New colors in Canopy Worsted.

Along with a brand new yarn from Fibre Company, we’ve also received new colors in their Canopy Worsted, a blend of merino, alpaca, and bamboo. Just one 200 yard skein makes a hat or cowl, as the Kelbourne Woolens Weekenders collection taught us. I see knitters treat themselves to a skein of Canopy Worsted now and then, and many of them come back for more. We’ve come back for more Canopy Worsted, too, unable to resist five new shades in this tempting yarn.

DSCN3400I love seeing how these new colors fit into our existing color palette, looking at home among their brothers and sisters.

DSCN3404Anne’s “Cumberland” cowl is here at the shop, another one-skein project in Canopy Worsted. Come by to try it on, and get a good sense of how the yarn knits up in a texture pattern.

DSCN3406For other Canopy Worsted pattern ideas, consider the new Knightsbridge Collection; any of those garments and accessories would look just as incredible in Canopy Worsted. Follow us on Pinterest for even more pattern inspiration! See you at the shop.

Hello, Knightsbridge.

Fibre Company’s newest yarn is here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop! Meet Knightsbridge.

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Knightsbridge is a soft and fuzzy blend of llama, merino, and silk, a light worsted weight yarn that knits up comfortably between 5 and 5.5 stitches per inch.

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The colors are heathered, the fibers dyed and lightly blended before spinning.

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The sweaters, vests, and accessories that make up the Knightsbridge pattern collection were some of the more memorable garments we saw at TNNA.

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I love classic-looking sweaters like these, and they look entertaining to knit, too.

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Knightsbridge renders cables and other texture patterns surprisingly well for such a soft yarn; I’m really impressed with how it behaves on the needles as well as in knitted fabric.

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Come by the shop to meet Knightsbridge and plan your next project!

Back in stock: Smooshy with Cashmere.

Every year at TNNA, we visit the Dream in Color booth and pick out a new palette of Smooshy with Cashmere. Their selection of colors is overwhelming, ever-expanding, and cannot be contained by a color-card, so we wait to order until we can see them all in person. Here’s Anne perusing just one little section of Smooshy with Cashmere colors at market.

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The order we placed this May has arrived, and the colors are even more vivid than I remembered. We picked a variety of colors, from brights to deep darks, and soft, muted shades.

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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. It makes an amazing pair of socks or a special scarf, shawl, or cowl.

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Can’t decide on just one color? Consider the following patterns, each of which uses two 100 gram skeins of fingering weight yarn in contrasting colors: Veera Välimäki‘s “Stripe Study Shawl,” Louise Zass-Bangham’s “Foolproof” cowl, or my own “North Arrow” scarf. Check out the “Inspiring Stitches” board on our Pinterest page for more pattern ideas!

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Come by the shop to see and touch Smooshy with Cashmere for yourself, and pick a color or two for your next project!

Hello, Alchemy Sparky and Lust.

For three years now, we’ve visited Alchemy’s booth at TNNA and replenished our Alchemy stash with Silken Straw and Sanctuary. While we certainly bulked up our supply of those two yarns this year, we were also sorely tempted by two of Alchemy’s newest yarns. It’s no surprise we gave into temptation; meet Sparky and Lust.

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Silken Straw is a sport-weight silk ribbon like no other, and Sparky is like Silken Straw dressed up for the opera. Both yarns feel crisp on the skein but soften up after stitching and washing; Sparky has a metallic thread wrapped around it, giving it a distinct glittery sparkle.

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Lust is a fingering weight blend of merino and silk, a thinner version of Sanctuary. It’s soft and slinky, many-plied for great stitch definition, and felts well in Alchemy’s signature shibori felting designs.

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Like all Alchemy yarns, Sparky and Lust play well together. Anne used one skein of each in this “Alchemy Sparky Shawlette,” which you’ll find tucked into the basket that holds Silken Straw and Sparky at the shop.

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Since we unpacked our most recent Alchemy order, our favorite pastime is coming up with color combinations between the four Alchemy yarns we now stock. For the “Alchemy Sparky Shawlette,” Anne used Lust in a variegated colorway and picked a solid shade of Sparky to go with it.

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For a less overtly striped shawl, you might try a lower-contrast pairing.

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Consider also the “Straw Into Gold Shawl,” which is shown knit with Silken Straw, Sparky, and Lust all in one shade, a glorious pale beige called “Sand Dollar.”

We were so taken with this sample when we saw it at market that we ordered all three yarns in exactly this color.

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No reason to stop there, however–Alchemy yarns beg to be grouped together in all kinds of color combinations, from muted and monochromatic to bright and surprising.

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Come by the shop to play the Alchemy color game yourself, and plan a project with these unique and inspiring yarns. You’ll find a handful of knit samples in Alchemy yarns here at the shop; look for more pattern ideas on our Pinterest page. We’ve got lots of great uses for Alchemy yarns on our “Inspiring Stitches” board. See you at the shop!

