Hillsborough Yarn Shop

Botanical Knits.

For the past few months, we’ve been anxiously awaiting the newest collection of patterns by Alana Dakos, the West coast half of Coastal Knits. We’d previewed the patterns on Ravelry, admired the twelve designs that make up the new book, and tried to be patient until it was published and we could hold it in our hands. Now, it’s here: Botanical Knits, by Alana Dakos.

Just like Coastal Knits before it, Botanical Knits is beautiful both as a collection of knitting patterns and as a book.

The layout and photography are as inviting as the patterns themselves, each one inspired by foliage of one kind or another. Tiny knitted leaves are scattered throughout the book, made in each yarn Dakos used in the collection, and at the end, there’s a pattern showing how to knit leaves of your own.

I was even charmed by the schematics, which use tiny photos of the garments to show their measurements instead of the typical line drawings.

Come by the shop to see this gorgeous pattern collection, and to plan a botanical knit of your own. See you there!

Interweave Knits.

The latest issue of Interweave Knits has arrived!

This issue offers the usual mix of knit tees and tanks that we normally expect from a Summer magazine, along with a nice selection of more substantial sweaters for cool evenings and aggressive air-conditioning.

Seeking Summer knitting inspiration? Come by the shop to flip through Interweave Knits and plan your next project. See you there!

Noro Knitting Magazine.

The latest issue of Noro Knitting Magazine has arrived!

The premiere issue came out last fall, and all our copies were quickly snapped up. Lovers of Noro will find plenty to knit in this current issue, too; all of these patterns take full advantage of those self-striping yarns. From shawls and scarves to sweaters and dresses, these patterns make good use of self-striping yarns in many gauges, often combining them with solid colors for an interesting effect.

There are patterns here for crocheters, too.

Come by the shop to grab a copy of Noro Knitting Magazine, and plan your next project with Noro yarns!

Show and tell: sweaters, bags, a bunny, and a rug.

My collection of show-and-tell photos is growing, once again. It seems that we’re in a finishing season, for knitters and crocheters are completing projects left and right, and bringing them into the shop to share with us. Some are making garments, some are making bags, one industrious knitter is making bunny after bunny, and one industrious yarn shop owner has crocheted a rug. Let’s have a look at the latest show-and-tell!

Sue brought in a pair of finished garments from Vicki Square’s Knit Kimono Too, a seed stitch top and short kimono made in Cascade Ultra Pima.

The design is elegant and wearable, and the yarn, a dk weight mercerized cotton, has a slight sheen that highlights the texture of the fabric. If you like this set, come by the shop to flip through Vicki Square’s books for similar patterns.

Here, Bo models her first sweater, a hooded jacket made in Berroco Peruvia Quick. Technically, this is her second sweater; the first was made in this same yarn, then ripped out and reknit once this enterprising knitter took a careful look and decided she could do better. The first sweater was beautiful, too, but by the time she was done knitting it, she’d learned more precise seaming techniques, more symmetrical increases and decreases, and how to shape the fabric while leaving a neat selvedge edge, and she thought it was worth it to try again with all these new skills.

Sometimes, it’s truly worth ripping out and reknitting, even if it’s a lot of work–Bo is so happy with this completed sweater!

Here’s another happy knitter, Jennifer, showing off her Small Clutch Bag. Jennifer completed this bag in a class taught by Marsha, who also teaches Beginning Knitting, Fixing Mistakes, and many of our other technique classes. Along with being a great teacher, Marsha also does some knitwear design–the Small Clutch Bag is one of her own patterns, made up in the worsted weight Plymouth Galway. Come by the shop to see a sample bag and get yourself a copy of the pattern!

Anne and I have been making bags, too–you may have read about our Hexagonal Market Bag Knit-Along on the blog last week. We’re both happy to report that it’s a quick knit, and we have two completed bags to prove it. They came out sturdy and stretchy, capable of accommodating an armful of yarn.

Anne’s is made with Louisa Harding Nautical Cotton in black, a favorite color of hers, and mine is made in Plymouth Linen Isle in a natural beige, a favorite color of mine. Many knitters have been inspired to create their own Hexagonal Market Bags in a rainbow of colors; wont you join us in knitting along?

Becky is on a bunny kick, and this Bunty Bunny is her latest creation. The little details are incredible, the result of close attention and long hours of knitting, sewing, and embroidery. Becky brought her in to share with us before sending her off as a gift, and selected yarn to make another Bunty Bunny, this time in regal reds and purples–a queen bunny. I can’t wait to see how it comes out.

If you’ve been in the shop in the past few weeks, you may well have seen Anne crocheting this rug, a replacement for one she crocheted as a child that has only recently been clawed to shreds by her cat. Bulky yarn, like the Katia Irish Tweed that Anne used, makes for a sturdy rug that comes together quickly in simple rounds of single crochet. She inspired me to pick up a hook myself, and finally learn to crochet. The rug lives at her home now, but there are plenty of sturdy bulky yarns at the shop that would make beautiful crocheted rugs if you’re inspired, too.

