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!

Back in stock: Swans Island.

Posted by Julia on September 8, 2013

Along with the brand new Swans Island Organic Washable DK, we also recently stocked up on our supply of Swans Island Organic Merino in both fingering and worsted weights. At market, Melissa from Swans Island showed us these two Dyer’s Choice Limited Edition colors, Orchid and Plum, and Anne, with a slight swoon, immediately ordered them in fingering weight.

They fit nicely into the now somewhat amazing palette of rosy pinks and reds that we currently have in stock in this yarn.

Aside from those two, the other colors we ordered were familiar ones, favorites that find their way into HYS shopping bags again and again, destined for lacy shawls and scarves, cozy cowls, and special sweaters.

Meanwhile, we also doubled our stock of Swans Island Organic Merino Worsted, filling in missing colors and making sure we had enough for the Fall season.

Swans Island Organic Merino are some of the squishiest, softest merino yarns around, and the natural dyes make for truly unique and beautiful colorways. Each skein is a thing of beauty, and the result of loving, hard work by the skilled craftspeople of Swans Island Blankets. If you haven’t treated yourself to a skein of it yet, consider doing yourself the kindness. One 525 yard skein in fingering weight is enough for a scarf or shawlette, and one 250 yard skein in worsted weight is plenty for a hat and mitts, or decent-sized cowl or scarf. Look to the Swans Island pattern binder for ideas and inspiration for how to use that special skein. See you at the shop!

New from Plymouth.

Posted by Julia on September 4, 2013

We get a lot of big boxes in the mail at the shop, especially this time of year, as all the new Fall things are coming in. Those big boxes give our UPS and Fed-Ex delivery people a workout, and we get used to seeing them every day. One of the boxes we recently unpacked came from Plymouth, and was filled with new colors in some of our best-loved Plymouth yarns.

Galway is our go-to worsted weight wool, a smooth and obedient yarn that is economical and easy to use for brand new knitters and crocheters, to whom we always recommend it. Each 100 gram ball has 210 yards, enough for a hat, small scarf, or a pair of mittens. Its excellent stitch definition makes Galway a great choice for cable-knitting, or any other texture pattern. Galway is also great for felting projects, and comes in a rainbow of colors. This fall, they added four more to their palette, shown above.

We also got four more colors in Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande, a super-bulky yarn composed of 100% baby alpaca. Baby Alpaca Grande is fluffy and soft, perfect for scarves, cowls, and other accessories one might wear next-to-skin. At a suggested gauge of 3 stitches per inch on a US #10.5, it knits up quickly, which can be quite encouraging, indeed.

Alpaca Prima is a brand new Plymouth yarn for us, also made of delightfully soft and fluffy alpaca, but at a finer gauge: fingering weight. Each skein has 362 yards, enough for a hat or small shawlette, or perhaps a pair of mitts. One knitter shrewdly paired it up with a Kira K hat pattern almost as soon as it came in; a glance through our pattern binders or suggested patterns on Ravelry should yield plenty of inspiration, as well.

Come by the shop to browse all our new yarns, and to see the latest colors in old favorites like Galway and Baby Alpaca Grande. See you there!

New colors in Berroco yarns.

Posted by Julia on August 18, 2013

This week brought big boxes of yarn from Berroco. The yarns are familiar–Ultra Alpaca Fine, Ultra Alpaca, and Lustra–but the colors are brand new, just introduced by Berroco for Fall.

Ultra Alpaca Fine is a fingering weight blend of wool, alpaca, and nylon. Its fiber content and gauge suggest socks, but Ultra Alpaca Fine is equally at home in larger garments, and especially shines in openwork scarves and shawls. The alpaca content gives it a bit of a fuzzy halo, something to keep in mind if you’re planning a project that requires sharp stitch definition–those fuzzy fibers can obscure delicate texture patterns a bit. That said, those fuzzy fibers also give the finished fabric softness and warmth. These 9 new colors really brighten the Ultra Alpaca Fine palette, and beg to be combined; perhaps a Stripe Study Shawl, or Selbu Modern tam.

Ultra Alpaca is a staple around here, an affordable worsted weight blend of alpaca and wool that comes in a multitude of colors. It’s a warm and wooly yarn, great for sweaters, hats, shawls and scarves. One of our teachers, Katherine, recently picked up some Ultra Alpaca to make the Guernsey Wrap, a happy pairing of yarn and pattern; I can’t wait to see how it comes out.

