Won't you tell me 'bout my mystery yarn...?

(To be sung to the tune of Elvis Costello’s “Mystery Dance”)

…Won’t you tell me ‘bout the mystery yarn,
Won’t you tell me ‘bout the mystery yarn...
Won’t you tell me
‘cause I’ve tried and I’ve tried
and I’m still mystified,
I can’t swatch anymore,
and I’m not satisfied…”

This is one of two odd yarns I got for xmas – the other containing possum fur, and recently knit into the purple “Coronet” hat seen earlier on this blog. The possum fur was labelled though.. This was really oddball stuff – my Mom got it in Newfoundland, and it came on a cone – I’ve never had “cone” yarn before – I think it was remnants of stuff from a mill or something.. anyway.

As you can see I have pulled it off the cone and wound it into a nice loose centre pull ball (for some reason I find doing this immensely satisfying and I don't think I would ever use a ball winder - I will even compulsively wind other people's yarn into balls... I just love the feel of the yarn I guess!)

It may be hard to see in these pictures (my colours always seem a bit off - probably because I always get inspried to snap them in the dark of night in the study with the bad lighting?) but it is an extremely fluffy navy blue, with a bright orange almost brand new copper penny colour cord twisted around it.

The blue yarn seems to be a natural fibre maybe, and the copper most likely a synthetic. The copper also has sporadic bits of coloured yarn trapped in it – this is crazy neon rainbow colours, and seems like little tiny (and not so tiny!) hunks of unspun roving trapped by the copper thread – maybe natural fibre as well.

This swatch was knit up on 4.5mm needles. It is fairly open and loose. It is 20 stitches and stocking stitch except at the top part where I tried drop stitch.

My questions are:

-does anyone know what yarn this is?

-has anyone ever used similar yarn?

-anyone got any idea what to do with this one ball of the stuff? (said 65g on the cone?)

-any ideas or info or suggestions about how to best use this yarn?

I ripped out this swatch and started something on bigger needles 10 mm needles - just a drop stitch sort of thingy to see what a bigger needle would do.

It is nice that it is more open and lacey. The pattern is kind of wonky and I'm not sure if I like it or think it is ugly... anyway its all a test! Let me know your thoughts..

As usual I have a few pictures, trying to get the truest colour and best quality photo - hard when you suck as much as I do as a photographer - even with my fabulous gift digital camera!