Thanks to everyone who brings their work in to share with us! It is a delight to see such a wide range of knit and crochet projects, and inspiring to watch our yarns grow into finished pieces. See you at the shop!

New from Mountain Meadow Wool.

Last week, two enormous boxes arrived at the shop from Mountain Meadow Wool in Wyoming. Inside, there were new colors in Cody, along with four new yarns from MMW: Lilura, Dubois, Powder River, and Mountain Fusion Teton. At the Mountain Meadow Wool Yarn Tasting, we invited attendees to swatch with four MMW yarns and also to flip through color cards to see the many other yarns they produce. Some were drawn to delicate fingering weight yarns, some favored brilliantly colored bulky weights, and others were wooed by Cody, the first MMW yarn we’ve stocked here at the shop. We made a slew of special orders that reflected our yarn tasters’ desires and preferences, which meant bringing all these new yarns to the shop in just a few colors. Those of you who couldn’t make it to the yarn tasting can now get a sense of which MMW yarns our HYS knitters loved best, and see them in person at the shop.

Lilura is a fingering weight blend of US-sourced merino wool and North American alpaca, a round, smooth, 3-ply yarn with fabulous stitch definition and a lovely soft hand. The base yarn is a pale, heathered oatmeal color (pictured above on the right), and any hand-dyed colorways are dyed on top of that natural color. The result is a warmer, more subdued color than could be achieved by dyeing stark white fiber. We had a spare skein in the natural color hanging around after the yarn tasting, which I used to knit up the Rustling Leaves Beret from Coastal Knits.

Each stitch was a delight; I’ll surely be coming back to this yarn for a bigger project. The Rustling Leaves Beret lives at the shop now with all the newest MMW yarns; come by and take a look.

Dubois is also fingering weight, a pebbly 2-ply merino wool. One knitter at the yarn tasting ordered this to make a slouchy cabled hat, a perfect fit for this soft and springy yarn, but it’s equally well-suited to lace shawls, scarves, or perhaps a light-weight sweater.

Powder River, a dk weight blend of merino wool and alpaca, caught the eye of two knitters who plan to use it for a set of Welting Fantastic Cowl + Mitts. I’m flattered by their pattern selection, and can’t wait to see how this gorgeous yarn makes up in my design. Like Lilura, the base yarn is a light beige color, giving this blue shade extra depth and interest.

Mountain Fusion Teton is the result of collaboration between Mountain Meadow Wool and Mountain Colors, a bulky weight merino wool yarn. We have two colors in stock, both of which fall comfortably into the red category. One has orange and fuschia highlights, while the other leans towards burgundy and plum, but both are 2 ply, where one ply is thick and the other is thin. This gives a pretty consistent texture with plenty of color interest, not to mention enough yarn in one skein to create a hat in an afternoon.

Anne knit this up as soon as it arrived, working from a hat pattern provided on the yarn’s label. The only change she made to the pattern was to switch from ribbing to stockinette after an inch or two; the pattern as written makes a fully ribbed hat. Come by the shop to see it, and remember Mountain Fusion Teton when winter gift-giving is upon us and a hat in an afternoon sounds like a lifesaver.

Last but certainly not least, we did get four new colors in Cody, a bouncy sport weight 2-ply merino wool. This brings our current color selection to 16, a wide range of natural and hand-dyed colorways.

Come by the shop to see all these new yarns from Mountain Meadow Wool, and to admire the many colors and textures that this incredible US yarn company creates. See you at the shop!

Rodekool brioche scarf.

Recently, one of our teachers dropped off a knit sample at the shop, a scarf to show what she’ll teach in her upcoming “Brioche Neck Scarf” class.

Amy’s class will show how to work brioche, a knitting technique that creates two interwoven layers of fabric at once. It can be worked in a single color or in two colors, which yields a reversible garment like this scarf, “Rodekool,” a free pattern by brioche mastermind Nancy Marchant.

Amy knit her Rodekool (“red cabbage” in Dutch) scarf using Isager Highland, a fingering weight wool. Marchant’s pattern recommends using one skein of Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, knitting from both ends of the self-striping yarn at once, but that can create confusion when learning a new technique. For ease of knitting and clarity of pattern, Amy recommends working the Rodekool in two solid colors, and reports that the Isager Highland was lovely to work with.

Come by the shop to see this incredible garment for yourself. Meanwhile, you can read more about the upcoming “Brioche Neck Scarf” class on our website, and sign up there to learn this fascinating technique with Amy. We also have copies of Nancy Marchant’s Knitting Brioche, a comprehensive compendium of all things brioche. See you at the shop!

New from Plymouth.

We recently unloaded a big box from Plymouth, full of new yarns, patterns, and notions.

Gina is a new yarn for us here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop, a soft, self-striping, worsted weight wool. We got eight colorways and a handful of patterns to give you ideas for how to use this yarn.

Sakkie is another new yarn, a lustrous, sturdy sock yarn composed of 40% merino wool, 40% mohair, and 20% nylon. Anne picked a few solid colors and a few variegated colors.