The Stole.

For over two years now, Theresa Gaffey’s “Stole” from Wearwithall has been a popular project here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop.

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The “Stole” is a striped wrap, knit in simple, soothing ribbing with a deliciously soft fingering weight yarn: Isager Alpaca 2.

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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! – See more at: https://hillsboroughyarn.com/2014/06/annual-inventory-sale-3/#sthash.dJjgZbBY.dpufThis was the first “Stole” we saw, knit by our friend and avid knitter Catherine (and modeled here by Anne’s mother, Phyllis), and it inspired many other knitters to make stoles of their own, in a wide variety of color combinations. It wasn’t long before Anne started one of her own.Anne had a pile of Isager Alpaca 2 on hand already, originally intended for Marianne Isager’s “Stars” pullover, from Inca Knits. She’d even begun knitting the thing, and made it partway into the first colorwork chart when she stalled. It just wasn’t the right project at the right time, so she was pleased to rip it out and put the yarn to work on Gaffey’s “Stole”: comforting, rhythmic knitting that showed off the yarn and colors to the fullest.

The first “Stole” we saw was this one, knit by friend and avid knitter Catherine (and modeled here by Anne’s mother, Phyllis), and it inspired many other knitters to cast on stoles of their own in a wide variety of color combinations.

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For a while there, Anne and I could not stop playing the color game, moving skeins around into infinite groups of nine, amazed at how pleasing even the most improbable color combinations were.DSCN3223

It wasn’t long before Anne started a “Stole” herself.

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Anne had a pile of Isager Alpaca 2 on hand already, originally intended for Marianne Isager’s “Stars” pullover, from Inca Knits. She’d even begun knitting the thing, and made it partway into the first colorwork chart when she stalled.

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It just wasn’t the right project at the right time, so she was pleased to rip it out and put the yarn to work on Gaffey’s “Stole”: comforting, rhythmic knitting that showed off the yarn and colors to the fullest.

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She worked on it intermittently, picking it up here and there, starting and finishing many other projects while the “Stole” stayed quietly on the needles, growing slowly but surely, a row at a time. Just last week, she finally bound off and blocked her “Stole,” and now it hangs proudly in the shop.

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Rather than work each stripe to a specific measurement or number of rows, Anne knit until each ball of yarn ran out, then began the next color that suited her, using only 8 shades, rather than the suggested 9. It’s easy to adjust the thickness of the stripes or the size of the piece, making it narrower or wider than the pattern dictates. Anne’s “Stole” is decidedly wider, leaning towards blanket-sized, in fact.DSCN3216

Inspired to knit one of your own? July is a good time to do it! Our Annual Inventory Sale gives you a 15% discount on the yarn, book, and needles, everything you need to create a “Stole.” Come in to pick out your colors!

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!

Work in progress: Charlie’s sweater.

Here on the blog, I like to share finished projects that started their lives as HYS yarns. The works in progress are often just as interesting, however, shining a light on the process that we all love so well. Here’s one such project.

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Some months ago, Polly came in wanting to knit a sweater for a good friend’s grandchild. She had a specific vision for the sweater, so specific that she had no choice but to design the thing herself. Thinking, “the sun rises and sets with Charlie,” she got to work.

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Armed with Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns, she selected four shades of Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted and got swatching. Budd’s book gives a range of projects in a range of sizes and gauges, making it a good source for a “blank slate” type of sweater pattern, ready to be embellished. She charted out the text and the sun on graph paper, then knit them in as intarsia motifs, centering them within the total number of stitches on the front of the sweater.

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Her last step before piecing the sweater together was to crochet the rays of the sun onto the front. She emailed us this picture of the finished garment, washed and ready for giving.

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Thanks, Polly, for sharing your process with us!

Back in stock: Malabrigo Lace.

The Malabrigo booth is always a must-see at TNNA, and this year, we went there to restock. We filled in some shades of Arroyo we were missing, and picked out a new palette in Lace, our supply having dwindled.

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Malabrigo Lace is a single-ply merino, soft as can be, and boasts an impressive 470 yards on each 50 gram hank. That’s enough for a scarf, cowl, or shawlette; just two or three more skeins and you’ve enough to knit Hannah Fettig’s “Wispy Cardi.” 

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Here at the shop, we have a swatch of Malabrigo Lace, the start of Liz Abinante’s “Saroyan,” a popular free pattern for a triangular stockinette scarf with a leaf edging. This little bit of fabric gives a good sense of how Malabrigo Lace knits up. Come by the shop to take a closer look, and pick up a few skeins for yourself!

Post-Market Sale spotlight: Sublime Organic Merino Wool DK.

From Friday May 23rd through June 29th, we will have select yarns discounted during our Post-Market Sale: single skeins will be reduced by 30% and full bags of 10 will be 40% off! Throughout the sale, I’ll be highlighting some of these yarns and giving ideas for what to make with them. Today: spotlight on Sublime Organic Merino Wool DK.

