Thirfting: Hobby or Obsession

You never know what you're going to come across in a thrift store.
Since moving to Wyoming we have been doing a lot of thrift store shopping. In my previous life I did a lot of costume designing and often it was on a tight budget, so I went to the thrift stores and consignment shops around Buffalo.
Tip One: Go to the suburbs, even though it's a drive, the prices at the stores are significantly less than those in the city. There may also be fewer stores in the burbs, that means that everything gets donated to that location and it may include designer pieces.
Our shopping usually isn't for anything specific but we generally find something. Lately, I feel as though I've moved from a Craft to crafting so I'm always looking for things that spark my creativity. Recently it was some vintage fabrics. In Fort Collins I found a four inch thick collection of the most adorable embroidery transfers that are going to be appearing on some up coming items for sale.
Tip Two: Speaking of sales, make sure you know what days your thrift stores have sales. These days you may not find the greatest of things but they will be on sale. When you walk in make sure to check to see if there is a daily or weekly color tag sale, generally that means the item is 50% off.
Being a fiber and knitting person I always look at the yarn; yarn that's not only in skeins but in sweaters. In a coming post I'll show you how to take a sweater apart for the yarn. The other day I was looking for sweaters to felt to make bags.
Tip Three: If you are going to felt a sweater for a project, the first thing you want to look for is a tag with fiber content. Ideally, you want one that says 100% wool, Shetland wool, virgin wool, alpaca, angora, or any mixture of the list. Cotton does not felt, linen does not felt, silk does not felt (although this list may make wonderful yarn to work with when taken apart), and no synthetic fiber felts, like rayon, polyester, acrylic, Dacron, Orlon, the list goes on. So look for Wool!
In the sweaters that I was looking at I found this great wool hand knit hoodie. I looked at it and thought to myself that this looked familiar, and then I realized it was a Central Park Hoodie! If you are a knitter, you may be familiar with this pattern. In Buffalo, the knitting shop that I went to had a class to make it with the pattern designer. If you're interested in the pattern check it out here.

Now this one had some issues, like pilling and a broken zipper, all of which I could take care of. I took out the broken zipper and put in a new one, and have been picking off the pills every time I wear it. The wool in the hoodie I believe is Icelandic because of the plethora of guard hairs all over. I love it. It's warm, possibly even more so because I know it was hand knit. It's a little big on me and a little small on Joe, but we both thing it's wonderful.
This is the exact reason why you go to a thrift store, well, why I go to a thrift store, you may find something that you didn't know you needed but when you have it, it sure makes you great full for someone else's "junk". So go thrifting. Find something good. Make a contribution to that charity. Make a smaller footprint in the world. And go dig for treasure.
But don't forget to bring your re-usable bag!