so, a few weeks ago, i decided to try buying yarn on ebay.

this is an idea whose merit is slightly in question at the moment.

one of the auctions i won was a hyoooge bargain. i got eight pounds of 100% wool yarn, at something like 750 yards per pound. i could have gotten only four pounds for about the same price from the same seller, but noooo, i had to buy the eight.

friday it came in. the eight pounds of yarn arrived in the form of about two hundred individual strands of about sixty feet in length each, all twined together in one fat, disorganized rope.

i spent much time this weekend working on sorting this yarn out. first, i pulled it out of the box and laid it out on the floor, in a zig-zag pattern. i tried to separate a strand. messy. so i tried separating a bunch. in general, i think it is safe to say that the cats really enjoyed this entire process.

in the end, what i ended up doing was splitting the main rope up into about three sections. i coiled up two of the three and put them back in the box, and further split the one remaining third into four or five smaller ropes. then, using a desk drawer and a bar stool back, i worked from end to end of the coiled mini rope, separating between one and three strands at a time. it was necessary to coil each strand individually the entire way, in order to weave it through when the strands intertangled.

i worked through probably an eighth of the total yarn in … oh, seven hours? nine? this weekend, and have come up with, i think, four hanks (which should each be about two three-four ounce balls) and two balls (from before i discovered it was faster to run the yarn into hanks on my swift than it was to wind the strands on the ball winder).

i also disassembled my first sweater for its yarn, a wool j. crew ugly thing (but with nice olive green heathery yarn) from a thrift shop for $2. at the same time i also picked up this green old navy lambswool sweater and an irish wool cardigan that someone probably paid $80 for, also for $2 each. thrift shop represent! disassembling the sweater took some time as well. again, the swift proved useful. then i had to wash the yarn and hang it to dry.

and finally, i kool-aid dyed a couple of balls of the ebay yarn. for the dark red, i used four packets of black cherry + one of grape for roughly four ounces of yarn; for the variegated blue, i used four packets of blue-raspberry which i then tried to darken with a packet of grape. inadequate mixing caused the variation — i should have pulled the yarn out of the water and mixed the grape in, rather than pouring the grape in and trusting it all to magically work out. nonetheless, i like how they all turned out, and they should make me a nice felted backpack. also, i desperately want to kool-aid dye more yarn, just because it’s fun.

so, in short, i now have enough yarn to last me a very long time indeed. the ebay stuff is scratchy enough that i wouldn’t make anything designed to be worn next to the skin, like a scarf or a sweater, unless i hated the person in question — and since i can’t really see investing many hours of making something in making something for someone i hate, tote bags and backpacks it is.

i figure once i work through all of it, i’ll end up with something like 30-35 balls of yarn. i may hock some of it on ebay. god knows what the hell i thought i was going to do with that damn much yarn. this, ladies and gentlemen, is why i am generally self-banned from ebay.