Has Me In Stitches

A friend happened to mention that she was cleaning out her yarn stash and was going to donate 3 large trash bags to the Goodwill.  I begged her to let me poke through it first and the result is this awesome assortment of yarn that will keep me busy through the coming winter! There is also an assortment of balls that I keep in a large basket.  I feel like I hit the yarn lottery!  The top shelf in this pic is actually some Cascade Yarn that I purchased from Craftsy.com at an amazing $1.30 per skein.  Not being able to resist a good deal, I bought 40 skeins of it.  At this rate I'm going to need a much bigger shelf...

I stumbled across this great crochet bag pattern .  I was drawn to the idea that I could whip it up with less than 2 skeins of "cheap worsted weight yarn" in a relatively short period of time.  The result was better than I anticipated! I picked up a skein of Craft Smart in Bright Red and another in Sangria at the local Michael's for less than $2 each.  I used some scrap yarn for the flowers and a couple of bright beads I had on hand. I opted not to add a button closure since I have a tendency to over pack any bag I carry.  :)   The finished product is approximately 16 inches tall, 11 inches wide, and 6 inches deep - and stretches very nicely.  For an investment of less than $5 this is a major win!  I will definitely be experimenting with other color combos and embellishments.  I think it would make a really cute beach bag or reusable grocery tote too.