Although a vast proportion of my family generally ignore my obsession interest in yarn, sometimes they surprise me. I went to visit my grandma today, and was finally able to hand over her Christmas present of the Beth scarf (which she loved). While I was there, she gave me a bag of yarn which she had found at her local charity shop. Once upon a time she used to churn out sweaters for my little sister and me when we were both much younger, but now she sticks to knitting blankets for the local cat shelter, which means she scours the charity shops for the squeakiest acrylics she can find. But this yarn was too good for the cats so I got it. 
Both yarns are so old that the weight is in ounces. Googling them has yielded nothing, which is unsurprising. The Hayfield Babykin is a very fine yarn, probably almong the lines of Patons Fairytale Dreamtime 2ply, though there’s no meterage (or yardage) given on the ball band. I’m guessing that I have a total of approximately 500 metres, which should be enough for a small shawl or scarf.
The other yarn, which is equally as enigmatic (or possibly more so, as I have at least heard of Hayfield), is marked as double knitting, though in reality, it’s more like a fingering/4ply yarn. It’s tweedy and rustic-looking and I think would make lovely mittens used with a dark blue yarn. Again, there’s no meterage on the ball bands, so it’s all guesswork, but there’s easily enough there for a couple of pairs of mitts.
I imagine these yarns were part of an elderly knitter’s stash and maybe like all of us do at some time, she bought the yarn because it was pretty and then put it away, never to be used. Hopefully I can do something with it at last.
It’s always disappointing when Google fails you. I’ve had yarn like that in my stash, but the ball band was in a foreign language and the few bits of English on it weren’t yielding anything. It looks like Granny scored there though! The yarn looks nice!
Mysterious! Unknown yarn of unknown quality/quantity. Do you have one of those gizmos that measure length as you wind yarn through them? It would sure be helpful here…
Ooh, I love scouring charity shops for mysterious vintage yarn. I have a few yarns that google and ravelry just have nothing on, but it’s fun to try to solve the mystery, and they’re good yarns in themselves. Your’s look like they’ll knit up into something really nice
I have some ‘Hermit’ brand yarn which is, I think, from the 1970s (which means it is nearly 40 years old, I realise!!!) the only info I could find on it was a pattern for sale on Ebay, which was a ’70s one (pattern cost 4 new pee originally!). Some of it is the most lovely turquoise and is ‘Superfine Botany Crepe Fingering’. It’s desperate to be lace, I can tell. I shall have to overcome my fear…