Tag Archives: shawls

Show and tell: Brooklyn Tweed Peerie.

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I’m back with more show and tell, focused this time on accessories and garments knit with Brooklyn Tweed Peerie. Peerie is one of the four yarns featured in our current BT Wool People 12 Trunk Show, so it seems fitting to share some of the projects folks are making with this special yarn.

Kathryn knit this “Lucerne” hat with Peerie, enlisting her young daughter’s help in selecting colors. I love what they came up with, as well as Kathryn’s description of Peerie – “supernaturally springy.”

Elsbeth knit this “Architexture” scarf with Peerie and came back for more to make another one, an excellent endorsement of yarn and pattern alike. Peerie’s smooth, round texture is perfect for showing off knit and purl texture patterns like those featured here.

Margaretta has also been charmed by Peerie, having used it to knit both the “Afton” scarf above and the “Hazelfern” socks below.

Both of these texture-rich patterns were thoughtfully designed by Jared Flood, and Margaretta appreciated the quality and clarity of the patterns as much as the yarn.

Jane knit this impressive “Butterfly / Papillon” shawl with six shades of Peerie during Nancy’s recent class here at the shop.

I’m particularly struck by Jane’s unique color combination, a balance of warm and cool colors, light and dark. Well done, Jane!

Here’s Ruth in her “Boardwalk,” knit with Peerie in a cheery pink shade. This pattern has been a popular one, whether knit in Peerie or in Loft, in part because of how wearable it is. The design is clever and flattering, a layer that manages to look both smart and casual.

Thanks to Kathryn, Elsbeth, Margaretta, Jane, and Ruth for sharing these knits with us, and to everyone whose projects begin with trips to our shop.

Come by before March 3rd to see the Wool People 12 Trunk Show and get 10% off Brooklyn Tweed Peerie, Loft, Vale, and Arbor. See you there!

 

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

 

Brooklyn Tweed Wool People 12 Trunk Show!

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We are delighted to announce that a new trunk show from Brooklyn Tweed is here to spend a couple of weeks at our shop. Come by before March 3rd to see the Wool People 12 collection!

Wool People is an annual collaboration between Brooklyn Tweed and a variety of independent knitwear designers from around the world. Some of their names are familiar, like Shannon Cook, Isabell Kraemer, Melissa Wehrle, and Emily Greene, but many are new to me. Those designers bring their own vision and aesthetic to Brooklyn Tweed’s breed-specific wool yarns, a combination that offers an exciting array of new designs.

Brooklyn Tweed’s lightest weight yarns are featured in these designs: the lace weight Vale, fingering weight Loft and Peerie, and DK weight Arbor, all of which are 10% off during the Trunk Show.

Though there are plenty of cables and other texture patterns on display, there’s a special preponderance of lace in this collection – delicate pullovers with lace yokes, garter stitch shawls with lace edgings, a turtleneck covered in eyelet linework, an allover mesh-lace pullover, and others. If you are a lace lover or curious about the technique, this show is a must-see!

Come by the shop before March 3rd to see Wool People 12 and get featured Brooklyn Tweed yarns at 10% off!

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

Back in stock, show and tell: Malabrigo.

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Over 60 pounds of Malabrigo yarn arrived this week!

This sizable order filled and brightened our cubbies of Rasta, Rios, Mecha, Caracol, and Mechita.

Malabrigo is a beloved Uruguayan yarn company known for vibrant hand-dyed color and soft, squishy merino wool.

These pleasing qualities make their yarns some of the most popular in our shop, so we’re always seeing incredible projects made out of Malabrigo yarn. Here are a few of the latest.

Amy knit this “Rondelay” shawl with Mechita, a single-ply superwash merino wool in fingering weight.

She used one of the coveted speckled colorways, which we can hardly keep in stock – happy to have a nice selection of speckled shades in this recent order!

Margie used one of those speckled skeins of Mechita to make the “Mesh Leaf Cowl” she’s modeling here.

Malabrigo yarns also play well with others, as Linda’s “Mindfulness” shawl demonstrates. She crocheted this beauty using a semi-solid shade in Malabrigo Sock and a highly-variegated skein from Dream in Color’s Pop-Up Skein Club.

Thanks to Amy, Margie, Linda, and countless others who start their projects here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop – we love to see what you’re working on!

