Tag Archives: hats

Hello, Kate Davies Àrd-Thìr.

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We’re thrilled to announce that Kate Davies’ new yarn is here!

We’ve long been admirers of Davies’ writing and knitwear design, and keep a variety of her books in stock here at the shop. Since she started her own line of yarn a few years ago, we’ve longed to carry it, but she sells directly to consumers on her website, rather than through retailers like us. For her newest yarn, Davies has collaborated with Fyberspates to distribute Àrd-Thìr more widely, and we could not be happier to have it on our shelves and in our hands!

Kate Davies Àrd-Thìr is an aran weight blend of Peruvian fibers, 60% highland wool and 40% alpaca. Each 50 gram skein has 71 yards, and it knits up at about 15-19 stitches over 4″ on needles from US 7-10.5. The texture is smooth and round, for sharp stitch definition and a springy elasticity in the hand.

Àrd-Thìr comes in 10 heathered shades inspired by the winter landscape of the Scottish highlands, a beautiful muted palette. Head to Davies’ blog to read more about the inspiration, production, and sourcing that makes Àrd-Thìr so special.

I’m the lucky knitter charged with making a shop sample in Àrd-Thìr, and I’ve cast on for Davies’ first available pattern for this yarn, the “Weel Riggit Hat.” It’s been delightfully quick to knit, a pleasure in my hands and on the needles.

Come by the shop to see and touch Àrd-Thìr for yourself, and plan your next project! You’ll find it in our Aran weight section.

Milarrochy Heids.

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Kate Davies’ newest book is here on our teacart, among the latest books and magazines for knitters.

Milarrochy Heids is a collection of colorful hats designed by a variety of talented knitters.

Some are familiar to us, like Felicity Ford, Ella Gordon, and Dianna Walla, while others are new names we can’t wait to get acquainted with.

While many of the hats here are knit using stranded colorwork, there are other knitting techniques represented as well – stripes and double knitting, short rows and welts, chevrons and cables, to name a few.

The hats in this book are knit with Kate Davies’ own line of yarn, Milarrochy Tweed, a fingering weight wool and mohair blend. We don’t have it here at the shop, though we wish we could, but we have a great many excellent substitutes – Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift, Tukuwool Fingering, Brooklyn Tweed Loft and Peerie, Isager Tweed, and more.

Come by the shop to browse this and other Kate Davies books – she’s a favorite of ours, so we do try to keep her books in good stock!

See you at the shop.

Kelbourne Woolens Scout Collection Trunk Show!

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An exciting new trunk show has come to decorate our walls for a couple of weeks. Hurry in before August 26 to see the Kelbourne Woolens Scout Collection!

The Scout Collection is composed of six garments knit with Kelbourne Woolens Scout, a springy DK weight wool that is well suited to texture, color, lace, and cable patterns.

Most of these patterns were designed by Kate Gagnon Osborn, with one contribution each from Courtney Kelley and Meghan Kelly; the three of them make up the Kelbourne Woolens team. They’ve made their patterns available through Ravelry rather than in print, an effort to diminish the company’s paper usage.

We also have another mini trunk show of sorts – local designer Emily Walton has just published a brand new pattern for Scout, and we’re showing her samples! Below is “Olivia Twisted,” a clever hat with twisted stitches and a bit of texture, perfect for showing off Scout’s heathered shades.

Give Scout and all the other Kelbourne Woolens yarns a try at this Sunday’s Yarn Tasting – we still have some spaces available! It’s an opportunity to sample yarn before you buy it, to brainstorm pattern ideas and color combinations with other knitters, and to spend a pleasant morning at the shop sipping mimosas – sign up to join us!

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

Lucerne.

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Our shop is abuzz with excitement over Brooklyn Tweed’s new yarn, Peerie. The folks at BT were kind enough to send a couple of sample skeins our way in advance of the release, giving Anne just enough time to knit “Lucerne.”

Jared Flood’s “Lucerne” is a colorwork hat in two, three, or four shades of Brooklyn Tweed Peerie. It’s a perfect starting place for those new to stranded colorwork, and Peerie’s 45 shades are an absolute playground for knitters of all experience levels.

Anne’s “Lucerne” is in two shades, the dark green Nori and pale gray/green Gale. In this sample, the darker shade is the main color, but their positions could easily be swapped for an equally attractive, but very different look. Here are a few more two-color combinations to consider.

I couldn’t stop here, of course – in fact, I spent the better part of Wednesday afternoon creating and photographing color combinations for this project! Next up are three-color combinations. I began with one that Flood suggests in his pattern.

The formula here is straightforward: three colors, all from the same family – one light, one medium, and one dark. I had fun creating a few more in this vein.

