Tag Archives: fingering weight

Koigu Collector’s Club: Wild Garden.

Posted by on

A new month has begun, and with it comes the next installment of the Koigu Collector’s Club! Each month, we’ll receive 21 skeins of KPPPM in a limited edition color dyed especially for a select group of local yarn stores that carry Koigu.

KPPPM is a fingering weight superwash merino, hand-dyed in vibrant colors by mother/daughter team Maie and Taiu Landra on their farm outside of Toronto, Canada.

September’s limited edition colorway is called Wild Garden, and it’s a streaky, spotty mix of navy and denim blues, cream, purple, and pink. There’s a dash of seafoam green in there, too, if you look closely – Koigu’s variegated colors are rich and many-layered, which is part of what makes them so appealing!

Look for this limited edition colorway of Koigu KPPPM in our fingering weight section here at the shop!

Dream in Color Pop Up! Club: September.

Posted by on

We’re happy to announce that we’re once again participating in Dream in Color’s Pop Up! Club! That means every month, we’re getting a special new colorway from Dream in Color, a Tuscon-based producer of small batch hand-dyed yarns.

September’s Pop Up! Club colorway is a rich variegated blend of violet, gold and rust, a combination that evokes Autumn.

It’s dyed on a brand new base for Dream in Color, a 50/50 blend of merino and silk. The silk content makes this yarn shimmer, and will give knitted or crocheted fabric an elegant drape.

This month, our Pop Up! Club shipment came with a few pattern recommendations from Veronica at Dream in Color:

Look for this limited edition colorway in the fingering weight section here at the shop!

Back in stock: Malabrigo Sock.

Posted by on

This week brought a box full of Malabrigo Sock.

That Malabrigo Sock is a well-loved yarn here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop should come as no surprise, given the frenzy that usually occurs when we receive a shipment.

This soft, machine-washable merino wool is a light fingering weight, dyed in the vivid multicolor and semisolid colorways we’ve come to expect from Malabrigo. Sock is perfect not only for socks, but also shawls, scarves, lightweight sweaters, and baby things.

We’re always especially excited to see new colors in this now-classic yarn, and we have a few – come by the shop to see what’s new, and plan your next project!

Back in stock: Crazy Zauberball.

Posted by on

Last week brought a colorful box of yarn our way – hello again, Crazy Zauberball!

Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball is a fingering weight yarn that slowly changes from one color to the next several yards at a time, so that whatever you’re knitting or crocheting with it comes out striped. The 2-ply construction of this yarn gives the finished fabric a marled look.

Over the years, we’ve seen Crazy Zauberball put to good use in all kinds of projects, from socks to shawls to cowls. Christy Kamm’s “ZickZack Scarf” (Winnie’s version is pictured above) has been an especially popular pattern around here, a simple chevron stripe made beautiful by the yarn and color selection. Our Fingering weight section here at the shop is full of possibilities for this pattern; here are a few ideas to start with.

We’ve had several knitters pair the self-striping Crazy Zauberball with a solid color for a dramatic effect. Consider the clear solid shades of Brooklyn Tweed Peerie or the gentle heathers of CoopKnits Socks Yeah! 

A semi-solid hand-dyed yarn works well here, too; here’s one possible combination in Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply.

I haven’t seen a speckled “ZickZack” yet, but I’d love to see how it looks! Try Malabrigo Mechita if you’re similarly intrigued.

Come by the shop to pick up some Crazy Zauberball for your next project!

Dream in Color Sock-It Club, part one.

Posted by on

We’re happy to announce that we’re participating in Dream in Color’s Sock-It Club! That means that every month from July to November, we’re getting sock yarn in a special new colorway from Dream in Color, a Tuscon-based producer of small batch hand-dyed yarns.

Our July shipment did, in fact, arrive in July, but it sold right out in two days! In light of this positive response, we decided to increase the number of skeins we’ll receive through the rest of the club, and ordered some extra July skeins for good measure. So, if you saw this colorway on Instagram a couple of weeks ago and didn’t make it to the shop in time to snag a skein, here’s a second chance!

The limited edition Sock-It Club colorway is dyed on BFL Sock, a fingering weight blend of bluefaced leicester wool and nylon, with 420 yards on each 4 oz skein. BFL is naturally sturdy, but the addition of nylon makes it even more so: perfect for a special pair of socks.

Look for this limited edition colorway in the fingering weight section here at the shop!

Koigu Collector’s Club: Culture.

Posted by on

A new month has begun, and with it comes the next installment of the Koigu Collector’s Club! Each month, we’ll receive 21 skeins of KPPPM in a limited edition color dyed especially for a select group of local yarn stores that carry Koigu.

KPPPM is a fingering weight superwash merino, hand-dyed in vibrant colors by mother/daughter team Maie and Taiu Landra on their farm outside of Toronto, Canada.

August’s limited edition colorway, Culture, was inspired by the many uses of color in crafts around the world. As they write on the Koigu blog, “Colours across different cultures around the world are perceived very differently… we at Koigu find this very interesting and inspiring!”

Culture is a variegated colorway, a mix of wheat and golden yellow, with streaks and speckles of cobalt, rusty orange, and burgundy.

