As The Yarn Turns

Tag Board is Gone

The Tag Board finally got on my last nerve. It's gone. The popups were annoying even with a popup blocker and it was taking way too long to load. I've switched to a different type of comments from Haloscan. Hopefully this will work better. More fibery content later.

 

by Sydney  |

Day at the Auction

There's not much in the way of knitting content this time, mostly because I've too busy to knit most of the time. I did a little bit but not enough to show a picture, or even talk about for that matter. This past week was hectic, good but hectic. So to relax a bit from the week, a friend and I went to a couple of estate auctions. EBay can be fun but estate auctions are even better. For one, no matter how much stuff and clutter you have, you realize that there are people out there with even more stuff that you have. A lot of it is stuff they've had for decades and some of that hasn't even been taken out of the wrappers. The next thing that you realize is that maybe it's time to have a garage sale so you won't end up with this much stuff. The nice thing about estate auctions over EBay auctions is that you can pick up and touch the stuff, at least the things that aren't too heavy to pick up. For me though they are much more addictive. For one the actual auction goes much faster. You don't have days, hours, or even minutes to decide if you want to bid higher. Then there is always something you didn't spot before that you just HAVE to bid on. It's so easy to get caught up in the moment. Just like EBay you can get some real bargains and also end up paying way more than you should. Often it can be a great place to pick up kitchen stuff, dishes, tools, linens, and furniture if you are just setting up a house or apartment. Most people are looking for antiques and collectibles. Anyway, I didn't have anything in mind yesterday, I was just going to relax and have fun. At the first auction, they had some nice little old purses. I'm always interested in old small fancy purses. I'm not sure why since I don't actually use a lot of purses; I think because I was fascinated with my Mom's purses when I was little. I still have them. Anyway, I came away with two nice little purses at a good price, a beaded one and a gold colored chain mail purse.

Now the interesting part of auctions is that often you have to take a box of stuff to get the one or two things you want. Sometimes it's stuff like old empty mayonnaise jars, in other cases it's cool stuff, but it's always an interesting look at someone's life. In my case, I also ended up with a picture frame, a golf score keeper, some other unidentifiable gadget, and the stuff below.

On the left is a men's Durham Duplex razor and its case. On the right is what looks like a small baby brush and comb. Fascinating bits of history. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, but I'm kind of glad they tagged along. Now this wasn't the best day for an auction. It was a cold (for Alabama), windy, cloudy day and the auctions are all held outside. By the time we got to the next auction, we were getting chilled. They had a huge box of hand knit afghans at this auction, all well knit. (Okay there is a little knitting content. There were a couple of nice ones and a lot that reminded me of 60s, not exactly today's style. Now on a warmer day they would have to sell the whole box and only get a few dollars to the lot. Yes, they should be worth more, but they almost never bring much. Yesterday, though, there were actual bidding wars as people were grabbing afghans to keep themselves warm at the auction. Yes, I bought one too. It's going to become my auction afghan. By the way, I got a large (several gallon) old cast iron pot at this auction too. No I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. Right now it's sitting by the fireplace and looks kind of nice there. So if you've never been to an estate auction, check one out sometime. I'm off to get some quality knitting and spinning time in.

by Sydney  |