Gifts.

Posted by Julia on November 25, 2016

The holiday shopping season is upon us, and we’re always honored and appreciated to be considered a gift source. Some knitters make it plain, and send their loved ones directly to our website to order a HYS Gift Certificate. Others have mentioned our shop enough times that their family and friends know to look here for something special, but aren’t sure exactly what to get. Then there are those shopping for non-knitters, those who might appreciate something handcrafted. We are delighted to offer something for all of those gift-seekers, and others yet undescribed! Welcome to our new Gifts section.

We’ve sought out makers in our local community as well as our wider community of suppliers and assembled a collection of items we’re excited to share with you.

Here, you’ll find yarn bowls from Late Bloomer Pottery, shawl pins and closures from Jul Designs, sheep soaps from our Churton Street neighbor the Qi Garden, zipper clutches from Binkwaffle, and more that we’ve only just received. Come by this weekend to see it all!

Thank you for shopping local this holiday season and supporting small businesses like ours! See you at the shop.

HYS bags.

Posted by Julia on October 21, 2016

If you happen to follow us on Instagram, or visited us at the shop last weekend, you may have already seen our newest addition: sturdy canvas totes and zipper bags decorated with our own Hillsborough Yarn Shop logo!

Anne and I have been plotting these bags for some months now, working with the kind and helpful folks at EnviroTote to create the perfect tote bags and zipper pouches. They sent us samples in a variety of dimensions and weights of canvas, so we could select just the right combination.

We wanted sturdy canvas bags that could hold up to years of use, fabric heavy enough that a small knitting needle couldn’t easily poke through. We also wanted a product that was made in the USA, and we’re proud to report that these fit the bill in both departments.

We’re thrilled with how our bags came out, and hope that you love them just as much as we do!

Come by the shop to pick up the knitting tools you need, along with Hillsborough Yarn Shop bags to stow them in. See you there!

Interweave Knits, Holiday 2016.

Posted by Julia on October 2, 2016

The Holiday 2016 issue of Interweave Knits has arrived!

This special issue features festive knits for giving and decorating during the holidays.

There are a variety of heirloom garments and accessories, of course, like this intricate cabled cape knit in Fibre Company Cumbria Fingering.

I particularly like this spread of patterns based on the knitterly illustrations of childrens’ book author Jan Brett. What a special gift this colorwork stocking would make with a copy of The Hat!

Come by the shop to browse the newest magazines and plan your holiday gift-making!

Anne’s gifts-in-progress.

Posted by Julia on August 16, 2016

“What are you working on?” is knitters’ small talk, a question Anne and I encounter and ask many times a day here at the shop. Today, we’ll pose the question to Anne herself, taking a rare peek in her personal knitting bag.

Just how much does a large Binkwaffle dumpling bag hold? If you pack as skillfully as Anne, no less than seven works in progress in various stages of completion!

Anne is a tremendously generous knitter who loves clothing her family in handknits, and she’s also a project manager. That means she’s already planned her holiday gift-knitting for the year, completed the first piece (a twirly skirt for her eldest granddaughter), and started on the next few. The sweater above is for her husband, a “Honeycomb Pullover” in Rowan Pure Wool Worsted.

These two skeins of Swans Island All American Sport are destined to become colorwork gloves for her husband. The socks below are for her grandsons, in Colinette Jitterbug and Noro Silk Garden Sock. She’ll work on both pairs at once, switching back and forth between the blue and striped socks until they’re completed. Also note how she stores them safely in DP Wip Tubes, so none of those tiny stitches slide off the needles!

These two skeins of Baa Ram Ewe Dovestone DK will grow up to be a cuddly “Fancy Hen” for Anne’s youngest granddaughter, who gets lots of handknit hand-me-downs, but still deserves something all her own.

Quick to knit and easy to wear, hats and cowls are go-to gifts for many knitters, and Anne has one of each in progress. The hat above was knit in the discontinued Shibui Merino Alpaca, and sits nearly finished with just one lingering question: does it need a pom-pom? The cowl below is a bit of a teaser, since all I can say is that the yarn it’s made of is coming to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop later this Fall. More soon!

(Outside of this particular knitting bag, she also has three sample sweaters going for the shop… more on those another time.)

Are you dreaming of handmade holiday gifts for your friends and family? Follow in Anne’s footsteps and start now, so you’re not limited to late nights, super-bulky yarns and tiny accessories towards the end of the year!

Back in stock: the Lilly Brush.

Posted by Julia on December 17, 2015

One of our favorite tools is back in stock: the Lilly Brush.

The Lilly Brush is not a glamorous tool, but a practical one, a brush designed to remove pills from knitted fabric. The bristles on the Lilly Brush pick up stray fibers and pills as you brush it across your garment. Since pilling is inevitable for nearly all knitted garments, our best defense against them is removing them once they arise, and the Lilly Brush is the gentlest effective tool we’ve seen for that job.

The folks at Lilly Brush must know what a great stocking stuffer they’ve made, for they sent this wee stocking along with our most recent order.

Notebooks, notions, tool cases, and yarn holders also make lovely gifts, and don’t forget that HYS Gift Certificates are available, in the shop as well as through our website. Come by the shop to pick up Lilly Brushes for the sweater makers and wearers in your life, and peruse all the other gift-worthy items on our shelves while you’re at it!

New, for weavers.

Posted by Julia on December 15, 2015

Over the past week or so, we’ve gotten a couple of new weaving-related items in stock.

First up, we’ve got the latest issue of Handwoven magazine, which focuses on weaving with linen.

Projects include wearables, like the log cabin wrap above, and lots of home goods, like napkins and kitchen towels.

