New colors in String Theory sock yarns.

Posted by Julia on December 24, 2013

Anne and I always keep a close eye on our cubby of String Theory Caper Sock and Bluestocking, sure to point it out to those seeking special sock yarns. We also pay close attention to our supply of these yarns because it’s such a pleasure to have a chance to place an order with Karen and Tanis, who dye these vibrant yarns in Blue Hill, Maine. When it’s time to reorder, we gaze giddily at the String Theory website, picking out some new colors and some old favorites. I’m happy to report that our most recent String Theory order is here, and it brought four colors each in Caper Sock and Bluestocking.

Caper Sock is a plump and springy sock yarn, composed of 80% superwash merino wool, 10% cashmere, and 10% nylon. The tight twist and the nylon content ensures that Caper Sock is sturdy enough to withstand the kind of wear that socks put up with, but it’s great for other garments, as well. I’ve used Caper Sock to make a scarf, my North Arrow, because it’s so soft, I wanted it wrapped around my neck all winter. That said, I’m just finishing up a pair of socks with this stuff, which I absolutely can’t wait to slide my feet into.

Bluestocking is a lustrous sock yarn, composed of 80% superwash Bluefaced Leicester wool and 20% nylon, for durability. Like Caper Sock, Bluestocking makes a great pair of socks, but it is equally at home in a scarf or shawl, at a slightly larger gauge.

Come by the shop to get yourself a special skein of String Theory yarn, and to plan your next project!

The Yarn Whisperer.

Posted by Julia on December 21, 2013

At last, Clara Parkes’ newest book has arrived at the shop! We pre-ordered it before it was even published, but its popularity has kept it backordered for months. Anne and I were so excited when a stack of them showed up this week.

Clara Parkes, for the uninitiated, is a writer, designer, and expert reviewer of all things fiber. She’s the blogger behind Knitter’s Review, and it’s there that we first learned about some of our favorite products, needles, and yarns. We keep her first three books in good stock at the shop, wonderful resources that they are: The Knitter’s Book of Yarn, The Knitter’s Book of Wool, and The Knitter’s Book of Socks.

Her writing is clever, approachable, well-informed, often humorous, and sometimes downright moving. At TNNA this past June, we were delighted to discover that she’s just the same way in person. I anticipate that The Yarn Whisperer will bring us more of the same, but don’t expect patterns or techniques from this book; it’s a collection of essays, musings on a life of knitting and yarn. “The book was born from a simple notion,” Clara writes. “We are what we knit. … Over the years I’ve realized just how deeply knitting itself—our stitches, materials, techniques—is a metaphor for who we are and the lives we live.”

If knitting has played an important role in your life and you’d like a good book on the subject, come by the shop and pick up a copy of The Yarn Whisperer for yourself or a knitter friend. See you there!

New from Lantern Moon.

Posted by Julia on December 19, 2013

Every so often, we place an order with Lantern Moon, a company that supports artisans in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Bali, Indonesia. Their handcrafted tools and accessories are as aesthetically pleasing as they are functional, perfectly suited to knitters and crocheters, who seem to love their tools along with their craft. This order brought rice baskets, silk project bags, elegant scissors, and one special stand-up caddy.

It was the caddy that brought this order on, a special request from a young woman hoping to replace her mother’s broken knitting caddy as a holiday gift. We’re always happy to fulfill special orders when we can, and this was no exception; we ordered an extra caddy in case it was someone else’s perfect gift, too.

Look for these and other Lantern Moon goodies by the front window of the shop, amongst the needle cases, project bags, and notions. See you there!

New Isager patterns.

Posted by Julia on December 17, 2013

By now, you probably know how we feel about Isager yarns and patterns. We’ve offered classes on Marianne and Helga Isager’s designs, hosted Isager trunk shows, and knit with those yarns and patterns ourselves, again and again. So it will come as no surprise that we’re delighted to share some new Isager patterns with you, meaning patterns designed by Marianne Isager as well as patterns by other designers for Isager yarns.

