Vintage Yarns

I've been using some amazing vintage yarns lately.  I got a massive bag for just £1 from The Magpie's Nest in Govan a few weeks ago.  The shop is next door to The Magpie's Eye, which is one of the shops that stocks my work.  Admittedly, some of it's contents were unusable, but there were also some real gems.

Among other things, I have been combining many of the DK, 3ply and 2ply yarns from the bag to make unusual colour combinations.  By using 6mm needles and a mixture of yarns that equate to super chunky when combined, I was able to produce a number of items including Kindle cases and purses.

I sourced a variety of vintage buttons to complement these.  These seem to have become scarce locally, so I ended up using a company on ebay.   For others, I used hand-made buttons from Laura Wilson Designs and Made By Aleks.

And then on Saturday, I went to the Oxfam DIY shop on Byres Road, close to where our new arts and crafts gallery is opening on August 1st.  There I found four 1oz balls of the most amazing yarn I think I've ever knitted with.  At first, I wasn't even sure it was vintage, as it's in such a good condition.  It's called "Moon Gold" and was made pre-1983 by Bernat Klein in Scotland.  I used just over half of it to make this rather special slouchy hat.

The yarn is a luxuriously soft mixture of cashmere, wool and rayon, with an amazing gold lustre.  Bernat Klien pioneered these kinds of natural/synthetic mixtures in at his factory in Galashiels between 1970 and 1983, at one time employing 250 local hand knitters to test his yarns and accompanying patterns.

I thought such special yarn needed a simple lace pattern to show it off to its best advantage.  This version of my slouchy hat has 3 rows of eyelets nestled between 4 rows of plain stocking stitch.