Monday, September 8, 2008

vintage olympic

The actual 2008 Olympic games were made meaningful for me by the Ravelry Olympics challenge. Just before the start of the games I happened into one of Chicago's most unusual yarn shops. Midwest Discount, a dark and cluttered place with old-fashioned wooden floors, carries what appear to be mill ends of yarn. They have a lot of acrylics and fewer natural fibers. They also have some of my favorites - vintage yarns.

This yarn named Olympic-Monterey called out to me. I like the soft green color and the vintagy label. The shop had nine skeins of this for $2.00 per skein. It is a stretchy fingering weight boucle with irregular lumps in it made of 95% wool and 5% nylon. Each skein has 130 yards, so I have a total of 1170 yards of this yarn.

So I owned some Olympic yarn in time for the Olympic games, but what is this yarn for? Was it meant for socks due to its nylon content? Here is a scanned swatch done on #2 needles.


I think it would make lumpy socks. The fabric is quite irregular as well as lumpy, with little holes all through it. I just keep wondering what it was meant for. If you have some ideas, please let me know. I am thinking scarf, shrug, or little vest. Any other thoughts?

Speaking of the Olympics, I once visited Olympia in Greece, the site of the original Olympic games. It is a beautiful lush, green spot with well-preserved and reconstructed ruins. There is a little pit there where the Olympic flame is still ignited to this day, I believe using sunlight. Below are the torch site and a view of the competitors' housing (in ruins).














To add to an already photo-heavy post, here are squares number 13 and 14 of the Learn to Knit Afghan:









9 comments:

Wool Enough said...

Your Olympic yarn is lovely. What a find! With so much yardage, I think you might be able to do a vest. The irregular texture is perfect for plain stockinette, or perhaps reverse stockinette. Maybe a pullover type with an "interesting" neckline or a cardigan-style with great buttons.

Susan Luni said...

Vintage yarn needs a vintage pattern. I'll bet you have some, since you like vintage yarn. I just thumbed through Retro Knits, but didn't see anything that I thought would be right. Maybe you could find a vintage pattern on line.

Beverly said...

I live in chicago and when i was younger, i wanted my name to be beverly anne, but my mother took offense (imagine that) and i remained beverly lynn!

so what did you do with that yarn? I thought it might make a nice shawl or a bath robe/cover

Reckless Glue said...

wow the colours for that afghan will be prfect --I love it!

ambersmerinos said...

WOW! My mother went to Greece this summer. I would love to go. I was thinking of going to Cypress and taking the boat to Greece and Italy for a day.

kgraf said...

What did you decide to do with the Olympic Monterey yarn? I have 24 skeins of the same yarn, and I'd love to know what to do with it.

beverlyanne said...

Hi kgraf,
Wow 24 skeins! I haven't used the yarn yet, but I'm still thinking vest. Let me know what you decide to do with yours.
Beverly

lauraborealis said...

have you done anything with this yarn? I just found a bag of them for 80 cents a skein at a vintage store, trying to decide what to do with it! :)

lauraborealis said...

thanks!