In my free guidebook to starting up your crochet gig, I revealed an embarrassing secret to you. I spent $480 on yarn in my first year of business. And I wasn’t even buying blanket yarn yet, just the cheap stuff.
At the time, I thought it was a necessary cost of business. I even remember, on one of my first trips to Michael’s to buy yarn as a business-owner, a sweet lady and I got to talking after she saw me loading up my shopping cart. She told me about a place just down the street where I could get a whole box of yarn for $2. I assumed it wouldn’t be the kind of yarn I needed, but thanked her and filed that tip away for later.
Not long into my endeavor, I realized that I had a responsibility to run my business sustainably. I made a New Year’s resolution to only use recycled or otherwise sustainable materials for my products. I bought tons of bamboo yarn and recycled cotton yarn. And I paid full price for all of it (minus Michael’s coupons and rewards credit, of course).
I later remembered “reduce, reuse, recycle,” and I realized that reducing my consumption of new materials by using materials that were not new off the shelf was the most eco-friendly thing I could do. That didn’t mean I had to unravel old blankets; I just had to look for my “new” yarn in different places. I searched for secondhand craft stores in my area, and I started to look on Freecycle and Facebook Marketplace for yarn.
I started finding yarn EVERYWHERE. And it was all unused, still in original packaging.
I am lucky enough that there is a brand-new secondhand craft store in Dallas for me to frequent, Pegasus Creative Reuse. They happen to have most of the supplies I need for my business at any given time, including yarn, fabric, random jewelry findings, office supplies, and paper goods. There is another awesome store in Denton called Thistle that I like to make trips up to when I can. If you live in the DFW area, you have to check these places out!
TLDR: buying yarn and craft supplies secondhand (or obtaining them for free from people directly via Freecycle or FB marketplace) is the least expensive and most eco-friendly way to get what you need for your crochet or knitting business.
You’re welcome!
There’s more where that came from, love. Get all my FREE crochet business advice here!