New colors in Malabrigo Sock!

This week brought us 15 new colors in Malabrigo Sock!

Malabrigo Sock:

  • light fingering weight
  • hand dyed, variegated and semi-solid colorways
  • 100% superwash merino wool
  • 440 yards/100g
  • $20 each

This is Malabrigo’s new Encantados collection, unique hand dyed colorways inspired by fairytales and children’s stories.

I’ve arranged these shades in coordinating trios, thinking of Malabrigo’s popular “Temperance Shawl,” but there are so many other ways of combining these shades – it’s a rich palette, full of possibilities!

You may recognize this last combination, Jasmine, Gingy, and Myths – they were premiered earlier in the year, and you can see them knit into a “Temperance Shawl” below.

Want to knit a “Temperance Shawl” of your own? Order online for local pickup or USPS Priority Mail shipping, or swing by the shop between 11:00 am – 5:30 pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays!

Back in stock: Malabrigo Caprino!

We were thrilled to unpack a long-awaited box of Malabrigo Caprino this week!

Malabrigo Caprino:

  • DK weight
  • hand-dyed, variegated, speckled, and semi-solid colorways
  • 80% merino, 20% cashmere
  • 159 yards/50 g
  • $18 each

Like many Malabrigo yarns, Caprino comes in a familiar selection of semi-solid, variegated, and speckled colorways.

Earlier this year, I used 6 skeins of Caprino to make a “Nightshift,” Andrea Mowry’s oh-so-popular slip-stitch shawl. Never mind that the pattern called for aran weight yarn and Caprino is DK – I liked the fabric I got on a US 7 needle and after blocking it was plenty big enough, if not an exact match of Mowry’s suggested dimensions.

If you’d like to make a “Nightshift” with Caprino, get in touch and we’ll help you put some colors together!

If “Nightshift” isn’t your thing, or you’ve already made one or two, here are some other patterns to consider:

Eager to get some Caprino into your hands and onto your needles? Order online for local pickup or shipping!

Koigu Collector’s Club: Apple Crisp.

The Koigu Collector’s Club continues! Each month, we’ll receive 21 skeins of KPPPM in a limited edition color dyed especially for a select group of local yarn stores that carry Koigu.

Koigu KPPPM:

  • fingering weight
  • hand dyed, variegated
  • 100% superwash merino wool
  • 175 yards/50 g
  • $15.50 each

Our most recent shipment from Koigu is Apple Crisp, a variegated colorway that summons the season in shades of pink, beige, burgundy, and red.

What to make with these pretty skeins? Special socks are always a nice use for KPPPM – try Noma Ndlovu’s “Cable & Lace Socks” and “Little Boxes Socks,” or Dawn Henderson’s “Bonfire Socks” and “Block Party Socks.”

Get in touch if you’d like to place an order – we can ship directly to you or hold your purchase here for pickup while our storefront is temporarily closed!

Hello, Malabrigo Caprino.

This week, we welcome a brand new yarn from Malabrigo – meet Caprino!

Caprino is a DK weight blend of 80% merino wool and 20% cashmere, and just as you’d expect from those fibers, it’s soft as can be. Each 50 gram skein has 159 yards, enough for a pair of mitts or small hat; 2 skeins makes a larger hat or cowl.

Like many Malabrigo yarns, Caprino comes in a familiar selection of semi-solid, variegated, and speckled colorways.

We think of them as old friends, these colorways – it’s always nice to see the purplish gray of “Plomo,” or the deep navy of “Paris Night,” but equally nice to meet newer shades, like the spotty “Galaxy.” All three of those wound up in my latest project, Andrea Mowry’s “Nightshift” shawl.

I’m having such fun with this simple slip stitch pattern, watching the colors come together, the background shade seeming to shift as the contrast colors change.

I’ve seen lots of knitters make “Nightshift” and “The Shift” cowl, sometimes more than once, and now I totally understand the appeal of the project. We’re pleased to have print copies of these patterns in stock now!

Come by the shop to see and touch Caprino for yourself! You’ll find it in our DK weight section.

Hello, Malabrigo Quinteto.

This week brought another enormous Malabrigo order to our shop, two heavy boxes bursting with vivid hand-dyed color. It was packed primarily with bags of Rios, Sock, and Washted, but we snuck in a little something new, too. Meet Quinteto!

Quinteto is a pack of five speckled colors in Mechita, Malabrigo’s fingering weight, single ply, superwash merino.

Each colorway is named for an instrument: Piano, Double Bass, Cello, Viola, and Violin, and the colors fade harmoniously from skein to skein, from light blue to fuschia, then purple, then burgundy flecked with black.

What to do with 2100 yards of soft, speckled fingering weight yarn? Joji Locatelli’s “Fading Point” is a good fit, as is Stephen West’s “Dotted Rays,” and Andrea Mowry’s “So Faded” or “So Faded Pint Sized.”

Look for Malabrigo Quinteto in our fingering weight section here at the shop!

Koigu Collector’s Club: Hinterland.

The Koigu Collector’s Club continues! Each month, we’ll receive 21 skeins of KPPPM in a limited edition color dyed especially for a select group of local yarn stores that carry Koigu.

KPPPM is a fingering weight superwash merino, hand-dyed in vibrant colors by mother/daughter team Maie and Taiu Landra on their farm outside of Toronto, Canada.

January’s colorway is called Hinterland, a creamy white sprinkled with flecks of rosy pink, rusty orange, and taupe. It’s a complicated combination of colors when you look at it closely, but standing back, it reads neutral, and pairs well with Koigu’s November Collector’s Club color. I think they’d make a nice “ZickZack Scarf,” or “Harlow” hat.

Look for this limited edition colorway of Koigu KPPPM in our fingering weight section here at the shop!

New colors in Malabrigo Mechita.

This week brought us a big box of Malabrigo Mechita in nine brand new speckled colorways!

Mechita is a single ply superwash merino in a fingering weight, with a generous 420 yards on each 100 gram skein.

Suitable for sweaters, shawls, scarves, cowls, mitts, baby things and lightweight hats, Mechita has great potential.

In fact, it’s become a bit of a staple in our Fingering weight department, one we reorder again and again.

Look for Mechita in the fingering weight section here at the shop, and peruse our “Fingering weight” board on Pinterest for pattern ideas. We hope you find inspiration there, as well as among these colorful skeins of yarn!

Dream in Color Pop Up! Club.

We’re happy to announce that we’re participating in Dream in Color’s Pop Up! Club 2017-18! That means that every two months from August to February, we’re getting a special new colorway from Dream in Color, a Tuscon-based producer of small batch hand-dyed yarns.

Our August shipment features Jilly, a fingering weight superwash merino wool with 440 yards on each 100 gram skein. This tightly spun single-ply yarn is soft and smooth, painted with streaks and speckles.

One skein would make an excellent pair of socks, a small cowl or shawlette. Buy two for a generous shawl, or get here soon and scoop up a sweater’s-worth. Jilly should play well with a variety of fingering weight yarns, and could be worked into a “Find Your Fade” shawl or “Confetti” sweater, to name just a few recent patterns that showcase speckled yarns.

Look for this limited edition Pop Up! Club colorway in the fingering weight section here at the shop!