This is really old yarn! It's wool, and one of the balls still has a little tag attached that reads, "Nun's Nomotta yarns are permanently mothproof." Honestly, this tag looks like it was printed in the '30s. I can't get a good picture of the tag, but the little logo is very art deco, and I googled the Nun's yarn company, and only came up with a 1933 pattern book from Nun's being sold on eBay.
But the colors are still really vibrant, and the yarn is tightly wound and knits up with great stitch definition. I really examined it carefully, being afraid of bugs, but it was in a plastic bag and seems in good condition. It is somewhere between sport weight and fingering weight. Socks? I'm there! even though all-wool socks are a pain to care for. The dark looking ball is sort of an eggplant color, and goes great with both the other colors.
It's a little scratchy when knit, but I went to a #2 needle and it felt better. Anyone have a better idea?
I apologize for this picture. The label reads "Reynold's Paloma 100% cotton boucle." I found seven skeins in the bottom of the thread bag. Again, the yarn is long-gone, and Reynolds now uses this name for an entirely different yarn. It's sport weight, and the boucle slubs are tiny. The ballband tells very little---no yardage. With a magnifying glass, I managed to see a very small "1 oz." stamped in blue on the back. The yarn is wrapped around a plastic core. Any ideas what I can do with 7 oz.? It'e enough for a baby sweater, I guess. It would be a hard yarn to mix with another.
Haven't ballbands changed? Now you get the fibre content, suggested needle and gauge, yards and metres, washing instructions, country of origin, and, often, a pattern.
3 comments:
That's pretty yarn.
I have baby items knitted from when my 70 y.o. MIL was a baby, and some of her mother's yarn. They still work! It might not be the same as new yarn in some cases, and in others, I find it's better!
I almost always buy my yarn at yard sales and thrift stores. I find the older yarns to be as nice or nicer than the newer yarns. The older woolen yarns seem to "pill" less easily. It can be scratchy though and I've found that washing the garment, such as your socks, with a little hair conditioner in the water does wonders for smoothing out the fibers. It works much better than fabric softener.
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