Looking at my crochet area you would probably suggest to me that I don’t need any more yarn for quite a while.

After all, I haven’t used up all the yarn from my last Ice Yarns order.

But here’s the problem… my best friend has an adorable baby girl and another good friend is due with a baby at the end of August. I’ve been stashing yarn for boys blankets. Even in my own personal tastes I gravitate more towards the blues, greens and browns. I don’t have a lot of yarn that would be suitable for adorable little girl gifts. I have no idea what those gifts will be, but I would like to have the yarn available so that when I come across a pattern I’m dying to make I can pick up the yarn and get to work. Also, Christmas is coming and I would like to get a head start.

So that I can make completely frivolous outfits like this:

I broke down and put in an order with Ice Yarns, got irritated with a certain F-named shipping company (why do I have to sign for YARN??!!), and finally it arrived!

I have to admit I was a bit disappointed in the size of the package. Based on my credit card charge I figured I should be getting a pallet delivered that was shrink-wrapped to keep all the boxes on it. That pallet would be carried by a flat bed truck with a ‘Wide Load’ sign.*sigh*

Even though I knew what I’d ordered, it was still exciting to see the first peep of yarn.

Look at all of those colors! It reminds me of ice cream (don’t ask me why because I don’t know… that’s just what comes to mind).

Are you curious? Do you want to know what I received?

I’ll start with the very colorful bags.

Ice Yarns refers to these as Mixed Lots. These could be whole skeins of certain yarns that they want to get rid of, batches of custom yarns that they can’t sell normally or, as in this case, the leftovers from runs that weren’t long enough to be wound into full skeins. Some places call these ‘mill ends’. What Ice Yarns does is ties them into hanks and then tosses them into a group and sells it all as one. You don’t get to choose what colors are included. They show you a picture of the lot and what you see is what you get. They make sure that every lot weighs the same so in this case the lots I bought were 2000 g/70.54oz/4.41lbs. The mixed lots can be different yarns or all the same. This one is their Magic Light yarn.

I had used this yarn previously for a Project Linus blanket:

I really enjoyed working with the yarn and loved how the color worked up. The first batch seemed to have a bunch of the orange plus some other pretty colors that I haven’t tried.

There was another mixed lot that I saw and decided to get, too. This was also Magic Light yarn.

This one has a lot of yellows and blues in it. My friend who is due in August LOVES Minions, so I figure at the very least if I use those colors for any baby garments she will be okay with it whether the baby is a boy or girl.

To make the hanks easier to use I plan on using a magic knot to tie them together, then I will wind them into manageable balls. That will also help me figure out exactly how much of each color I ended up receiving.

I did a calculation to see if I’d gotten a deal on this yarn. I did not. If you buy a pack of the Magic Light it is currently going for $1.75 per skein. I purchased the weight equivalent of 20 skeins of yarn, so I paid $2.00 per skein (essentially). I did it as a learning experience. I was curious to see how it would be sent to me and just how many different colors I would get. When you buy the full skeins you HAVE to purchase 4 skeins all in the same color (there are 4 skeins per pack and you buy it by the pack). Will I do it again? If there are colors that are no longer dyed, absolutely. Not on a regular basis, though.

Next up:

Rainbow in both a variegated and solid. I bought this because I knew it was very similar, if not the same as, Red Heart’s Unforgettable. If you remember, I used Unforgettable to make a sweater for my friend and I was NOT impressed. I liked how the yarn felt, but I was unimpressed with the inconsistent width of the yarn. I bought the brown striped color to use for hats and I have to admit that so far I like the Rainbow a LOT better than Unforgettable. Let’s nerd out and do some math, shall we?

Rainbow = 3.53oz/262 yds – $1.99/skein

Unforgettable = 3.5oz/270 yds – $6.19/skein

Let’s say that the sweater I want to make calls for 8 skeins of yarn. Let’s compare pricing…

Rainbow (must be purchased in pkg of 4) = $15.98 for 8, plus $12.95 s/h (2-3 day shipping from Turkey) = $28.93 total, or $3.58/skein. As long as Ice Yarns has the color(s) you want it should be a no-brainer. Plus, if you’re already ordering from Ice Yarns you might as well purchase a little more to justify the cost of shipping. Right? (That’s the excuse I give to Jay when he asks why I bought so much).

For instance, you could add the next yarn to your order:

Alara in white. A lot of the cardigans that I want to make call for Premier’s Cotton Faire. For the fun of it, let’s look at a pricing comparison.

Alara = 50g/140m = $.87/ball

Cotton Faire = 100g/290m = $4.99/ball

Most of the patterns I was looking at said that I would need 8 balls of the Cotton Faire. It appears that the Alara is half the size of the Cotton Faire balls, so we’ll have to get twice as much. Thus, I need 16 balls of the Alara.

Alara = (sold in pkg of 8) = $13.98 + $12.98s/h = $26.96 total, or $1.69 per ball. Let’s double that price to compare it to the Cotton Faire = $3.37/100g. Even if all you’re buying is two packages of Alara you’re still saving $1.62 per ball!

I wanted to compare the two yarns and luckily I had purchased some striped Cotton Faire a few weeks ago.

I bought the Cotton Faire to make some baby washcloths. I paid $8 (plus shipping) for a package of three balls (all the same color, no mixing-and-matching). At this price the Premier yarn is a bargain, but it’s currently in the Clearance area so if I needed more for a project there’s a chance I won’t be able to get it. Comparing in person, though, these yarns are so similar that I will probably just order the Alara for the sweaters I’m going to eventually make. I did purchase a sweater’s quantity of white in this order.

I promise the rest of this post is simply showing off yarn. There will not be any math.

I mentioned baby gifts, right? With that in mind I purchased some Lorena Worsted:

And some baby cotton:

All of these yarns are machine washable and dryable. When I make a gift for somebody I don’t want them to worry about how they have to clean it. I am definitely not a yarn snob! Bring on the acrylic!

As I was taking pictures for this post I piled the packages on Jay’s spot. Would you like to see how much of his spot this yarn covers on the couch?

Isn’t it exciting! It makes me want to pick them up and squeeze!