Come by the shop to see our full selection of Malabrigo yarn and get your fill of these soft and colorful skeins!

Hello, Navia Uno.

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Meet Navia Uno, one of the newest yarns here at our shop.

Navia is a family-run yarn company from the Faroe Islands, specializing in traditional Faroese wool. Their yarns are now distributed in the US by our friends at Kelbourne Woolens, who traveled to the Faroe Islands earlier in the year and wrote a bit about it on their blog. They also published an interview with Óli Kristian á Torkilsheyggi, the owner of Navia, which gives more insight into the history of Faroese knitting and Navia yarns in particular.

Uno is one of the finest Navia yarns, a lofty lace weight blend of Faroese, Shetland, and Australian lambswool. Its 2ply structure gives the yarn a somewhat rustic appearance, a bit of texture that lends character to knitted fabric without detracting from lace or texture patterns.

What to knit with Navia Uno? This yarn would be right for many patterns calling for lace weight yarn, and we’ve collected a bundle on our “Lace weight” Pinterest board. I searched Ravelry for patterns that call for Navia Uno and projects that use this yarn, and found a few leads:

Searching more broadly for Faroese shawls brought more possibilities to light. Faroese shawls are known for their distinctive shoulder shaping, which helps keep the shawl in place.

Look for Navia Uno in the lace weight section here at our shop!

Snow, show and tell, and new colors from Kelbourne Woolens.

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The shop was closed yesterday for inclement weather, and with the snow quietly falling as I write and the roads remaining hazardous, we do not plan to open the shop tomorrow. As ever, if you’re planning a trip to our shop and have any question about the weather, do check our website before you head out; we always list closures on the front page there, and are known for being risk-averse when it comes to snow and ice!

 

Even if the shop remains closed, a snow day is a good one for show-and-tell; let’s take a peek at some of the recently-completed projects that started their lives as yarns here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop.

Kate has been wearing her Kate Davies’-designed “Dunyvaig” hap a lot since completing it. She knit this cozy textured shawl with Kelbourne Woolens Scout, a DK weight wool that comes in lovely heathered shades and has great stitch definition for patterns like this.

Ruth has been knitting with Kelbourne Woolens yarn, as well – here she is in her lovely “Phyllis” sweater, made with the sport weight KW Andorra.

Margaretta also finished her “Phyllis” not long ago, and it, too, is very beautiful. I’m impressed at how crisp the lace looks even in a fuzzy yarn with a touch of mohair.

Anne’s “Jenny” was also knit with Andorra. You might even recognize it, as it has been on display at the shop for some time now.

The gentle halo of Andorra is perfect for this Bohus-inspired pullover, where purls in the colorwork yoke seem to blend one color into the next.

Last week brought four brand new colors of Andorra, a welcome addition that really rounds out the color palette.

Many thanks to the knitters who shared their work here today, and to everyone who starts their projects with a trip to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop! We hope everyone is staying safe and warm and doing a bit of stitching while it snows, and we’ll see you when it’s safe to open the shop again.

Back in stock: Fibre Company Acadia.

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We’re delighted to announce that Fibre Company Acadia is back in stock!

Acadia is a DK weight blend of merino, alpaca, and slubs of silk. The silk takes the dye differently than the other fibers, giving most colorways a rustic, tweedy appearance, which belies its luxuriously soft hand.

Our supply of this special yarn had dwindled, but happily, a shipment arrived earlier in the week to fill our shelves again.

Acadia has become a very well-loved yarn in the years we’ve stocked it here at the shop. One knitter that calls this yarn a favorite is Winnie, who recently knit this gorgeous “Dohne” shawl using Acadia.

Garments knit with Acadia have a mix of structure and drape. We have a couple of samples knit in Acadia at the shop so you can see and feel this in person; look for the Churchmouse “Easy Folded Poncho” and “Quaking Aspen” shawl next time you’re here. There are so many other wonderful projects we’ve seen made in Acadia over the years – check out our “DK weight” Pinterest board for more pattern ideas.

Come by to give Acadia a squeeze and plan your next project!

Show and tell: colorful shawls.

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Time for another round of show and tell! We always love seeing what you make with our yarns, and lately I’ve had the pleasure of seeing and photographing more finished projects than I can share in one blog post. For today, let’s look at some colorful shawls that started life as yarn on our shelves.