Many of the best-loved shades in Ultra Alpaca are heathered, colors which read solid from a distance but on closer inspection are subtly mottled with fibers of different hues. The latest shades in Lustra are all heathered, adding depth to these shiny, fuzzy skeins.

Lustra is a single-ply aran weight yarn, a 50/50 blend of wool and Tencel, a plant fiber derived from tree bark. It’s the Tencel that makes Lustra so lustrous, a quality that has drawn knitters and crocheters to this yarn for as long as we’ve stocked it. Like all single-ply yarns, Lustra is a little delicate, and will pill or shed fibers more quickly than plied yarns. That makes it ideal for garments that don’t get a lot of hard wear, like a cowl, scarf, or shawl; a Honey Cowl, Saroyan scarf, or Springtime Bandit shawl would be lovely made up in Lustra. Arm yourself with a Lilly Brush and you can better care for your cuddly soft single-ply garments.

Come by the shop to see these favorite yarns in brand new colors, and begin planning your next project. See you there!

Hello, Frolicking Feet.

Posted by Julia on August 16, 2013

Along with all the favorite sock yarns we’ve reordered, we also picked up a brand new sock yarn: Frolicking Feet, from a small yarn company out of Maine called Done Roving.

Done Roving is a family-run business based on a farm, and they make a point of sourcing their fiber domestically when possible, and processing it in a safe and thoughtful way. Frolicking Feet is their 100% superwash merino sock yarn, a fingering weight yarn with a tight twist to create a sturdy fabric. Some skeins are hand-painted, for vibrant variegated colorways, and some are kettle-dyed, for monochromatic colorways that show the full range of a single hue, from light to dark.

Frolicking Feet, like many variegated yarns, will not stripe, but may pool in unexpected ways, depending upon how many stitches are cast on. Letting the colors fall where they may is one of the pleasures of variegated yarn, but if you’d rather have a tangible sense of what that beautiful skein might look like in a finished garment, you might search on Ravelry for projects made in Done Roving’s Frolicking Feet. You’ll find all manner of garments there, from socks and shawls to sweet baby sweaters, and see how the colorways can play out in knit and crochet projects.

Come by the shop to greet our newest sock yarn, and see these vivid colors in person–my camera just can’t capture the depth and intensity of the Indigo Purple colorway, it must be seen with one’s own eyes. See you at the shop!

Back in stock: Smooshy with Cashmere.

Posted by Julia on August 10, 2013

Another luscious fingering weight yarn arrived this week: Dream in Color’s Smooshy with Cashmere.

Smooshy with Cashmere is an aptly-named blend of 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, and 10% nylon. It’s hand-dyed in variegated and semi-solid colorways, deliciously soft and squishy, perfect for next-to-skin wear.

We first ordered Smooshy with Cashmere about a year and a half ago, and it quickly found its following. Some knitters have used Smooshy with Cashmere for socks, for which it’s plenty hearty, but many more have used it for openwork shawls and scarves–a Multnomah or Holden Shawlette would be perfect, and both of those patterns are available as free downloads from Ravelry.

It would be equally an lovely yarn for a special baby gift–think Purl Soho’s Little Baby Sweater or one of the sweet, simple garments from Susie Haumann’s booklet All You Knit is Love.

Come by the shop to pet the Smooshy with Cashmere and plan your next project. See you there!

Hello again, Bearfoot.

Posted by Julia on August 8, 2013

Mountain Colors is a small yarn company in Montana that has been hand-dyeing yarn for almost twenty years. We’ve stocked their sock yarn, Bearfoot, in the past; in fact, I’ve written about it here on the blog before. Recently we found ourselves with only four skeins in stock, which seemed a sad and lonesome number–time to reorder.

Bearfoot is a sturdy, fuzzy combination of 60% superwash wool, 25% mohair, and 15% nylon, hand-dyed in vivid colorways that are sometimes semi-solid, sometimes variegated. There are 400 yards on each 100 gram skein, enough for a pair of socks or fingerless mitts, a hat, scarf or shawlette.

The label recommends machine washing finished projects in Bearfoot with vinegar to prevent the bleeding that sometimes comes with richly saturated colors like these. That little bit of special treatment is not too much to ask, I think, for a handknit garment that has already had hours of needlework poured into it before it’s washed.

By all accounts, Bearfoot is worth it, especially for socks; designer Cat Bordhi highly recommended Bearfoot in a sock-design class I took from her at last year’s TNNA. I have a skein in my stash that I’ll likely pull out for my next pair of socks, enticed as I am by the combination of fibers in the yarn, which promise a warm and wooly fabric.

