Gone but not forgotten: these are yarns which have stopped manufacture since 1995. Some, like Cotton 100, were old standbys; some, like Mistral, just never caught on, or were ahead of their time.
1. Mission Falls 1824 Cotton Machine-wash, tumble-dry, worsted-weight, nubbly texture cotton.
2. Classic Elite Waterspun “Pre-felted” wool singles, 5 sts per inch, in a warm ethnic palette. Fantastic stitch definition for knit/purl or cable patterns.
3. Rowan Linen Drape DK-weight linen/viscose blend that had exactly that: drape.
4. Rowan Polar Alpaca blend at 3 sts per inch, shed a bit but you couldn’t ask for a softer, warmer, cushier yarn.
5. Berroco Europa Multicolor wool plied with a slubby cotton/rayon—and yet not a flashy novelty yarn. Great for kids and bulky socks.
6. Baruffa Cash Silk Disappeared when Lane Borgosesia changed distributors; may still be available in Italy. A sport-weight cashmere/silk blend with a spiral spin.
7. Classic Elite Mistral Apparently the knitting world wasn’t ready for a cotton/alpaca blend. Good drape, nice dry hand.
8. Classic Elite Tapestry If you had any of their Ethnic Knitting Kits, you had Tapestry. Wool/mohair blend at 5 sts per inch—incredibly durable, and incredibly lustrous colors.
9. Classic Elite Tapestry 2-Ply The same as the above, in a sport weight. Before socknitting became a craze, before there were any sock yarns from American manufacturers, there was Tapestry 2-Ply.
10. Berroco Cotton 100 You may know it as Conshohocken Cotton or Softball—roving bound with a tiny thread; soft and lofty; easy-care; worsted weight; lots of colors.
Honorable mention: Berroco Mohair Classic. Unlike most of these others, it doesn’t leave an unfillable gap (Classic Elite’s La Gran is pretty much the same); but it was a great yarn, in a wide palette, that was around for a long time; and it’s still a type of yarn that sells well, so it’s hard to figure why it’s gone.
Add yours in comments . . .
And by the way, congratulations to Eliza C., winner of the Bagsmith Project Tote from Friday's doorprize drawing, and Jon G., winner of "The Little Box of Scarves" from yesterday's.
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4 comments:
Polar was my very favorite. I'll be sad when I can't find it anywhere anymore. :(
I'm thinking Classic Elite Willough? Nice weight, nice blend, nice colors.... and Maya. As for Rowan, (sigh) DDK and LDK and Donegal and, and...
I really likes Kidsoft from Rowan. It didn't re-invent the wheel or anything, but it was just so soft and fuzzy. I loved it for cobweb-like scarves.
Kidsoft has a loyal, bereft following--or maybe it's just that all the patterns for it underestimated yardage requirements; anyway, it's one of the most common things for people to be desperately seeking one last ball of. But I didn't include it in part because GGH's Soft-Kid is surprisingly close.
As a knitter, I miss LDK, too--but as a shopowner, what a nightmare! Having to carry 200 colors of anything (or decide which to skip) is no fun (there's a reason I don't run a needlepoint shop!).
I'd forgotten Willough (maybe because there's still a cone of it at the back of my stash closet . . . ?), but yeah, that was a good one.
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