Tag Archives: marled

Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide No. 19: Marls.

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The nineteenth installment of the Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide series is here! Let’s take a peek inside.

Designer Cecelia Campochiaro is back for her second Field Guide, focusing this time on Marls.

“Marling” is what we call it when two or more strands of yarn are worked together. You can use it to achieve unique fiber blends, textures, and, most fun of all – color combinations.

Campochiaro has filled this little booklet with five patterns for marling – some accessories, a sweater knit side to side, and the aptly named “Color Explosion Throw.” We spotted one of our yarns, Isager Tvinni, among these projects, and we’re happy to help you find appropriate substitutes for the others.

MDK Field Guides are $14.95 each; order online for local pickup or shipping, or come by to shop in person – we’re open from 11am – 5:30 pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays!

Isager Alpaca 2 + Samen.

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Last week, designer Stephen West posted new color combinations on Instagram for one of his older patterns, a marled shawl called “Samen.”

“Samen” shawl, knit with Isager Alpaca 2. Photo © Stephen West

I always love to see how he puts colors together, and it put me in the mood to create some “Samen” colorways of my own, using Isager Alpaca 2. The shawl calls for five colors in varying amounts, from 220-420 yards per color – the bundles here include some extra yardage, so you can mix the shades up however you like with plenty of wiggle room to play.

Isager Alpaca 2: light fingering weight, 50% alpaca, 50% wool, 275 yards/50 g; $12 each, $120 for bundles of 10

If any of these color combinations grabs you, order online for local pickup or shipping! We’re also happy to help put together a custom colorway just for you – just let us know what shades you love!

Hello, Germantown Unicorns!

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We’re pleased to have a special new limited edition yarn from Kelbourne Woolens – meet Germantown Unicorns!

Kelbourne Woolens Germantown Unicorns:

  • worsted weight
  • marled
  • 100% wool
  • 220 yards/100g
  • $16 each

Germantown Unicorns are made from mill ends in the spinning process, combining two shades of Germantown for a unique marl.

Each skein is enough for a hat, and the folks at Kelbourne Woolens have designed one for every month of the year. Even better, every one of these patterns is free to download from Ravelry – look there for “January,” “February,” “March,” “April,” “May,” “June,” “July,” “August,” “September,” “October,” “November,” and “December.” This collection shows Germantown’s versatility in a variety of techniques, from ribbing and texture to cables and lace to stripes and colorwork.

These colorful new skeins got me thinking about Andrea Mowry’s “Nightshift” again, that ever-popular slip-stitch shawl – mixing up the Unicorns with solid shades of Germantown makes for exciting new combinations! Here are a few ideas.

Pick your favorite colors and order online for local pickup or shipping!

Cima + Kinetic.

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“Kinetic” is a mistake-rib cowl designed by Antonia Shankland, where two colors are blended together at the center, making a marled fade.

It’s knit with two strands of Cima held together, making a super soft and springy fabric that’s perfect for wrapping up in. My very favorite cowl was knit with 2 strands of Cima held together, so I can attest to its coziness – it’s years old now, but still the one I reach for all fall and winter!

The “Kinetic” pattern is free from Shibui – we’ll print a copy and include it in your order. You’ll need 3 skeins each in two colors.

Shibui Cima:

  • lace weight
  • 70% baby alpaca, 30% merino wool
  • 328 yards/50 g
  • $16.50 each

We have a big selection of colors available in Cima, and there are lots of intriguing ways to combine them – here are a few that caught my eye.

 

If any of these color combinations grabs you, order online for local pickup or shipping! We’re also happy to help put together a custom colorway just for you – just let us know what shades you love!

 

Nest + Silk Cloud + Standing Tall!

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Here’s another soft and squishy Shibui yarn pairing, a bit like the “Helix” hat I wrote about earlier this month, but with a twist.

In her “Standing Tall, Hat & Cowl Collection,” designer Lucinda Iglesias matches Shibui Nest with Shibui Silk Cloud, a delightful combination that’s just right for a cozy hat or cowl.

The pattern includes instructions for two hats and cowls – a simpler set as well as a cabled variation. The simpler version is shown here in gray, mostly stockinette with a swath of ribbing; the cabled one is below, in red.

 

 

Shibui Nest:  DK weight, 75% fine Highland wool, 25% alpaca, 175 yards/50 g; $20 each ($22 for Julie Hoover colorways)

Shibui Silk Cloud:  lace weight, 60% mohair, 40% silk, 330 yards/25 g; $26.50 each ($28.50 for Julie Hoover colorways)

 

  • For either of the hats: 1 skein each of Nest and Silk Cloud
  • For either of the cowls: 2 skeins of Nest and 1 skein of Silk Cloud
  • For a matching set: 3 skeins of Nest and 2 skeins of Silk Cloud

Shibui’s colorways are the same from yarn to yarn, though each shade looks a little different depending on the fibers in play. Most of these pairs are made from matching colorways, but a few are near matches, which will bring a little more depth to the resulting fabric.