Come by the shop to see our new selection of Mountain Colors Bearfoot, and consider it for your next pair of socks!

Back in stock: String Theory sock yarns.

Posted by Julia on August 6, 2013

We’re pleased to announce the arrival of an armful (or two) of String Theory sock yarns. Our supply of Caper Sock and Bluestocking sadly diminished, we placed an order with the lovely Karen and Tanis, who dye these vibrant yarns in Blue Hill, Maine. We picked some new colors and some old favorites, and the result is a very tempting cubby full of colorful yarns.

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

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, like Bluestocking, 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.

Come by the shop to check out both of String Theory’s excellent sock yarns, as well as their Selku and Merino DK, which we also stock. See you there!

Show and tell: shawls and stoles.

Posted by Julia on July 24, 2013

This past week has been an abundant one for show and tell at the shop; there is so much to share that I’ll divide it up into two posts. Today, I’ll focus on shawls and stoles, for a great deal of them have found their way into the shop lately.

Here’s Margaretta’s completed Color Affection in three shades of Titus, a shawl that has inspired many knitters to create Color Affections in their own three-color combinations of Titus. I made one myself, which recent visitors to the shop may have seen hanging on the wall.

Margaretta used the first three shades of Titus that were available, Dark, Original, and Light, which make a gentle gradient from dark gray to light brown to pale beige. As a lover of neutral colors, this Color Affection really appeals to me; I can’t wait to see all the others that I know are in progress or soon to be started!

Paula and Kristin came in last week, each with a Stole on the needles. Both are made in Isager Alpaca 2, a cuddly fingering weight blend of merino wool and alpaca. Over the past year, Anne and I have seen so many beautiful colorways come together as knitters select yarn for the Stole, which uses an incredible nine colors total. What still surprises me is how different each stole can look from the next, though they all draw from the same 20-color palette. Paula’s Stole, above, is subdued and calming to the eye, while Kristin’s, below, is vibrant and bold.

Here are two shawls that Barbara crocheted in a recent Triangular Crochet Shawl class at the shop, using the 8 Hour Shawl pattern, available as a free download from Ravelry.

Having just graduated from Beginning Crochet not long ago, Barbara is on a roll, planning another two crochet shawls in the same yarn she used here, the beloved Malabrigo Rios. Soft, springy, colorful, worsted-weight, and machine-washable, Rios is a great choice for all kinds of knit and crochet projects, from shawls and scarves to sweaters, hats, mitts, blankets, and baby things.

Thanks to these knitters and crocheters for sharing their work with us! If any or all of these projects inspire you, come by the shop to get some Titus, Isager Alpaca 2, or Malabrigo Rios for shawls and Stoles of your own. Our Annual Inventory Sale is on through July 31st, so come in soon to take advantage of the 15% discount on everything we have in stock. Additionally, we have a Beginning Crochet class coming up soon, if any knitters out there are inspired to try another craft; read more about it and all our classes on our website. See you at the shop!

Just a reminder–all sales are final on sale items; there can be no exchanges, no returns, nor will we special order. Discount applies only to in-store purchases. Thanks!

Color Affection.

Posted by Julia on June 28, 2013

On the drive back from TNNA, I finished knitting Color Affection, a shawl made in three shades of Titus.

Many of you have probably run into this pattern before. Maybe you’ve made one yourself, or one of your friends has made one, or maybe you’ve perused the 9,300+ Color Affections on Ravelry. It’s an asymmetric, crescent-shaped shawl in lace or fingering weight yarn, knit all in garter stitch stripes. Increases and short rows create the curvy shape, and much of the pleasure of knitting it is in seeing how the colors play together.

Titus, a fingering weight blend of Wensleydale and Bluefaced Leicester wools and British Alpaca, is fuzzy and creates a gently draping fabric at this loose gauge, a perfect match for Color Affection. The pattern, written by designer Veera Valimaki, calls for 385 yards of each color; each skein of Titus has only 350 yards, but I decided to try it with one skein of each anyway, and cross my fingers that I had enough to complete the shawl as written. Luckily, I finished with yarn to spare.

At the shop, you’ll find this Color Affection hanging on the wall below Wingspan. Come by to try it on for size, admire Titus, and plan a Color Affection of your own. If there’s not a color combination in Titus that wins your affection, consider Isager Alpaca 2, Swans Island Organic Merino Fingering, or Sincere Sheep Equity Fingering. See you at the shop!