Deep discounts on art supplies & a hand painted yarn dream (Finale to my 2-part Boxing Day 2011 shopping experience blog series)

I’ve already written the 1st blog post in my 2-part series documenting my Boxing Day 2011 shopping experience, which focused on my horrendous trip to Best Buy.

For part 2, I decided to focus more on the positive parts of my Boxing Week shopping extravaganza.

The theme? Big savings on items that allow me to unleash my creativity!

Deep Discounts on Art Supplies

This year, I discovered the awesomeness that is DeSerres.

They’re a Canadian arts & crafts store offering everything from sketchbooks, oil & acrylic paints, easels and canvases for the pro artist, to scrapbooking paper, decorative stickers, photo albums and rubber stamps for the hobby crafter.

Similar to Curry’s (another awesome Canadian-based art store!), but with a bigger selection of craft products (i.e. not focused on supplies meant exclusively for art students).

Anyway, over Boxing Day (and the 27th), DeSerres had an amazing sale of 20% off the lowest ticketed price for everything in-store!

That’s right. Everything. Let’s just say I went bananas and practically bought out the entire store. My creative juices were flowing all over the place, it was so much fun going on a free-for-all shopping spree for arts & craft supplies… without having to analyze every sticker price and restricting myself to only buying whatever was currently on sale that week (much like I would during a regular visit to Michaels). Yay for arts & crafts!

A Hand Painted Yarn Dream

Every year on December 27th (i.e. the day after Boxing Day), my favorite Toronto yarn store Romni Wools holds their biggest annual sale of 25% off all yarn purchases. That’s right. That’s TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT off everything!

For the last 3 years, I’ve made it my mission to attend the sale… and this year was no different. Last year I went crazy buying Cascade 220 Heathers yarn in anticipation of spending 2011 working on my Vogue Knitting Stitch-a-Day 2011 Calendar quilt knitting project. Needless to say, that project never really got running beyond the initial kick-start in January… whoops?

This year, I went into the sale without a clue on what I wanted to get… just something pretty.

My first plan of attack? Heading straight for the store’s vast selection of knitting pattern magazines and books. After flipping through a few Rowan knitting pattern brochure books (Which I adore! Mmmm…), I fell head over heels in love with a knitting pattern for the PERFECT soft & cozy, but stylishly chunky, cardigan sweater.

I’m talking about the “Cradle” collared cardigan with cable detail by Marie Wallin, taken from the 2010 “Winter Drift” knitting brochure book (featuring “15 designs for women & men using Rowan Drift & Big Wool by the Rowan Design Team“).

Now that I had my knitting pattern picked out, I started circling the inside of the store and going down each and every aisle… multiple times! But in the end, I found myself drawn back to the classics that I knew and loved so much before.

Up to this point, I have yet to find a yarn brand that I loved more than Misti Alpaca. And I’m speaking from 15 years of yarn buying experience!

With its roots originating from the base of the Misti Volcano in Arequipa, Peru (Peru being home to the world’s best alpaca yarns, of course!), Misti Alpaca‘s high quality alpaca and alpaca-blend yarns are simply GORGEOUS.

Why are they better than the rest, you ask? Because of the way the yarn fibers are lovingly hand-painted, with each hank dyed to be uniquely different… even from other hanks of the same lot # and color series!

I’ve purchased my fair share of Misti Alpaca yarn in the past (I’m currently knitting Nicky Epstein‘s “Cardigan with Cabled Points” from her “Knitting Beyond the Edge” book using Misti Alpaca’s Hand Paint Chunky yarn and it is simply divine. Mmm…), so I know based on experience that you can’t go wrong with their yarn. However, since each hank is so unique and individually hand-painted… they don’t come cheap! And that’s why Boxing Day is the perfect time to shop for Misti Alpaca yarn.

Anyway, seeing how 2011 was the year I fell in love with the color purple, I was immediately drawn to Misti Alpaca’s Qolla Chunky yarn (20% baby alpaca/80% Merino wool) in QC02 Gabriela color.

This variegated color yarn cycles through beautiful shades of purples and greens (trust me, the colors are more subtle and WAY more pretty when viewing the yarn in person than based on this picture).

I knew immediately this yarn was what I wanted to use for my upcoming “Cradle” cardigan knitting project!

Other yarn purchases that I made during the Boxing Day sale? Well, I basically cleaned out the store’s entire stock of Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply yarn in 020 Purple color.

Again, with the purple this year! And Debbie Bliss yarn? Excuse me while I swoon!

You can always trust Debbie Bliss to put out a fabulous and practical yarn… and this Italian-made, 100% Merino wool extra fine superwash yarn is no different. It’s delicate, pretty and soft… but machine-washable. Can’t go wrong with that!

Lastly, I also pretty much cleared out the store’s entire stock of Rowan Purelife Organic Cotton Naturally Dyed yarn in shade #985 Lipstick Tree color (i.e. sort of like a light peachy/coral pink color).

Once again, the color is gorgeous (I know, I’ve used that word already in this blog post in describing yarn… but there really is no other word that would do it justice!)… it kind of matches the color theme of this Knitting & Purling blog!

And while I normally would shy away from cotton yarns when knitting (I’m definitely more comfortable knitting with animal fibers like Merino wool or alpaca than cotton)… something about the softness of this yarn and the elegantly subtle color shade drew me in.

I have yet to decide on what to knit with both the Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply and the Rowan Purelife yarns (more than likely I’ll just end up knitting a couple cardigans with those yarns… because I sure do love knitting cardigans!), but I’ll definitely keep you posted!

Image Sources: Boxing Day comic courtesy of cloudscape; blog. DeSerres Boxing Day sale ad image courtesy of DeSerres.ca. “Winter Drift” Rowan knitting pattern brochure book cover image & “Cradle” cardigan images courtesy of KnitRowan.com. Both images depicting sample swatches of Misti Alpaca’s Qolla Chunky yarn courtesy of MistiAlpaca.com. Image of Debbie Bliss’ Rialto 4ply yarn in 020 Purple color courtesy of BlackSheepWools.com. Image of Rowan’s Purelife Organic Cotton Naturally Dyed yarn in Lipstick Tree color courtesy of YarnCountry.com.