Above is Donita’s “Wisdom Wrap,” knit with Alchemy Silken Straw and Sanctuary. She brought it in to show us before felting, which will transform this partly-wool shawl from a colorblock rectangle to a softer, more organic shape – we can’t wait to see it after she takes the leap!

Gwen loves working with Ewe Ewe yarns. She’s worked with Baa Baa Bulky and Wooly Worsted before, and has come back to the latter to make the “Whenever Wrap” above. With so many exciting yarns to choose from, this return to the same yarn for multiple projects is quite the endorsement!

Nancy recently knit this “Butterfly / Papillon” shawl with Brooklyn Tweed’s newest yarn, Peerie, and is preparing to teach a class on the subject here at the shop.

Many of the “Butterfly / Papillon” projects on Ravelry have been made with self-striping or hand-dyed yarns, so it’s particularly striking to see Nancy’s solid color version. I’m looking forward to seeing the shawls that come out of her class!

Nancy’s next project is another colorful shawl, Felicity Ford’s “Efflorescent,” from her latest book, Knitsonik Stranded Colourwork Playbook. The swatches below were knit with Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift, and show two of the three colorways for “Efflorescent,” more class prep. Read more about Nancy’s upcoming class on our Classes page – there are still a few spaces if you’d like to attend!

Many thanks to the talented knitters who shared the projects above, and to everyone who starts their projects with a trip to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. We love seeing what you make!

Show and tell: Isager.

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Time for another round of show and tell! Today I’m here to share some finished projects that started life as yarn on our shelves, and they all have one thing in common: they’re all knit with yarn from the Danish company Isager.

Above is Loretta’s “Girasole,” an intricate circular shawl designed by Jared Flood. She used two Isager yarns held together for this piece, both lace weight – Alpaca 1 and Spinni. The combination is perfectly balanced, with drape from the Peruvian alpaca yarn and structure from the Danish wool.

Hazel picked up Susie Haumann’s All You Knit is Love here at the shop and has been busy knitting from it, making dresses for her granddaughter.

She knit this “Smilla’s Dress” with Isager Highland, a light fingering weight wool sourced in Peru. The heathered color gives depth to the fabric of this piece, with its eyelets, cables, and panels of reverse stockinette.

Hazel went on to knit a second “Smilla’s Dress” in a different yarn – more on that in the next show-and-tell post!

Carribeth knit this Churchmouse “Alexandra’s Airplane Scarf” with Isager Japanesk Bomuld, a lace weight cotton tape. Knit up loosely like this, it’s somehow crisp and soft at once, a contradictory but delightful fabric for summer.

We love seeing what folks make with our yarns – thank you so much for sharing your projects with us. Look for more show and tell here soon!

More new kits from Dream in Color.

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Our newest batch of Dream in Color Classy mini-skeins is hard to miss, in three large overflowing baskets right in front of you as you walk into the shop, a stack of “Technicolor Cowl” kits just beside them. What you might not see as readily is another little display of new kits from Dream in Color, featuring two skeins of their 2ply BFL Cash/Silk.

Veronica of Dream in Color put together these kits with Lynn Di Cristina’s “Cumberland & Carey Park” shawl in mind, though the pattern is not included. Each pair features a deep charcoal paired with a pop of bright color.

There are so many patterns out there for fingering weight shawls in two colors; if these high contrast pairs catch your eye, consider also Melanie Berg’s “The Love of Spiders,” Veera Välimäki’s “Stripe Study Shawl,” Lisa Hannes’ “Laurelie,” Kirsten Kapur’s “Cladonia,” and Joji Locatelli’s “Pure Joy.”

Look for these kits in our Gifts section! See you at the shop.

Shibui Sample of the Month: Dynamic Trio.

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

This month’s sample is “Dynamic Trio,” by Joji Locatelli, an asymmetric triangular shawl in three colors, decorated with chevrons and garter stitch stripes.

This “Dynamic Trio” was knit with Shibui Lunar held double throughout. Lunar is a lace weight blend of merino and silk, soft and lustrous for an elegant fabric.

Come by the shop to before May 31st to see “Dynamic Trio” and get Shibui Lunar at 10% off to make one of your own!

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