Let's Go On An Adventure, Shall We?

Not this past weekend but the one before my parents went to an auction and brought us back many treasures.  Amongst their purchases was this darling little work bag.

What could this treasure possibly hold?

There could be anything in there!

I poked around in the bag a little but didn't fully explore its depths until my lunch break today.  Wanna see what I found?

Eight - count 'em!

Wow.  That's a whole bunch of mustardish yellow yarn.  Wonder if we've heard of the brand?

Hmmmmm.....I wonder how long it's been since JCPenney sold yarn?  Do they sell yarn now?  A super-quick internet search yields no results.  Any guess as to how old this yarn is?  I'm going 1980s.

**On a side note - do you know what "orlon" is?  Orlon is the trade name for a polyacrylonitrile fiber made from natural gas, oxygen, and nitrogen.  Should we really be having this kind of thing in the house?**

Let's see what else we find in the bag.

Ooooh - this is exciting!

Pinking shears!  Good old-fashioned heavy all-metal pinking shears!  This is a treasure indeed....

Kinda sad, aren't they?

These little half-skeins of black and cream yarn are not likely to make it back into the bag, but it does make me wonder what groovy little project the rest of the skeins were used on.  A sweater?  A blanket?  Did the item turn out to be the recipient's favorite _____________ of all time?  I'm going to believe that these yarns were used to create doll clothes for a little girl's favorite doll and that the doll is still wearing the clothes as it sits on the unused bed in the guest bedroom of the now not-so-little girl's house.  Every time that she sees it, she thinks of how much fun she had when she went to visit Aunt Bizzie and how crafty Aunt Bizzie was.  (I have no idea why the aunt got the name/nickname "Bizzie" but she did and that's that.  Let's move on, shall we?)

Lots of knitting needles and one lonely little crochet hook.  At least I know what to do with that!

Those are a lot of numbers.  I wonder what they mean?

At least I know what the tape measure is for!

I'll admit that I'm looking at a lot of stuff that I'm not quite sure how to use yet.  I get the purpose of the long and straight knitting needles, and I'm going to assume that the curvy ones are for doing like neck-holes and arm-holes or other roundish-type things.  I'm pretty sure that the safety pin looking things are like stitch holders, but I'm not 100% on that.  The plastic circle things are anybody's guess for the moment.  Luckily my VBF and I are in the beginning stages of planning a little knit/crochet rendezvous - I'll show her what I know wielding a crochet hook and she'll teach me the basics of the needles.  It only sounds dangerous.....

I'm in luck!

Love those pigtails!

I find that I'm a more visual learner when it comes to crafty-type endeavours, but how much fun are these little pamphlets?  I found the handwritten instructions for the Knitted Vest pretty endearing, too.  I wonder if that is what the previous owner was working on when she started this:

I'll admit that I didn't show you the jumbled up yarn ball that I also found, but I did find one last thing to share.....

Could be a pretzel, could be a heart.  I'm going with heart!

I think that I should encourage mom and dad to keep picking up these goody bags for me, right?  Now I'm off to Youtube so I can talk to the little grandmotherly lady who will undoubtedly go too fast when showing me the basics of knitting. 

Knit one, pearl two y'all!