The “Trellis Wimple” is a generous openwork cowl that can be worn a few different ways. It’s worked on a range of needle sizes to create gentle shaping, and made with two strands of Isager yarn held together throughout: the lace weight Spinni (Wool 1) and the fingering weight Alpaca 2. Use coordinating colors for a solid-looking garment, or try slightly different shades for a marled look.

The “Barclay Scarf” uses three shades of Alpaca 2, which are striped in a texture pattern for a nice effect.

Marianne Isager’s “Diamanten” shawl calls for Spinni (Wool 1) held together with a silk/mohair blend; Shibui Silk Cloud comes to mind. The Isager and Shibui color palettes each have their own character, but there is certainly overlap enough to make some beautiful combinations.

Speaking of Shibui, Pebble or Isager Tvinni would both be a perfect fit for “Vingefang,” a cardigan pattern that also came to us from our Isager distributors.

Come by the shop to see even more new patterns for Isager yarns, and to play the Isager/Shibui color combination game that I’ve come to love. See you there!

Julep B.

Posted by Julia on December 15, 2013

We just got some brand new kits from Julep B. featuring Classic Elite Firefly!

Firefly is a sport weight blend of rayon and linen, lustrous fibers that drape beautifully, making the yarn perfectly suited to shawl-knitting.

We have Julep B. shawl kits in two styles, “Lillian” and “Sylvia.” Each kit contains a shawl pattern and enough yarn to complete it, and all of the above is contained in a sweet muslin project bag.

Kits make great gifts, as they the guesswork out of pairing yarn and pattern, all the while looking nice and neat in their packaging. Come by the shop to pick up a Julep B. kit and check out the rest of our kit selection, including hats, scarves, mitts, and more. See you there!

Upcoming classes.

Posted by Julia on December 13, 2013

As you may have read in our most recent email newsletter, we’ve been busy scheduling new classes for the new year ahead. Some are technique-based, like Beginning Knitting and Fixing Mistakes, while others are project-based, where techniques are learned along the way. New classes often mean new samples at the shop, showing the hats, mitts, shawls, and scarves that our teachers will teach in the new year. Here are a few.

Katherine knit this Ardelle hat using 4 strands of Cascade 220 Fingering to achieve a gauge of 3.5 stitches per inch, but any single strand of bulky weight yarn would yield a similar result; consider Lamb’s Pride Bulky, Mountain Fusion Teton, Malabrigo Mecha, and Mirasol Sulka. Ardelle is a great pattern for first-time cable knitters, and will also teach how to pick up stitches, sew a seam, and work in the round on double pointed needles. The pattern is available as a free download on Ravelry, so you can take a look at the skills required and decide whether you’d prefer to tackle it on your own or with the guidance and camaraderie of Katherine’s class.

Interested in learning to knit lace patterns? Three of our upcoming classes focus on lace. Above is Marsha’s Lattice Lace Scarf, which is a great lace introduction using bulky yarn. Marsha is also teaching the Holden Shawlette, a popular free pattern that calls for one skein of Malabrigo Sock, or ~440 yards of another fingering weight yarn. Marsha has made several Holden Shawlettes in a range of gauges; this one is made with a dk weight silk.

In the Holden Shawlette class, Marsha will teach how to read a lace chart and how to construct this triangular shawl, and can help you to lengthen it if you like. Amy’s Sonetto Shawl class approaches the triangular lace shawl from another angle; read more about it on our class page.

Just yesterday, Marsha brought in this cute Lush Fingerless Mitt, a sample for her upcoming class on the subject. She’ll teach how to work in the round on double pointed needles, and how to read and knit the lace/cable motif that adorns these mitts. Meanwhile, the pattern is free, so you can take a closer look at it if you like. Marsha’s mitts are knit in Cascade Indulgence, a worsted weight blend of alpaca and angora, but any worsted weight yarn will do; consider Classic Elite Princess or Lush, which also contain angora, or try Yarn Hollow Photograph or Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted for non-fuzzy mitts.

