making the most of what we have

Oh, we ain't got a barrel of money,
Maybe we're ragged and funny,
But we'll travel along,
Singing a song,
Side by side.

We're a pretty resourceful family, finding ways to make the most of what we have and turning extras into experiences/things we want. A few examples from the past week:

Have: 5 cones of 100% wool yarn scored for $2/cone at the weavers' guild yarn tag sale almost two years ago.

Leading to: A challenging cabled sweater that's being knit by Leah. Both sleeves and ~6" of the body are done now and she's just barely into the second cone of yarn, so the cost for this sweater's yarn is going to be around $6.

Have: A microcontroller experiment kit that includes servo, arduino, piezo element, potentiometer, photo resistor, temp sensor, and instructions/introduction to playing with it all. Worth every penny we paid for it.

Leading to: Our hefty stash of electronics components scavenged from discarded/broken electronics at our dump's put-and-take. The perfect next step for a tinkerer like Jesse.

Have: Glass buttons and stitch markers, handmade soap, knitting patterns we're done with, craft supplies and equipment we're no longer using.

Leading to: The above luscious yarns through a Ravelry swap group. Roving and fabrics (velvet, satin, brocade) for the seamstress still in the pipeline.

Have: Time in winter to finish (stain, 3-4 coats poly) and assemble a Kromski spinning wheel for a nonprofit organization whose work we support.

Leading to: Good feelings from a volunteer job well done, possible loan of their portable weaving loom for a few months.