I once read somewhere that some actuaries in the USA looked at data to do with how long you live in relation to your name. They discovered that if you have unfortunate initials such as Arnold Samuel Smith or Boris Ulysses Marwick your lifespan was likely to be shorter than someone with more careful parents who had been named Steven Underwood Norton or Lionel Oliver Vernon Endicott.
This may be an urban myth, but names are definitely tricky things. Yarn naming is almost as difficult, and swapping to numbered colourways has saved me hours each month. I'm in good company here as Koigu do something similar. Often customers say that the colours conjure up quite different images.
Golden yellows for example can be mustard, custard, creme caramel, pancakes, someone even suggested a JCB digger!
Base yarns however do need names, I think, especially when you have more than three or four.
When I was getting ready for Woolfest, I was racking my brains to come up with a name for the new merino/nylon/cashmere yarn. There were many suggestions.
Selkie - used already by another company for a cashmere yarn.
Cairdeas - gaelic for love (I think) which is nice but is again a bit similar to something else.
And then one of my customers, Jenny, suggested this ...
852
863
870
Very soft and squishy with a little bit of nylon for strength.
You can see it knitted up on Joy's blog.
Macushla is an Irish word which it means darling.
Perfect.
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PS. I have exciting news, there is going to be a new yarn at the Yard.
It will be exclusive to The Yarn Yard.
Quite different from anything else in the UK.
I'm going to call it Cairn.
There will be more news about it soon, it's very exciting!
