Thrift Shop Stash Enhancement

"Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral baked meats. Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables."

- Hamlet

Am I the only one that thinks that when I think "thrift shop"? I hope not. 

Anyway, when I'm looking for random stash storage solutions, I don't run across a lot of chances to make my stash bigger, but this time, I got lucky. Under a pile of acrylic yarn, I found 4 skeins, 2 with labels, but they all look like the same yarn: 

I've never used The Philosopher's Wool Co. yarn before, but it's 100% wool, smells like lovely lanolin, and seems perfect for my Sherwood Slippers. I'm planning on holding the yarn double, and I hope I have enough to get a pair of slippers from each skein. 

It seems a little heavier than Cascade 220 (which I also hold double for those slippers, and any kind will do, just as long as it's not superwash), so I may have to make adjustments. We'll see! 

A Quandary

Everything you see on my Ravelry designer page that says "journalgazette.net" is a free pattern. Come July or August, the Journal Gazette is changing over how it does its website, so all of those links might (or might not) stop working. There are ways to archive a website and keep old links working, but I'm not sure that a newspaper will want to do that. After all, yesterday's news is, well, old.

That's over 150 patterns. You can kind of tell which ones were from my really early days. A few are, frankly, embarrassing.

I was able to make them, and provide them for free, because my employer allowed me to use work time to write, format and post them. (They asked me to do all of the knitting at home, and I did. I also paid for my own yarn.)

I'll admit: some of them aren't great patterns. Even the ones that produce great finished products aren't written in the most standard ways. Only a few have sizing of any kind. Most of them don't even have page numbers. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but it can be if you're a little tired and don't want to think more than you have to. Many of them use handspun yarn or yarn that is discontinued.

I don't want the patterns to just go away. But...

To justify spending time reformatting, rewriting (using a real, live style sheet!) and suggesting alternative yarns, I would have to charge for the patterns.

I love the thought of updating things, and maybe offering them in collections.

But, will people hate me for what might look like charging for patterns that used to be free?

...And I Also Know This

Trekking 6-ply: 427 yards per 150 gram ball

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Heavyweight: 350 yards per 198 gram ball

The Blue Moon Fiber Arts is 100% wool, the Trekking is 25% nylon, which explains some of the difference in weight per yard. The BMFA is also just a tiny bit thicker, but I get the same gauge with both on #3 needles. 

So, if it takes me 79 grams of Trekking to make a pair of socks for myself, it should take me:

(427/150)*79 = about 225 yards

Multiply that by (198/350) = > 127.2 grams, or round to 128 grams, of BMFA to make a pair of socks. 

I have parts of two skeins of BMFA under the bed. Is it enough? 

--Quick check with the scale.--

YES! There are more BMFA socks in my future! Yay!