Isager adoration.

As you know, we at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop are big Isager fans. We stock many books by designer Marianne Isager, from perennial shop favorite Japanese Inspired Knits to Inca Knits, Classic Knits, and Knitting Out of Africa. We are also quite enamored of her daughter, Helga Isager, whose designs are collected in a series of booklets called Amimono. We keep all the Isager pattern books together, wedged between baskets of Isager yarns, which themselves are quite special: lightweight, delicate yarns of many fibers, designed to be held double or triple when a larger gauge is desired.

If you’ve been to the shop lately, you’ve likely seen Anne hard at work on one of Helga Isager’s designs from the latest Amimono collection, a lightweight wool top with unusual construction.

And, if you’ve been to the shop lately, you’ve likely heard that Anne has been invited to Denmark to attend a small workshop with Marianne and Helga Isager. Your jaw has likely dropped. Anne is leaving for her trip to Denmark in under a week, and could not be more excited. I’m almost as excited as she is just to hear all about it upon her return.

We can’t all go to Denmark, unfortunately, but there is a bit of new Isager goodness in the shop this week. We received a box of Isager Alpaca 1, a 2 ply laceweight made of 100% alpaca, soft and delicate, with a fuzzy halo. For as long as we’ve had Alpaca 1 in the shop, we only stocked it in black and white. I don’t know how we held out for so long, but this week, we opened up the Alpaca 1 spectrum to include a rainbow of colors.

A beautiful sight, to be sure, but even more remarkable to touch. Come by the shop to pet the Alpaca 1 and pore over the Isager pattern books if you haven’t yet. Helga and Marianne Isager are truly unique knitwear designers, worth a look even if you don’t plan to knit their patterns. See you at the shop!