In May last year I was gifted with this parcel by a colleague. It was very exciting! On the sticker it said, barely readable: Best Knitting ? Threads and the symbol of a spindle. It was carefully wrapped in two double pages of newspaper from March 1, 1978. Inside was soft, white cotton yarn, obviously for knitting, approximately 100 g.

Do you remember March 1978? There is quite a chance that you were not born back then. I was eight and a half years old and lived in a village in central Switzerland, together with my mom and our dog. My best friend’s name was Maya, she went to third grade, and I went so second grade. We shared the same school way and played together for hours almost every day. Our teacher was a nun, and I loved going to school.

The newspaper’s name is Walliser Bote and it still exists today in the Valais Region of Switzerland. So, what happened in Valais at the start of March 1978? Five cows were flown from a mountain village to the valley and back with a rescue helicopter from Air Zermatt in order to get inseminated, because the access road was blocked by snow. A new clothing store by the name of “chic” had opened. In Saas-Almagell, the 3. alpine skiing championships for athletes with disabilities would be arranged from March 10 to 12. There was a huge ad for the new VW Passat, for European couture and a smaller one for blouses and dresses with flower prints. A second-hand Austin mini 1000 is sold for CHF 1900, a farmer is selling mountain hay. The food store had discount prices on sausage, orange juice, instant coffee, cookie dough and toothpaste. There were vacant jobs for a whitesmith, a typist, a babysitter, a housekeeper and several friendly waitresses. Someone wished to rent or buy a restaurant.

The person who packed the yarn for storage in 1978 was a very careful and accurate person. She (I guess it was a she) must have planned to used it later on, probably for knitting. But for whatever reason, she never did.

The old yarn was yellowish. I decided to use it as weft yarn in kitchen towels in huck lace, because I had never woven huck lace. I took leftover yarn as warp, bleached cotton 8/2, and used reed 50/10 with two threads per dent.

I guess the weft is cotton 8/2 or something similar since it went perfectly together with the warp to produce a balanced fabric. And the yellow hue vanished upon washing. Huck lace was great fun to weave! The pattern is from Carol Strickler’s “A Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns”, which I highly recommend.

Have you used old yarn for weaving or knitting? I would love to know about your experience.