The pattern is free when you buy 1 skein each of Nest and Silk Cloud – we’ll print a copy and include it in your order.

Pick your favorite color combination and order online for local pickup or shipping!

Back in stock: Zauberball Crazy.

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After nearly selling out of the stuff during our July sale, Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball Crazy is back!

Zauberball Crazy is a marled 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.

I love to see patterns that set off a self-striping yarn with a solid color – it can break up the stripes, softening the appearance, or draw attention to the construction of the garment. Here are a few pattern ideas:

We’re happy to help you find just the right solid color to set off the Zauberball Crazy in your next project, sending photos of several options, helping calculate yardage, and so on. We also keep the single-ply Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball in stock, along with the sport weight Zauberball Starke 6 – get in touch with questions or to place an order!

Back in stock: Zauberball.

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

Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball is a single ply 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.

While we were at it, we refilled our baskets of Crazy Zauberball and Starke 6, which are also self-striping, in fingering and sport weight, respectively. The 2-ply construction of these yarns gives the finished fabric a marled look.

All three of these yarns are great for sock-knitting, as they share the same sturdy fiber content: 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon. They’re also well-suited to shawls, however – think “Wingspan,” “Hitchhiker,” and “Daybreak.” Look for more ideas on our Fingering weight and Sport weight Pinterest boards, and come by the shop to scoop up a Zauberball or two!

New Brooklyn Tweed Kits!

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Just in time for last minute gift shopping, we’ve put together brand new kits featuring Brooklyn Tweed Peerie!

Each kit includes a “Cloudline” hat pattern and 2 skeins of Peerie, Brooklyn Tweed’s fingering weight merino wool. For this beginner-friendly pattern, two different shades of Peerie are held together throughout, creating a marled fabric.

“Cloudline” is from the new BT by Brooklyn Tweed collection, a line of concise, beginner-level patterns.

We’ve made up a couple of kits in the color combination shown in the pattern, and created four more of our own!

Swing by to see the colorways we came up with and pick one out for a knitting friend this holiday season!

Hello, Shibui Nest.

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Shibui’s newest yarn has arrived! Meet Nest.

Nest is a DK weight blend of 75% fine highland wool and 25% alpaca, with 175 yards on each 50 gram skein.

At first glance, Nest looks like a marled yarn, but a closer inspection reveals an unusual structure, where one fluffy ply is criss-crossed by two thinner plies in a contrasting color.

We’d secured a couple skeins of Nest in advance for sample knitting, and I’m the lucky one who got that assignment. I’m knitting the “Sindi” cowl, holding one strand of Nest together with two strands of Silk Cloud for a super soft accessory.

Every few inches, I’m changing which shades of Silk Cloud are in the mix, creating a subtle gradient from light to dark.

You’ll find more uses of Nest in Shibui’s Fall 19 collection – we have sample copies of patterns here, and they’re available to buy on Ravelry.

Come by the shop to see and touch Nest, and check out our “Sindi” sample – see you there!

New marls in Brooklyn Tweed Shelter and Loft.

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Brooklyn Tweed just released two new marled shades in Shelter and five in Loft, and we’re delighted to have them here at the shop!

“Marled” means that each ply of the yarn is a different color, making a candy cane twist of the two.

They knit up looking flecked and pleasantly irregular, and if the two colors within the marl are close in value, they might appear blended from a distance, as in the photo below – this shows Shelter in the color Narwhal, which is composed of Fossil and Sweatshirt.

Shelter has had three marled colorways up to this point, all neutrals. You can see them at work in BT patterns like “Atlas,” “Mason,” “Mossbank,” and of course Andrea Mowry’s “The Weekender,” the subject of our current informal knit-along.

The two new shades are Caraway, an earthy mix of Hayloft and Truffle Hunt, and Amaranth, a fiery combination of Cinnabar and Long Johns.

Loft hasn’t had any marled colorways until this week, and these new additions sent me back to the BT pattern archive, looking for designs that would do well in marled colors.

Consider “Redford,” “Benton,” “Eternity Scarf,” and “Kelpie,” as a starting place – there are so many incredible patterns for Loft!

 

Jared Flood has also designed a new brioche hat for Loft, “Skipp,” which is free when you purchase 2 skeins of Loft from our shop before April 30th. He’s included options for single- and two-color brioche, as well as two different fits, watchcap and slouchy.

 

You’ll find Shelter in our worsted weight section and Loft in our fingering weight section. See you at the shop!