Look for this limited edition colorway of Koigu KPPPM in our fingering weight section here at the shop!

Show and tell: Malabrigo.

Posted by on

It’s high time for another round of show and tell! Today I’m here to share some finished projects that started life as yarn on our shelves, and they all have one thing in common: they’re all knit with yarn from the beloved Uruguayan company Malabrigo.

Above is Janet’s first-ever knitting project, a ribbed scarf made with the worsted weight, hand-dyed Malabrigo Rios. Rios is one of the most popular yarns in our shop because of its versatility, smooth, soft texture, and vibrant colors. Well done, Janet!

Here’s another scarf in Rios, showing a more subtle, tonally variegated colorway. The pattern is “Rockcliffe” and the knitter is Donita, who comes back to Rios again and again, as so many of us do.

I knit this little “Dog Star” with Malabrigo Arroyo for a friend who’s having a baby next month, having made the same sweater for another pregnant friend earlier in the year. Malabrigo’s superwash yarns are perfect for baby things, as they’re easy to care for and soft to the touch.

Malabrigo yarns also play well with others. Glen used Malabrigo Sock in natural white as the background color in his “Broken Seed Stitch Socks,” letting another variegated yarn shine.

Winnie took a similar approach with her “ZickZack Scarf,” pairing a semisolid Malabrigo Sock with the self-striping Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball for a lovely effect.

Emily used a variety of leftover yarns, including bits and pieces of Malabrigo Rios, in this “Randolph Raccoon,” a gift for her son. Toys like these are an excellent use of odds and ends, which is why I never get rid of even the smallest length of leftover yarn – Emily did a great job putting some of hers to use!

Many thanks to the talented knitters who shared the projects above, and to everyone who starts their projects with a trip to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. We love seeing what you make!

Brooklyn Tweed Peerie Trunk Show!

Posted by on

We are delighted to announce that a new trunk show from Brooklyn Tweed is here to spend a couple of weeks at our shop. Come by before July 8 to see garments and accessories from the Peerie Collection!

This little group is knit all in Peerie, Brooklyn Tweed’s newest addition, a fingering weight merino yarn that’s worsted spun for sharp stitch definition.

Three of these are designs from the BT archives, originally designed for Loft, and they show Peerie’s strengths in cables, texture, and lace.

Jared Flood’s new design for Peerie is the “Lucerne” hat, a colorwork playground for this, their most colorful line of yarn.

The “Lucerne” pattern is free with any Peerie purchase until June 30th, and we’re offering a 10% discount on Peerie during the Trunk Show, too – hurry in to take advantage and see these lovely garments for yourself!

Just a reminder–all sales are final on discounted items; there can be no exchanges or returns. Thanks!

Cottons, old and new.

Posted by on

Summer begins this week, and summer weather is well underway. Hot days like these find many of us reaching for cool plant fibers, rather than fuzzy wool. With that in mind, we’ve restocked several of our best-selling cotton yarns and added a couple of new ones, too.

Cascade Ultra Pima and Ultra Pima Fine are 100% mercerized cotton in DK and sport weights, respectively. They’re economically priced, shiny and smooth, and come in a rainbow of colors.

We’ve had lots of crocheters and knitters use these yarns for making Knitted Knockers, which we’re still collecting here at the shop so our friend Ana can take them to the UNC Cancer Center. 60 Quick Cotton Knits has many other project ideas, too – scarves, wraps, tops, bags, and more.

Cascade’s Nifty Cotton is new to our shop, an aran weight cotton that can be machine-washed and dried, one without a mercerized lustre. That matte quality makes the yarn “thirstier,” more absorbent, and thus, ideal for making dishcloths.

 

BC Garn Alba is another new addition, a fingering weight organic cotton in a pleasing array of colors. It’s been popular right off the bat because of its appearance in the latest issue of Pom Pom Quarterly; Lia Moya’s “Judoka” bag is knit with this soft, smooth yarn. Interested in making one of your own? Check out Marsha’s upcoming class on the subject!

Come by the shop to take a peek at these and other popular plant fiber yarns, like Shibui Fern, Twig and Reed, Isager Bomulin and Japansk Bomuld, and Berroco Modern Cotton. See you there!

More new kits from Dream in Color.

Posted by on

Our newest batch of Dream in Color Classy mini-skeins is hard to miss, in three large overflowing baskets right in front of you as you walk into the shop, a stack of “Technicolor Cowl” kits just beside them. What you might not see as readily is another little display of new kits from Dream in Color, featuring two skeins of their 2ply BFL Cash/Silk.

Veronica of Dream in Color put together these kits with Lynn Di Cristina’s “Cumberland & Carey Park” shawl in mind, though the pattern is not included. Each pair features a deep charcoal paired with a pop of bright color.

There are so many patterns out there for fingering weight shawls in two colors; if these high contrast pairs catch your eye, consider also Melanie Berg’s “The Love of Spiders,” Veera Välimäki’s “Stripe Study Shawl,” Lisa Hannes’ “Laurelie,” Kirsten Kapur’s “Cladonia,” and Joji Locatelli’s “Pure Joy.”

Look for these kits in our Gifts section! See you at the shop.