Saturday 4 June 2011

Value for money

This post is brought to you by my love of Sirdar/Hayfield Bonus Aran with Wool. It was one of the first yarns I used when I started crocheting, and I've used it for all sorts of projects so far. In total, I've got through about 5 balls of the stuff; considering it comes in huge 400g/920yd balls. Each one only cost me £8 as well, so it's extremely good value for money.

My reason for being so excited about it today, though, is that I finally finished a cowl to go with my cabled gloves and hat, to complete the set.


Pattern: Bobble Stitch Necklet by Sophie Egler (direct link here)
Yarn: Hayfield Bonus Aran in purpler heather
Hook: 5mm

A really quick and easy project, although the pattern is not particularly well written (but then, it's not a professionally produced pattern, so I didn't really mind!). I needed to do more rows than stated to get it to fit round my neck, but otherwise followed the directions exactly. The crocheting was really quick, done in a few days, but it took me a while to get round to finding appropriate buttons. I spotted these wooden toggles in Hobbycraft yesterday, and had to get them.

So I now have a complete matching set. Two hats, gloves, cowl and wrap.


The best bit though, is the costs involved. This entire set cost me £8. Just one ball of Bonus Aran and I had enough to do all of these projects, including the yarn-intensive cables. Here's how it breaks down:

Cabled Hat used up 0.21 balls. That's £1.68.
Cabled Gloves used up 0.24 balls. That's £1.92
Bobble Cowl used just 0.08 balls. That's 64p. (Ok, plus £2.69 for the set of three toggles)
Brimmed Hat used up 0.25 balls, so £2 exactly.
Mobius Wrap used up 0.25 balls, so another £2 there.

Okay, so that's 1.04 balls in total. But if you didn't do the extra rounds on the mobius that I did, you'd finish up before you ran out of yarn. Or you could make the gloves a touch shorter. Or have a smaller head. You get the idea. I still think it's pretty cool to get all that stuff for a tenner.


And just because I like to show off, here's a collage of every project I've done using Bonus Aran.


4 comments:

  1. The cowl looks fantastic - LOVE the set :)

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  2. I love the wrap!  Unfortunately, I'd have to learn how to crochet and I don't have the time for that too!

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  3. All of them are amazing! I really love your hook roll! I need one of those!

    I love breaking down the cost of what I make - it doesn't mean much to me (because anything I make is priceless to me! Which is probably why I find it so hard to populate my etsy shop!) but I do love to know as it is very interesting!

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  4. I love those giant balls - I made my long cardigan out of one (in pretty much the same colour as you've used there) and just bought another one in green. I think I've used the Wendy and Stylecraft ones. I love what you've made :)

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