The possibilities for four-color combinations are even more varied, of course. There are no rules, but it’s wise to have a range of values, so the individual colors can be distinguished from one another in the context of the pattern. Here’s one from Jared Flood.

Here are a few I came up with, just the beginning of what’s possible.

Until June 30th, the pattern is free when you buy Peerie here at our shop. Look for the yarn in the fingering weight section. We can’t wait to see what color combinations you come up with for “Lucerne” hats of your own!

Show and tell: colorwork hats.

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We love to see finished projects that started life as yarn on our shelves, and when I’m able, I love to photograph them and share them here on the blog. It’s been a busy spring so far, full of exciting new yarns, books, and magazines, all of which keep this blogger busy. Meanwhile, jaw-dropping projects keep coming through our doors, and it’s time to make time for show and tell. I have enough photos stockpiled for at least four blog posts – let’s begin with colorwork hats, on the heels of our HYS Colorwork Trunk Show.

Here’s Joanne’s “Seeds Hat,” designed by Jared Flood and knit with Brooklyn Tweed Loft. The soft sage green with the bright teal is a surprising combination that works well, especially with a jaunty pom-pom on top.

Sandy made a “Seeds Hat,” too, also using Brooklyn Tweed Loft; I snapped a photo just as she was weaving in the ends on this, her first colorwork project.

I made a family of “Banff” hats for my sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew for the holidays. I love Malabrigo Rios for its easy care, fun colors, and soft, squishy hand, and I love tincanknits’ straightforward pattern for its charming motif and huge range of sizes.

Marilyn knit this “Bousta Beanie” to practice her fair isle knitting technique before embarking on a larger colorwork garment; her even tension and excellent color choice show how ready she is for that exciting project. The yarn is Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift, a classic choice for colorwork and a personal favorite of mine.

Kate has been knitting with Shetland Spindrift, too; this “Snawheid” was designed by Kate Davies, for whom Kate and I share a great admiration. This playful combination of bright blue and natural white suits the snowflake motif and shows the pattern so well!

Margaretta’s “Tincture” hat is colorwork of a different kind – mosaic knitting, where some stitches are slipped and others are knit, for a color pattern with a bit of texture, too. She used Brooklyn Tweed Arbor in a high contrast combination for a striking effect.

Thanks to the knitters, crocheters, and weavers who bring in their work to show us what they’ve made! You inspire and amaze us, and we can’t wait to see what you get into next. Keep an eye on this blog for more show-and-tell soon!

The Andorra Collection.

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This week, we welcomed Kelbourne Woolens’ very first yarn, Andorra. It came with a small pattern collection that hints at the tremendous possibility in these skeins.

Sport weight is one of my favorites, resting between the lighter fingering weight and the heavier DK weight. It seems to strike a balance to me: fine enough to be intricate, heavy enough not to be intimidating.

Knit it at a tighter gauge and you have a fabric that is cohesive enough to be cozy without being heavy.

Knit it more loosely, and you’ll create lightweight, draping fabric perfect for breezy tops or shawls.

The Andorra Collection covers so much in just six patterns: rich texture, tidy cables, classic lace, and Bohus-inspired colorwork. Courtney Kelley’s “Jenny” pullover is what Anne cast on for recently, the start of which we shared in our January newsletter and the last blog post introducing Andorra.

While we don’t have print copies of these patterns yet, they are available on Ravelry and as Ravelry In-Store Pattern Sales here at the shop.

Look for Andorra itself in our sport weight section. See you there!

Candy Darling.

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One of the great pleasures of our work here at the shop is making samples that show how our yarns knit up, and that hopefully inspire our customers in their own creative projects. When it was time to make a sample in Fibre Co. Arranmore Light, it was easy to decide what to make. Colorwork is one of Anne’s favorite knitting techniques, so “Candy Darling” stood out from the Kelbourne Woolens Pop Collection.

“Candy Darling” is a three-color hat and mitten set in high contrast colors, with stripes in all directions and playful geometric motifs. The hat pattern includes instructions for three different color arrangements, so that you can make good use of three skeins of Arranmore Light – there’s enough yardage among them for at least three hats.

And three is just how many “Candy Darling” hats Anne knit this fall. The first was a sample for the shop – look for it on a hat-stand in our DK weight section – and the next two went to her granddaughters.

Left to right: Arranmore Light in Malin Head, Slieve Sunset, and St. Clare.

Often when I’m selecting multiple colors for a knitting project, I look at them through the black and white filter on my camera. This grayscale effect shows the contrast in the value of the colors, and how they relate to one another. For example, “Candy Darling” is shown in black, hot pink, and white, a punchy combination of dark, medium, and light.

Here are a variety of other color combinations in Arranmore Light that have similar spreads of dark, medium, and light.

