Botany No-Dye-Lot Yarns 100% Virgin Wool

From Sandrajoi on eBay:

This listing is for 3 skeins of lovely lightweight 3-ply wool yarn from Botany. This is an estate sale find and I believe it to be quite old, though I'm not positive. This is labelled Aquatones "Botany" No-Dye-Lot Yarns. Each is further labelled as "Top-Dyed ~ French Combed ~ French Spun ~ 100% Virgin Wool."

Each skein is 2 ounces in weight, and is marked 'Color 82'. The color is a lovely green -- kind of a seafoam shade. A sales tag on each skein indicates they are from Fishers's; original retail price is 85 cents per skein. Lovely for knitting and crochet projects -- especially from some of the vintage pattern books available!

The label also says "Botany Worsted Yarns, Passaic NJ". The company was founded in 1889. I've found several vintage Botany wool ads for sale. By 1955 the company was having a tough time, apparently. I'm still tracking down the ultimate fate of the company. Their later pattern booklets were ganged with Fleisher's/Bear Brand/Bucilla.

"Botany" is also a textile term for Australian Merino wool, either specifically grown around Botany Bay (Sydney) or any fine wool. The term is still used in England, and Rowan had True 4-ply Botany wool.

By the way, if you have an insatiable thirst for knowledge of the history of wool, this ain't too bad a place to start.

Thank you, sandrajoi, for your permission and encouragement!

Red Heart Pompadour Baby Yarn & Orchard Nylon

From Tcor on eBay:

Red Heart Pompadour Baby Yarn: It is 84% Virgin Wool/16% Rayon. It has the old RED HEART Foil sticker on the end of the skein for easier location. The color is 502, a baby blue with a shiny thread running through it, each skein is 3/4 oz.

and

One skein Vintage ORCHARD 1 ounce #391 White-100 Virgin "Staple Nylon"


Please note this is not the Jamie/Pompadour yarn from Lion Brand, though it describes very similarly with the shiny thread. Lion's is/was all acrylic. And is now itself discontinued. Irony! (Well maybe not.) Babysoft Pompadour is also all acrylic. And Baby Econo Pompadour Solid from Red Heart is also all man-made fibers, mostly orlon, but again with that metallic thread! So the Pompadour name has been used for baby yarn with shiny stuff for a long time, going back to the days before all-acrylic became the standard!

As for the Orchard yarn, it's possible that this became Lion Brand, but a little more detective work might be called for. Interesting that 100% "staple nylon" yarn was sold that way. Nylon is commonly mixed with coarser acrylic fibers or even wool to soften them; a lot of sock yarns and baby yarns include nylon for that reason. Lots of novelty "fur" yarns are 100% nylon, too.

Its touches like "Tangle-proof" that I cherish, looking at vintage yarn labels. Heck, I've recently struggled with a ball of yarn that was probably spun and skeined just this year and it tangled like mad, being 75% wool. "Ready to knit pull out skein - save time, no winding" also makes me think the yarn industry had only just recently migrated to just such pull skeins for certain yarns.

Considering I recently invested in a knitting swift to tackle the innumerable skeins of Takhi Cotton Classic, Fantasy Naturale-like cotton, Windsong and other yarns that are still sold in hanks because they don't hold together wound in balls...well, progress ain't all just one straight line.

Thank you, Tcor, for your photos and description!

Gedifra Dandy

Gedifra Dandy
60% merino wool, 20% acrylic and 20% nylon.
Skein 70 yards / 65 meters, 50 grams.
Gauge: 12 stitches = 4 inches on needle Size #10.5 (US) 7 - 8 mm. (bulky)
Label recommends handwash or dry clean.
Retailed for $10 per ball.
This yarn was discontinued in 2004.

Very interesting construction: a wool core wrapped with a papery ribbon for a wild multicolor effect. Light fuzz but mostly smooth.

The skeins pictured are Color 1467/0040, mustard, green and browns blend. Tons of color: base wool is mustardy yellow with shiny greens, blues, orange, yellow and other random peeks of color, the wrap is brown and green tones. Absolutely gorgeous.

I was given some as part of a mega-stash by an ex-knitter (yes, they exist! Scary!! don't tell the children!!!) and sold the three balls pictured in my eBay store, not at the time appreciating their value to this future blog effort. I'd have made something but I wanted the $$ more.

Brunswick Sayelle

From "Retropioneers" on eBay:
Brunswick Sayelle, Bulky Yarn 3 Skeins ++ Vintage
This yarn is so cool. It is a bulky yarn from Brunswick. There are three (3) skeins, each is 100 yards, 2 ounces. There is also an extra ball which weighs 1 ounce, so it's probably about 50 yards. This is a bulky yarn. The color is a beautiful forest green. The labels on the skeins say "100% Orlon Acrylic."

Sayelle is an older name for duPont's orlon fiber. Some yarn companies still make orlon acrylic yarns, such as Red Heart and Caron. I still mentally associate these yarns with Woolworths, and groovy 1970s "ombre" color combinations (we call them multis now), and learning to crochet floppy hats and afghans. It's a bit crunchy, I think, a bit scratchy and stiff to work with. Still, I've got crochet medallions made from my very first skein of purple ombre and they look pretty good! (Well relatively to the color & texture.)

Most of the "orlon sayelle" stuff around seems to be vintage skeins dug out of closets and attics and posted for internet sale...most modern yarns just say "acrylic."

Thank you muchly for use of your description and picture, Retropioneers!

Sirdar Colorsoft 2000

Colorsoft 2000 is 60% mohair, 40% acrylic blend yarn, bulky weight.
100 gram / 125 yard skeins, 8 ounces each.
Label recommends 6-1/2 mm needles (US 10, 10-1/2), 14 stitches per 4 inches.
Made in England.
Unplied, with an pronounced twist. It is quite soft and luscious.

I bought a lot of this stuff as a closeout sometime in the late 1990s, in a beautiful rich reddish mulberry purple. I simply couldn't stop touching it. That usually means my yarn stash is about to increase. Then I found an oversized cable-textured sweater pattern and went at it.

Um. I stopped knitting after finishing the back and starting the front. I was covered in purple mohair every time I looked. I was plucking mohair off my jeans, my shirts, my sofa, but thankfully not the cats. As tended to happen with my "let's think this over" projects, I bagged yarn and pattern and lost track of the stuff completely for several years. When at last it came again to light, I was having a "finish! finish! finish now!" frenzy and so I did.

With the shedding mohair content, I decided not to combine the sweater with other projects in the wash. The machine had little clumps of purple fibers in the basket, but thanks to cold water, the woolens cycle and Woolite (the combo, I assume) the color didn't bleed and looks just as good.

Then I realized to my dismay the sweater was simply too warm for me to wear in less than sub-arctic conditions. I like bulky yarn to knit because I'm lazy but realistically I seldom go outside in a pullover sweater without a coat. This yarn makes such a warm fabric I felt smothered in it. But damn, it looks and feels soooooo good.

I sold the remaining 2 full skeins plus leftovers on ebay, with some regrets. I might sell the sweater on Etsy.