Modern Substitutions for Nomotta Ruban d'Art Ribbon Yarn

Alison found a few booklets by Nomotta, featuring patterns made with their Ruban d'Art yarn. It's a vintage and discontinued yarn. We wanted to make a pattern or two from the booklet, but didn't have any Ruban d'Art - until Alison found some on eBay and won an auction for 10 spools of black. The color isn't ideal for making projects and posting the pictures online, but we decided to pair it with a modern ribbon yarn (which turns out is also a discontinued yarn). More info on that as I finish the Jiffy Knit Sweater and start on a ribbon yarn project.

When I first went looking for modern equivalents to the ribbon yarn, I didn't know what size ribbon yarn I was supposed to be looking for.

Once we had the spools in hand, I wanted to show what the weave of the ribbon looks like. It makes looking for a substitute ribbon yarn so much easier when you have an idea of what the original yarn looked like.

The Ruban d'Art looks like a lightweight rayon taffeta fabric, without selvedge edges. The edges are "fused" so the yarn is the same weight and thickness across. It is about 5mm wide.

Happy crafting!

Rayon Straw Hat - 1960s Hats & Purses Pattern Strikes Again

This is another hat from the 1960's Hats and Purses pattern. This is view C (the easy version).

What's terrific about this hat is that it was made using yarn from my stash. No yarns were purchased to make this hat. I was poking around in my boxes of yarn, trying to find yarn that I was willing to part with for my son's Project Linus contribution, and I found the spools of Rayon Straw Yarn. We had purchased the spools a couple of years ago, then I decided to abandon the project I was working on for some reason.

This is the Rayon Straw Yarn I used to make the hat.

Bernat 100% Rayon Straw Yarn from BagsandBows.com

Close-up of center crown.

The hat worked up really quickly into a form fitting hat.

I will be heading home to see my family, and will give the hat to Alison who will test the hat for comfort, durability and color-fastness. She can provide a full report on her findings once she completes her job as my crash-test dummy. I know she will be so excited to contribute a blog post. Yay sis!

Happy crocheting!