Left to right: Arranmore Light in Meara, Odhran, and River Esque.

Left to right: Arranmore Light in Ciaran, Cronan, and St. Clare.

Left to right: Arranmore Light in Ruari, Bradan, and St. Clare.

Left to right: Arranmore Light in Kinnego Bay, Orla, and Narin Beach.

 

This is just a starting place, of course – there is so much to choose from, and the great fun in colorwork projects is seeing how they all come together as you knit. Come by the shop to start a “Candy Darling” trio all your own!

Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide No. 5: Sequences.

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The fifth installment of the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide series is here! Let’s take a peek inside.

Ann Shayne and Kaye Gardiner’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme or knitting technique. The theme here is sequences, drawing on the inspired work of designer Cecelia Campochiaro.

Like the Field Guides before it, this volume is an introduction to the idea of sequence knitting, a few patterns to play with the technique, and some of Ann and Kaye’s trademark wit along the way.

Anne was taken with this Field Guide, and in fact has already whipped up a “Swirl Hat” for her son-in-law using Brooklyn Tweed Arbor – a slightly larger gauge than suggested, to accommodate his slightly larger head.

She was able to hand-deliver this gift on her family trip to New York over Thanksgiving, along with a family’s-worth of other hats that will be shared on a future blog post!

Look for the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide No. 5 on our teacart, with the latest books and magazines. We still have a couple of copies of No. 4, too, in case you’re tempted to participate in Fringe Association’s log cabin make-along in the new year. See you at the shop!

Bousta Beanies.

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Lately I am enamored of Gudrun Johnston’s “Bousta Beanie,” the official hat pattern of Shetland Wool Week 2017. I downloaded it from Ravelry as soon as it was published back in March, but it zoomed to the top of my queue when a knitter brought one in for show and tell.

This is Kerry’s first “Bousta Beanie,” knit with Brooklyn Tweed Loft. Her bold color choice perfectly complements the graphic motif of the pattern, an eye-catching combination. While I snapped pictures, muttering about how badly I wanted to knit one of my own, Kerry selected a second colorway in Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift. Now that I’ve cast on for a “Bousta Beanie,” I can understand how this might happen. It’s downright exhilarating to watch the colors come together, to see how one affects another depending upon the placement, and it gives you ideas for the next hat.

I’m knitting mine in the brand new Tukuwool Fingering, a Finnish wool that is as well-suited to stranded colorwork as Shetland wool. I have little to no interest in wearing hats, but I still like to make them now and again, usually to audition a yarn that intrigues me. I chose colors I’m somewhat inexplicably drawn to, though they’re nowhere to be seen in my wardrobe. Simply put: knitting this “Bousta Beanie” has been somewhat impulsive, and deliciously fun.

Anne is starting a “Bousta Beanie” in Tukuwool Fingering, too, a playful combination of mustard yellow, red, and natural gray. Here are a few more “Bousta Beanie” color ideas, since I can hardly keep my hands out of the Tukuwool basket.

Consider these a jumping-off point as you dream up your own colorway, which I can’t wait to see!

Don’t stop at Tukuwool, however – we have many lovely fingering weight yarns that are well-suited to this pattern. Consider Baa Ram Ewe Titus, Fibre Co. Cumbria Fingering, and Isager Alpaca 2 along with Loft and Shetland Spindrift. See you at the shop!

Shibui Sample of the Month: Multigrain and Origami Top Hat.

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September is here, and with it, two new Shibui Samples of the Month! We offer a 10% discount on Shibui yarn purchased for our featured samples til the end of the month.

We normally have just one featured Shibui sample each month, but the good people at Shibui offered us two this time and we couldn’t see why not. Let’s look first at “Multigrain,” by Antonia Shankland, a seed stitch scarf knit with Shibui Pebble, Silk Cloud, and Cima. These were our first three Shibui yarns, and they remain favorites. All are lace weight, but they vary in fiber content and texture.

“Multigrain” is a great way to experiment with yarn mixing, where two strands are held together for a unique fiber or color combination. Here, the color is the same from yarn to yarn, but the different yarns make for a subtle shift in texture throughout the piece. The pattern is free when you purchase Shibui yarns for the project here at our shop.

Next up is Lori Versaci’s “Origami Top Hat,” knit with just two skeins of Shibui Drift. At first glance, it looks like your basic stockinette cap with a ribbed brim.

From the top, however, you can see the clever shaping and folding that gives this design its name. It looks like it will be fun to knit and easy to wear, a good combination now that gift-knitting season is upon us.

Come by the shop to see both our Shibui Samples of the Month, and get 10% off the Shibui yarns featured in “Multigrain” and “Origami Top Hat.” See you there!

 

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