You can read more about these and other classes on our class page, where you can also sign up and prepay online. Our classes do tend to fill up quickly, so act now if you’d like to join one! See you at the shop.

Hello, Mountain Fusion Teton.

Posted by Julia on December 11, 2013

Just in time for last-minute holiday gift-making, we received 6 new colors in Mountain Fusion Teton, a bulky weight merino wool.

Mountain Fusion Teton is the result of a collaboration between two small US yarn companies: Mountain Meadow Wool, of Buffalo, Wyoming, and Mountain Colors, of Corvallis, Montana. This springy, colorful yarn is 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 or cowl in an afternoon. The pattern for this simple hat is printed on the Mountain Fusion Teton yarn label; also consider “Thorpe,” or the “Drop Stitch Cowl,” both of which are available as free downloads from Ravelry.

Come by the shop to pick up a skein or two of Mountain Fusion Teton, and you’ll have cozy winter accessories in no time, whether for yourself or for someone yarn-worthy. See you at the shop!

Gradient colorways.

Posted by Julia on December 8, 2013

We recently acquired a few new colors in Shibui Silk Cloud, one of our newest yarns. Silk Cloud is a shimmering, fuzzy blend of mohair and silk, one that has quickly made its way onto Anne’s needles as well as my own. Already low on a few popular colors, we placed an order with Shibui a few weeks ago and were unable to resist a couple of new hues in Silk Cloud.

When presented with piles of yarn, my first impulse is always to group colors into interesting pairings or trios, thinking, “How could I combine these in a garment?” Unpacking the new colors in Silk Cloud, I immediately thought of the “Gradient” cowl, a free pattern from Shibui.

In the spirit of the Shibui Mix concept, which encourages the combining of Shibui yarns two or three strands at a time, “Gradient” is worked with three strands of Silk Cloud held together. Periodically, one of those three strands is switched out for a different color, which makes a gentle transition from one color to the next.

“Gradient” calls for four shades of Silk Cloud, so immediately I started putting foursomes together, shuffling all our available colors this way and that until I found combinations that pleased me.

Inspired to make a “Gradient” cowl of your own? I can’t wait to see what other color combinations you creative knitters will come up with. Look for the “Gradient” pattern on Shibui’s website, where you can download it for free, and look for Shibui Silk Cloud at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop in the lace weight section. See you there!

Interweave Crochet & Crochet Accessories.

Posted by Julia on December 6, 2013

Looking for crochet inspiration? Check out the teacart at the shop, where we show the latest publications, and you’ll find two magazines on the subject.

Crochet Accessories is an annual special issue from Interweave packed with patterns for hats, mitts, cowls, scarves, shawls, wraps, and other accessories. The Winter 2014 issue of Interweave Crochet has a nice selection of accessories as well, along with vests, jackets, and sweaters for adults and children alike.

I was particularly intrigued by these two colorful shawls. The striped one is worked in Tunisian crochet, and calls for lace weight yarn–wouldn’t it be lovely in Isager Alpaca 1, Fibre Company Meadow, or Shibui Cima?

Come by the shop to pick up a magazine, and be inspired to pick up a hook and start stitching. See you there!

Cliff Hat.

Posted by Julia on December 4, 2013

Speaking of Shibui, I recently finished a new shop sample with Shibui Pebble: the Cliff Hat.

The Cliff Hat is a slouchy colorwork beanie, a free pattern from Shibui. I used the colors called for in the pattern, colors I might never have thought to put together myself, but which make a beautiful gradient in this easy-to-memorize colorwork motif.

The hat is knit with two strands of Pebble held together throughout, which makes a nice cohesive fabric, soft enough to slouch a bit, but sturdy enough to feel substantial and warm on the head. The two-stranded Pebble swatch I’d knit for the shop is lofty and open by comparison, proof that yarns can be happy at many different gauges; it all depends on what kind of fabric you’re hoping to create.

Come by the shop to see this new Shibui sample, and select colors for a Cliff Hat of your own!