Handwoven always includes projects for a variety of loom types and sizes, including rigid heddle looms, like the Schacht Cricket Looms we keep in stock here at the shop. We got a fresh batch of them recently, knowing that Cricket Looms are topping many a holiday wish-list this year. We also have new scarf kits for rigid heddle looms from DJE Handwovens, which would make excellent gifts for beginner weavers.

Deb Essen’s kits include pre-measured warp and weft yarns from Mountain Colors, and thorough instructions for weaving a simple, colorful scarf on a rigid heddle loom. We also got a few new Swatch Critter kits, to go with the Schacht Zoom Loom. Come by the shop to see what we offer for weavers, crocheters, and knitters alike!

Back in stock: needle-felting kits.

Posted by Julia on December 9, 2015

For a couple of years now, we’ve carried needle felting kits from Romney Ridge Farm in Maine. Each kit has the instructions and materials needed to create tiny woolen creatures, and we try to have a nice selection of animals to choose from. Not long ago, we found ourselves without a single sheep kit, a problem that now is remedied.

Along with these sweet sheep, you’ll find kits for needle-felted bears, chickens, snowy owls, harbor seals, and others.

Last weekend, Anne plucked one of the fox kits off the shelf, and quietly needle-felted in between phone calls and customers checking out.

It wasn’t more than an hour and a half before this handsome fellow emerged.

If this kind of creature-creating appeals to you, come by the shop to pick up a Romney Ridge Farms needle-felting kit of your own. As Anne can attest, it’s quick, easy, and intuitive, even if you’ve never needle-felted before. These qualities also make the kits ideal for holiday gift-giving, so remember them as you’re shopping for the fiber-loving crafty types in your life!

See you at the shop!

Hello, Sincere Sheep Cormo Fingering.

Posted by Julia on December 7, 2015

Another new yarn has made a home here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. Say hello to Sincere Sheep Cormo Fingering!

Based in Northern California, Sincere Sheep produces naturally dyed yarns from U.S. sourced fibers. Cormo Fingering is a 2-ply yarn made of 100% Cormo wool, a cross-breed of Corriedale and Merino sheep originating in Australia. The Cormo sheep whose fleece made this yarn live in Kaycee, WY.

Cormo is a finewool, much like its Merino ancestors, and makes a highly elastic yarn that’s velvety soft to the touch. The 2-ply structure of Cormo Fingering gives the yarn a pebbly texture, and gives the knitted fabric a lot of character.

I’m using a skein of Cormo Fingering to knit “Starshower,” a shawl-cowl hybrid by Hilary Smith Callis. It starts off like a traditional top-down shawl, with a garter tab cast-on, grows for a bit with regular increases, then is joined to work in the round. The end result is a shaped cowl, like a shawl with no dangling ends to worry about.

Each 4 oz skein has 500 yards, plenty for a cowl, shawlette, scarf, or hat and mitt set. A versatile skein like this makes a great gift, too, so consider it if there’s a knitter on your holiday gift list this year. Look for pattern ideas on our “Fingering weight” Pinterest board, and look for this special yarn in the fingering weight section here at the shop. See you there!

Hello, Cocoknits notions.

Posted by Julia on November 6, 2015

Back in May at TNNA, we ran into Clara Parkes at the Cocoknits booth and fell in love with what we found there. Cocoknits is the brainchild of Julie Weisenberger, a knitwear designer and purveyor of high quality tools for knitters. We’re thrilled to be offering her line of notions, blocking equipment, and her signature Knitter’s Keep.

The Knitter’s Keep is a silicone slap bracelet with a magnetic face, designed to keep your tools close at hand as you knit. It comes with nickel-plated accessories that attach to the magnet, including stitch markers, cable needles, and darning needles.

It wasn’t just the Knitter’s Keep that we loved when we saw it at market, but those notions in their perfect simplicity. We ordered yarn snips, stitch fixers, and all manner of stitch markers: the serious silver and the colorful ones, the simple ring markers and the locking ones.

We also have Cocoknits Sweater Care Kits on our shelves now, which you might have read about recently on Clara Parkes’ blog, Knitters Review. It’s no wonder we saw her in the Cocoknits booth! Just like us, she admired both the practicality and the “charm factor” in the Sweater Care Kit. It includes mesh laundry bags, super-absorbent towels, a mesh pop-up dryer, and a bottle of Eucalan, all packed into a nice jute tote.

Last, but not least, we now also carry Cocoknits Knitter’s Block, a set of square blocking tiles that fit together like puzzle pieces. The Knitter’s Block also comes packed in its own reusable bag, along with t-pins and a cotton pressing cloth.

Some or all of these gadgets will surely come in handy somewhere along your stitching journey, and their pretty presentation makes them gift-worthy, as well.

Come by the shop to see our whole Cocoknits collection, and upgrade your tools when you do!

Late Bloomer yarn bowls.

Posted by Julia on October 21, 2015

We’re happy to announce that we now carry ceramic yarn bowls from Late Bloomer Pottery!

Frumet is a local potter who makes beautiful functional pieces here in the Triangle. We’ve been carrying her ceramic buttons at the shop since June, and are thrilled to add these yarn bowls to our selection of locally-made goods.

Yarn bowls are designed to hold your ball of yarn as you’re knitting or crocheting from it, keeping it from rolling around on the floor or getting tangled with notions in your bag. Just place the ball in the bowl and thread your working yarn through the spiral cut-out in the side.

A beautiful yarn bowl makes an exquisite gift for a knitter or crocheter, so keep it in mind for the upcoming holiday season. Whether it’s a gift for you or someone else, come by soon to snag one of these special bowls; we have just four in stock, though Frumet will be cooking up more in her kiln soon.

See you at the shop!