Where can I buy cheap wool?

[FireOverBethlehem]

After a good 18 monhts of trying, I seem to have finally hit my stride with crocheting. Was happily making a blanket for SiL for Christmas and DH said he'd buy me the wool to finish it, but changed his mind when he discovered that Sidar Indie wool costs £70 for the 22 balls needed to finish the blanket.

I've also been looking at things like this wreath which is gorgeous and just uses small amounts of wool, but I just don't have a lot of oddments in a range of colours to use up and buying wool is so expensive.

Where do you get cheap wool from, preferably job lot / bundles of balls of wool which I guess would be cheaper than buying them individually?

Attic24's wreath is beautiful! She generally uses stylecraft special DK and one of the online sellers even sells a bulk pack of all her colours for about 24 quid. It's normally about 1.20ish a ball I think.

I make kiddies hats and use the woolcraft new fashion that you get in charity shops. The colour range isn't as good as the style craft and it's a bit thicker, but it suits my hats. It's acrylic so washes very well (important) and is 1.30 a ball.

I use www.deramores.com/?gclid=CIjk8qvoqLQCFaTMtAodcmAAdw a lot. Their delivery is swift, and usually free if you spend over a certain amount.

I like these people www.hcscrafts.co.uk/ - they normally get the wool to me next day, and they seem to have a pretty good selection. Their cygnet pure wool is cheaper than my local charity shop, and they have a full range of colours.

For odd wool, like eyelash yarn, I often browse ebay for a bulk pack, or someone selling off leftovers - I just got 16 pack of balls to knit an Abney and Teal Bop beanbag cover for 20 quid.

Check out ebay. people often want rid of mixed bags of wool with odds and ends. search under "mixed lots"
www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Mixed-Lots-/37577/i.html?LH_ItemCondition=1000&_nkw=knitting+wool

Attic24 sometimes gets her Stylecraft yarn from Masons. They were the ones with the 'Lucy pack' with her choice of colours.
I bought one a while ago because it is very good value for money and you get a huge pile of yarn. It is acrylic but nice acrylic not cheap feeling and squeaky. they do other Stylecraft yarns as well, some with wool in which are still reasonably priced and they deliver very quickly ime. Not sure they would manage it in time for Christmas now but if you ordered today you might get lucky!

For Stylecraft there's Deramores (cheap if buying a lot and they have discount codes regularly), Afan Crafts are £1.30 a ball iirc but you pay postage (so need to work out if it's cheaper overall) and Masons.

Kemps Wool Shop often have bargains but it's hit and miss what they have.

black sheep wools are lovely for some bargains. They tend to be end of line wools, unusual or unpopular colours. Good for named brands like Sirdar, Noro, Debbie Bliss or Twilleys the clearance section is the place to look. They also do good e-mails with discounts too. I've bought online and when they've been at the bigger craft shows.

get knitted is one of my LYS and is good for the odd online discount too.

My stash was boosted when I mentioned to a friend at work that I've just started knitting, her DM had passed away and had a huge wool stash of odds and ends of wool/acrylic. I made a donation to Dorothy House as a thank you, she wouldn't accept anything for it. Had two great big black bag fulls. My great aunt also left me her yarn and fabric stash when she passed away. I have more yarn than neccessary, but it's handy for the odd project where I don't have to leave the house.

So it's worth mentioning it to family members and friends as you never know what might come your way.

I have various odd balls of various quantities which you're more than welcome to. We started a project to try and teach kids at school to knit but it never really got off the ground. Its just taking up room at home now, so you can have it if you like

ooh thank you Rudolph, I'll pm you my details. That's made my day!

Kemps Wool Shop mentionned upthread is good for some bargains.

Also, if you have a John Lewis near you, they'll be having their January sale soon. They usually discount by 50% straight away so you can pick up some good stuff.

I have bought from black sheep (see above) before, agree their clearance section is very good.
That wreath is awesome! It may be the kick start I need to learn crochet!

I know my sister's used Black Sheep before, and went to their shop, so I'll have a look on their clearance section.

Wombat, it's goreous isn't it, and she makes it look so easy

She also has a nice line in blue birds, using the same ring principle which I may be trying out for Mothers' Day.

I have used Black Sheep several times, they have usually been good but at the moment I am still waiting for an order I placed ages ago. It was only despatched 11 days after I paid which is a bit poor IMO.

Get Knitted are good too - Lucy pack of 17 colours is £27 at the moment and deliveries are free over £10 spend. There are some good ebay sellers too - 55aileen/ aileens wool shop is really good value, she posts straightaway and postage is very low priced.

Kemps is very cheap. And great unless you need to contact them - Customer Service there is a bit patchy IME.

FireOverBethlehem those birds are lovely. Can't believe I didn't know about this blog before. Sooo inspiring, I love her use of colour. Do you know of any other similar blogs?

MoaningMingeWhimpersAgain I will definitely be buying that Lucy pack

Check out your local pound shop. We've got one called Pound Town that sells balls of 100g double knit in nice, but limited shades.