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Sublime Organic Merino Wool DK is a soft, fluffy, single-ply yarn, coming in a range of neutrals and soft shades of pink, purple, blue, and green.

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Rosi knit this “Herz & Baum” vest with Organic Merino Wool DK a few years ago, covered with intricate cable patterning. Look for it at the shop to get a sense of the nice, gentle way this yarn renders texture patterns, and check out our “Post-Market Sale” board on Pinterest for more projects made in this and other sale yarns.

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Each 50 gram skein has 113 yards, and suggests a gauge of 5.5 stitches to the inch, though its loftiness means that it’s happy at a bigger gauge, too. Therefore, you can consider Sublime Organic Merino Wool DK for patterns calling for worsted weight yarns as well as those that want DK.

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Heidi Kirrmair’s “Tea with Jam and Bread” pullover calls for worsted weight yarn to be knit to a gauge of 19 stitches = 4 inches, a fabric that Sublime Organic Merino Wool DK will happily knit up to without being loose or floppy. It’s a cozy stockinette sweater with bold colorblock stripes and pockets, sized for children and adults alike, and it’s also the reason I arranged shades of Organic Merino Wool DK in threes for this blog post.

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Organic Merino Wool DK makes nice accessories as well–pick two shades for the “Quaking Aspen” shawl, or just one for shawls like “Saroyan” or “Terra.” Just a ball or two will make a pair of “Cafe au Lait Mitts” or “Fetchings,” perfect for gift-knitting or trying lace or cables on a small project.

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Come by the shop soon to have the best selection of this gorgeous yarn at this nice price. It’s still early on in the sale, and we have full bags available in many colors, but they may not last long–hope to see you at the shop soon!

 

A reminder: all sales are final on discounted yarn. There can be no returns or exchanges, nor special orders–the discount applies only to what we currently have in stock. Thanks!

Post-Market Sale spotlight: Sublime Cashmere/Merino/Silk DK.

From Friday May 23rd through June 29th, we will have select yarns discounted during our Post-Market Sale: single skeins will be reduced by 30% and full bags of 10 will be 40% off! Throughout the sale, I’ll be highlighting some of these yarns and giving ideas for what to make with them. Today: spotlight on Sublime Cashmere/Merino/Silk DK.

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Sublime’s Cashmere/Merino/Silk DK is a springy, many-plied dk weight yarn composed of all the fibers it’s named for. Cashmere makes it oh-so-soft, merino wool brings a pleasant bouncy quality, and silk gives this yarn a slight lustre.

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It’s well-behaved on the needles or hook, machine-washable, and comes in a huge range of colors, from pastels to jewel tones to crayon-brights to neutrals.

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All of these qualities make it perfectly suited to a range of projects, garments and accessories alike, for babies, children, and adults.

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Sublime Cashmere/Merino Silk DK is also a great choice for blanket-making. Consider the “Honeycomb Stroller Blanket,” “Neat Ripple Pattern,” “Missoni Inspired Chevron Blanket,” and “Granny Stripes”–all free blanket patterns that encourage freewheeling color-mixing, one of the major joys of blankets, I think.

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The pattern I keep thinking of, however, requires only 7 skeins–Purl Soho’s “Super Easy Baby Blanket,” a simple color-block garter stitch crib blanket. That’s why each of the photos today show groups of 7 colors. Once I started playing the “Super Easy Baby Blanket” colorway game, I had a hard time stopping.

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Look for more pattern ideas for Sublime Cashmere/Merino/Silk DK on our “Post-Market Sale” Pinterest board, and come by the shop soon to have the best selection of this gorgeous yarn at this nice price. Here at the beginning of the sale, we have full bags available in many colors, but they may not last long–hope to see you at the shop soon!

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A reminder: all sales are final on discounted yarn. There can be no returns or exchanges, nor special orders–the discount applies only to what we currently have in stock. Thanks!

New colors in Acadia.

Acadia, from the Fibre Company, is a special yarn indeed, and has become a favorite at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. This DK weight blend of merino, alpaca, and silk has a unique blend of rugged tweedy texture and soft hand, and served as our introduction to the Fibre Company. We were delighted to receive the four newest colors in Acadia last week!

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We’ve been stocking Acadia at the shop for almost two years, and in that time, I’ve seen it put to good use in all kinds of projects: “Welted Fingerless Gloves,” the knit “Quaking Aspen” shawl, the crocheted “Belle Epoque” shawl, “Ritalin Cowl,” even a very special baby sweater.

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“Quaking Aspen” is a free pattern from the Fibre Company, calling for just two skeins of Acadia in the main color and one skein in the contrast color. Our “Quaking Aspen” sample is hanging up at the shop; come by to feel it for yourself, try it on for size, and get a good sense of how this yarn behaves in knitted fabric.

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We’re loving this expanded palette of Fibre Company Acadia. Find it in the second room of the shop, hanging on the tree in the DK weight section!