Sakkie is intended for socks, what with its tight twist and strong fibers, but a quick glance at Ravelry reveals that knitters are also using it for shawls, scarves, hats, and mitts. How would you use this fingering weight yarn?

We also got a few new patterns for good old Galway, a worsted weight wool that comes in all kinds of colors. Look for these in the binder marked “Men’s Sweaters and Vests,” and come by to see all the new goodies from Plymouth. See you at the shop!

More new single patterns.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about some new additions to our binders of single patterns. The shop is full of books and magazines, which often get more attention than these humble white binders. But the binders are the place to turn when you want to make a shawl without investing in a book of shawl patterns, an economical way to choose your next project. We like to freshen up the binders every once in a while, adding new patterns and replacing those that have sold. Last week, we added a bunch of new single patterns to the binders, mostly from the Fibre Company.

We first started stocking yarn and patterns from the Fibre Company last fall, after discovering them at market in June. Right now, we stock their DK weight Acadia, a luscious blend of merino wool, alpaca, and silk. Not all of these patterns call for Acadia, but rest assured, you’ll find plenty of lovely yarns at HYS that are suitable for these patterns. As long as the yarn you’re substituting can get the gauge the pattern suggests, you’re ready to cast on, even if it’s not the yarn the pattern calls for.

We’re delighted to see more Fibre Company designs in our binders, and looking forward to seeing them again this June to look at their other yarns.

We also got a handful of new patterns from Swedish Yarns, to go with two new colors of the washable aran weight Raggi. Yes, there are all kinds of interesting things lurking in the binders–from shawls to sweaters to slippers. Come by the shop to take a look!

Hexagonal Market Bag Knit-Along.

Now that Anne and I have both completed our Gemini sweaters, we’re ready for another knit-along. In keeping with the warm-weather knitting theme, we’re making market bags.

Our pattern is Laura Dianiska’s Hexagonal Market Bag, a free pattern on Ravelry. It calls for approximately 400 yards of worsted weight cotton; a perfect choice for a sturdy, workaday bag to fill with produce at the grocery store. Anne is using Louisa Harding’s Nautical Cotton, a 100% mercerized cotton yarn, and I’m using Plymouth’s Linen Isle, a blend of cotton, rayon, and linen.

We got started on Saturday, beginning with the hexagonal garter stitch base of the bag. Once the base was completed, we picked up stitches around the edge and began the oh-so-simple mesh lace pattern that makes the bag so stretchy.

Want to make a Hexagonal Market Bag of your own? Join us in this informal Knit-Along. Any sturdy plant fiber yarn should do; Nautical Cotton comes in all kinds of colors, and we have a nice selection in Linen Isle, too. Then there are the rest of the worsted weight plant fibers–Berroco Linen Jeans, Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, Mirasol Wach’i, Online Linie 12 Clip, Queensland Bebe Cotsoy, and more. Come by the shop to see all the choices, and to see how Anne and I are progressing on our bags. We’ll also be posting on the Ravelry HYS group with any lessons learned along the way, just as we did while we were making our Gemini sweaters. See you at the shop!

Hello, Berroco Maya.

Recently a knitter came into the shop with a conundrum. “I want to make something summery,” she said,”but I love working with wool.” How well I relate; there is nothing like the feel of stretchy, springy, bouncy wool yarn in the hand. Plant fibers, by nature, lack elasticity, but they don’t have to stay that way. The way they’re spun and plied into yarn has a major impact on the fabric they create as well as the experience of working with them.

Maya, a new yarn from Berroco, answers this conundrum by adding a bit of alpaca to a cotton base and constructing a chainette with those fibers. A chainette yarn is basically a knitted tube, and the inherent stretchiness of knitted fabric transforms that mostly-cotton fiber into smooth and stretchy yarn. It also creates a loftier yarn than plant fibers usually offer, much lighter in weight than we might normally expect from a worsted weight cotton yarn.

Before we placed our order, Anne acquired a sample skein of Berroco Maya for us to swatch and we were both impressed.

Anne began on a US size 6 needle, feeling that the suggested US #8 would make a floppy, loose fabric. She passed it on to me and I worked up to #7, and #8, and indeed, I preferred the denser fabric created by the #6. “Let’s block it,” Anne wisely suggested, and we were so glad we did. When the Maya swatch had a chance to bathe in lukewarm water and dry flat, it transformed, creating a much more cohesive fabric. We got a gauge of 5 stitches to the inch on the #8, exactly as the ballband had suggested.

What to make with Berroco Maya? The design team at Berroco has come up with a nice little collection of accessories and warm-weather garments that take advantage of Maya’s loftiness and drape.

Look for Berroco Maya and the Berroco Maya pattern booklet next time you’re seeking a summery, yet stretchy knit. See you at the shop!

Botanical Knits.

Interweave Knits.

Noro Knitting Magazine.

Show and tell: sweaters, bags, a bunny, and a rug.

New from Mountain Meadow Wool.

Rodekool brioche scarf.

New from Plymouth.

More new single patterns.

Hexagonal Market Bag Knit-Along.

Hello, Berroco Maya.

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