kind of work backwards, I look at sale yarn (sometimes you can get great "factory leftover" yarn, super cheap) and see what I can make out of it.

Anonymous said...

I think it depends what you define as 'quality' yarn. Most yarn from a regular yarn shop is a hefty price.

But generally eBay is the best place to go for bulk yarn. You can scan thrift stores, of course, but the odds of them having the right color/type of yarn in the right amount are pretty slim.


I totally agree that DIY can be expensive. It exasperates me when everyone's touting the DIY gifts that have you buying tons of supplies and learning new skills.


In protest, this season I'm doing the lazy/busy person's DIY gifts. Only things that require little to no start-up cost and not too much effort.