Vintage Americana Yarn is Transformed

Hello, everyone - I've been gone from blogging for a few days over the long weekend (and I hope you spent yours well).

As some of you may remember, I blogged about receiving some rather fugly vintage Americana yarn. As promised, I've swatched - both for knitting and crochet - and the results are rather intriguing:

As you can see from the knitted swatch, the pooling pattern almost looks like a backgammon board. I rather liked this stripish effect.

Now, the crocheted swatch is all about camo. Bright, fall camo.

So, with that in mind, as well as a pattern picked up from my recent LYS tour in hand, I created my Fall Leaves Scarf.

Since the pattern called for 10 "leaves" and I only had enough yarn for 8, I used up some very old Lion Brand Homespun yarn I had from a blanket I made several years ago. I also added some green trim (again, from stash!) to attempt a little more color unity, and a tassel at each end for fun.

The best thing? I wet-blocked this scarf, and the bath of Method soap and cool water did wonders for the Carrousel yarn. It's actually far brighter now than when I received it (if that were possible!) and it's a lot softer to the touch.

While I definitely consider this a novelty FO ... I just might wear it once or twice in the fall, for fun and frolic.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how I used my skein of Americana - definitely leave me a comment below. And thanks Underground Crafter, for organizing this fun stash swap!

On Rats' Nests and Your Aunt’s Attic



The rhodies in the
front yard exploded
over the last few days



I signed up in the Ravelry Blog Hub Group to participate in a stash swap. Underground Crafter, the organizer of the swap, set the parameters: you won’t know who’s sending you the yarn, it must be from stash, it can be one skein of any yarn, you must blog about the skein you receive, and devise some sort of project from the skein (if at all possible) and then blog about that.

Ok – everyone all set on the guidelines? Good. Well, I received my skein of stash yarn on Monday from PandaBearofDoom, and when I opened the package I laughed out loud. Yes, yes I did.

Now, for those of you who might not be familiar with our PandaBearofDoom, she’s a college student – a history major, actually - and also a recent knitting convert blogging at Random Knits. I became acquainted with her blog during the recent Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week madness. The first thing that came to mind: did she pull that skein of bullet-proof acrylic orlon from this rat's nest in her dorm room? That thought made me laugh some more.

Then, after I stopped laughing, I started looking at the label, and saw I had received quite a piece of vintage Americana yarn. Note the price (I really think it’s the original Heck’s sticker) - $1.00.

Also note the things Carrousel is touting about this wonderfully fugly skein of yarniness:

It’s a new pull skein! It’s mothproof! Shrink resistant! Non-allergenic! Machine washable and dryable! And my personal favorite: it’s long wearing! No sh%$ Sherlock – it’s got to have a half-life of … oh … a century. Geez, this skein must be at least 40 years old already.

I also draw your attention to the beauteous colorway: #385 autumn (at the right). 

I personally am afraid to see what winter must have looked like. Yes people, be vewwy, vewwy afwaid.

Since I have not adorned my home in early creepy pumpkin, I seriously doubt I can find anything to make with this. However, I am open to any of you out there that might have vintage 70s pooling patterns – if you have any good ideas, I’m all ears.

I sincerely thank PandaBearofDoom for making my stash complete. No one really should be without such a skein.

Now, if it came from that messy corner, or your Aunt’s attic, we might need to chat.