We visit charity shops quite often. Wetherby has ten charity shops that I know about and there may possibly be another one. Often when we go, I’m on the lookout for knitting yarn. I don’t need any as my wife will confirm, but if it’s a bargain, then I’m up 
for it. Trouble is, yarn does not seem to be very cheap in these type of shops. Most have some, but it is usually small amounts of left-overs and you never know what type it is (unless you’re a real expert). You can usually tell if its wool or acrylic, but without the band, I wouldn’t know if it was Aran or Double Knit. So although I look, I rarely buy any.
A couple of weeks ago, I was in one of the really popular shops and noticed that there was a bag of yarn that had five new balls and a couple of end scrap balls. It was very reasonably priced 
especially for the amount at £3.50. I was tempted, really tempted and had almost decided when I felt a tap on the shoulder. I stood up and turned round, thinking it was my wife. Turned out to be a rather well dressed lady who was holding one of those long women’s cardigans that were fashionable some years ago. She smiled and asked if the yarn I was looking at was for me. I told her it was, but I wasn’t sure if to buy it. She handed me the cardigan and told me that this was a better buy. I was about to say that I didn’t want a cardigan, when she pre-emptied my thoughts. “You can get this cardigan for only £3.99. It has about 10 times the wool you have there, and there is a wash-care label still inside!” she said. She then explained how she never bought wool in charity shops and only every bought made-up woollen clothes which she would unpick (I think the term is frogging) and re-use.
It sounds a brilliant idea, but I’m not sure if I could ever “rip back” or “frog” such a large piece of clothing.
From the keyboard of Tony 
I love finding yarn in charity shops, we only have one in our village and 3 in the next village. In the next village, I bought some really nice lambswool hanks, I think 5 or 6 in total for 50p each. I used them to make socks along with yarn I bought in Amsterdam. I don’t think I could be bothered with frogging a whole garment. A lady I know had yarn from a jumper she was making and asked me if I wanted the yarn as she hated knitting, so I said yes and she frogged the lot, but I really could not be bothered doing that.
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I don’t have a problem with frogging anything. Love to see my wife’s face when I completely frog something back. Especially if start the same thing again
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I have frogged the odd thing when I discovered I have cocked up the first few rows and thought I could get away with it much to my chagrin and the look of horror from my hubby.
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You have awoken a memory… my mum used to unravel jumpers and cardigans. A wool winder would come in useful here, I used to have one during my electric knitting machine days.
I’ve done the same as Mr knitter and had to unravel after making mistakes that I thought I could get away with.
Was your father-in-law living down in the village, and were you around when Hilton Grange was a children’s home? They had a wonderful wool shop up there – I loved that shop and it was so useful.
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I think they moved to Bramhope in the mid 70’s. I don’t remember the children”s home
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That’s when we moved here too.
The housing up at Hilton Grange at the top of Old Lane used to be a National Children’s Home and there was a Dairy farm called Home Farm.
All the land at the north side of Old lane belonged to the farm.
It always seemed odd that there was a knitting wool shop but knitting was more popular back then and I expect the profit was welcome.
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