Needle Jackpot!!

Today, at the Salvation Army store, I hit the knitting needle jackpot! I found a turquoise vinyl needle case, all rolled up and full of needles for $5. I opened it, looked at some of the needles, and then saw, on the floor under the rack, two lonely, odd needles, and lo, they matched two lonely, odd needles in the case, so I stuck them back in, rolled that sucker up and gave it a new home. And what did my $5 yield me, besides a cracking (and probably mostly useless soon) turquoise vinyl needle case? Well....

14" straight needles, sizes 13, 10.5, 10, 4 & 3 in aluminum and sizes 5, 4 & 3 in BAKELITE!! And the size 3's still have their original paper label!!

11" straight needles in size 6 aluminum

10" straight needles in sizes 7, 6, 5, 2 & 1 in aluminum and sizes 7, 5 & 4 in plastic

Full sets of four 7" dpns in sizes 8, 6, 4 & 2 in aluminum and size 1 in Susan Bates plastic, plus 2 size 5 dpns by their lonesome.

2 pair of plastic needles in sizes 8 & 7 where one needle is 10" and one is 4". They're weird and I don't understand them, but they are definitely matched pairs... I don't know why they'd be made that way, but it's possible that they were originally both 10" and one from each pair broke, so they cut them down and put the metal tips on, but that begs the questions of how they got the metal tips off the broken off bits, and why both of the short ones are exactly 4".

Folks, that's 17 pairs of straight needles, not counting the two pairs of unmatched lengths, and 5 full sets of dpns!! Plus a needle case. For $5. I feel like a new mother... (and I've been a new mother, so I know...) Thanks to my finding those two lonely needles on the floor, I came away with only one loner needle, a 14" size 6 steel needle. Of course, I have two size 5 dpns, too, but guess what... I happened to have another lonely pair of size 5 dpns that came in a bundle of needles I picked up elsewhere, so now I officially have a full set of 4 size 5's. :D Kismet? Fate? Divine Intervention? I know not, but by whatever chance I came upon these needles before anyone else did, I thank my lucky stars!