Thread crocheting is pretty slow-going, so I was thinking of breaking down and buying some yarn ... but then I remembered the colorful plastic twine I'd seen in Chinatown.
I hit the jackpot at the first dollar-ish store I stopped at.  I got four colors of this awesome plastic twine.  It feels like it's made out of plastic bags.  It's super-strong end-to-end, but it splits really easily side-to-side.
They were 99 cents each, so I've added $4.34 to my 2009 Challenge total in the left column.   I wish I'd sprung the extra 99 cents for the red twine, too.  I'd like having a full set.
Two of them have this parrot label.  Can anyone read the Chinese?
The other two have this bird label.

I'll tell you all about crocheting with plastic twine in my next post.