Select Opal sock yarns: now on sale!

Posted by Julia on February 13, 2015

UPDATE: As of 4/22/2016, we are totally sold out of these Select Opal sock yarns!

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In an effort to clear space for new Spring yarns, we’ve moved some of our Opal sock yarns into the sale trunk, and discounted them by over 30%!

These Opal yarns are fingering weight blends of superwash wool and nylon, tightly-plied to make sturdy, long-lasting socks. Like many Opal yarns, they’re also self-patterning, meaning that the yarn is dyed to create a color pattern in the knitted fabric. This makes for fun and sometimes surprising socks, entertaining to knit even in simple stitch patterns. Above is Opal Mosaik, with short lengths of each color that make wild patterned stripes, and below is Opal Krokodil, with longer stretches of color that pool for staggered, irregular stripes.

Check out our sale trunk for great yarns at a discount, and help us make room for new yarns to come!

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!

Back in stock: Caper Sock.

Posted by Julia on February 9, 2015

We’re so glad to have new colors in String Theory Caper Sock!

Caper Sock is a fingering weight blend of superwash merino wool, cashmere, and nylon. It’s sturdy enough for sock-knitting, as its name suggests, but soft enough for shawls, scarves, cowls, hats, or mitts–just about anything you’d wear next-to-skin.

Each skein boasts 400 yards, enough to make a variety of small projects. Searching patterns on Ravelry, I found that one skein of Caper Sock will make just about any pair of socks, Joji Locatelli’s “To infinity and beyond” cowl, Jennifer Dassau’s “Picabeau” shawlette, or Stephen West’s “Pogona” shawlette. Can’t decide on just one color? Two will make Carina Spencer’s “Catkin” shawl, Veera Välimäki’s “Halfway Wrap,” or my own “North Arrow” scarf.

Come by the shop to pick up a skein or two or String Theory Caper Sock! You’ll find Caper Sock in the fingering weight section, with lots of other tempting hand-dyed yarns.

Hello, Vivacious 4ply.

Posted by Julia on February 1, 2015

This week, we welcomed a new yarn into the shop: Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply.

Vivacious 4ply is a high twist, superwash merino wool in a fingering weight.

Each 100 gram skein has 399 yards, enough for a pair of socks or mitts, a hat, scarf, or shawlette. Vivacious 4ply is hand-dyed, so each skein is unique, even from the same dye-lot; remember you can alternate skeins to blend hand-dyed yarns in larger projects.

For pattern inspiration and a sense of how these colorways might work up in knitted fabric, check out Vivacious Volume One. Inside, you’ll find accessory and garment patterns for fingering and dk weight yarns. Here are a few in Vivacious 4ply.

Check out the “Inspiring Stitches” board on our Pinterest page for more projects in Vivacious 4ply, and come by the shop to see this yarn for yourself. Look for Vivacious 4ply and Vivacious Volume One in the fingering weight section. See you there!

Hello, Rowan.

Posted by Julia on November 17, 2014

We’re thrilled to announce that we now carry two yarns from Rowan: say hello to Pure Wool Worsted and Wool Cotton!

Pure Wool Worsted is a superwash, worsted weight wool that comes in a wide range of colors, including subtle heathered shades that we don’t often see in superwash yarns. Each 100 gram skein boasts 219 yards, enough to knit a hat, small scarf or pair of mittens.

There are so many uses for medium weight, machine-washable wools, from sweaters and accessories to blankets and baby things, and we carry many yarns like these for exactly that reason. So far, Pure Wool Worsted is the most affordable, however, and we love finding sources for high quality fiber at a reasonable price.

We put Pure Wool Worsted to the test on our needles and in Anne’s washing machine, and it came out looking good: stitch definition crisp, gauge unchanged, fabric softened. Look for this machine-washed swatch at the shop and feel for yourself.

Wool Cotton is a dk weight blend of merino wool and cotton, also machine-washable. Each 50 gram skein has 123 yards, enough to knit a baby hat or short pair of fingerless mitts.

Working with Wool Cotton, we were impressed by the smooth, obedient quality of the yarn, and pleased to see it come out of the washing machine looking like new.

Cotton and wool make a lovely fiber blend for our climate, particularly in a dk weight. I can see Wool Cotton in the same wide variety of projects that suit Pure Wool Worsted: sweaters large and small, baby blankets, hats, mitts, shawls, and cowls. Look for more project ideas and pattern inspiration on the HYS Pinterest page, and come by the shop to plan your next project with Rowan yarns!

Back in stock: Jitterbug.

Posted by Julia on November 14, 2014

Yesterday we unpacked a big box from Colinette Yarns, stuffed full of Jitterbug.

Colinette ships their yarns to us in wild bunches of untwisted hanks, making for a dramatic entrance. From there, we twist them up into the hanks you see on our shelves.

Jitterbug is one of my favorite sock yarns, a tightly-plied superwash merino that’s hand-dyed in a range of semi-solid and variegated colorways. Anne is a big fan of Jitterbug, too, though she’s used it for larger garments, like sweaters and vests.

Jitterbug is equally well-suited to baby things, being machine-washable and brightly-colored. I found a ton of adorable “Baby Surprise Jackets” knit in Jitterbug on Ravelry, along with “Little Sister’s Dresses,” “Garter Stitch Baby Kimonos,” and “Saartje’s Bootees.”

Head to the HYS Pinterest page to see more projects and patterns for Jitterbug, and head to the shop to see the yarn for yourself!

New colors in Ewe So Sporty.

Posted by Julia on September 22, 2014

I’m happy to report that our supply of Ewe So Sporty has just doubled! Ewe Ewe just came out with 10 new shades of this soft and bouncy superwash merino.

Ewe So Sporty is named for its gauge, a sport weight yarn that knits up between 5.5 and 6.5 stitches per inch, depending upon needle size and desired fabric. It’s ideal for baby and children’s things, especially because it’s easy to care for–machine wash cold, lay flat to dry.

Anne recently knit this “Sleeping Cedars” baby bunting with four skeins of Ewe So Sporty. It doesn’t have its buttons or drawstring yet, but I had to snap a photo, lest it be gifted before I had another chance to document it.

Come by the shop to see all 20 cheery shades of Ewe So Sporty, and remember it whenever your next opportunity for baby knitting should arise!

Dream in Color Classy mini-skeins.

Posted by Julia on August 30, 2014

Dream in Color Classy is a worsted weight superwash merino, hand-dyed in Chicago, IL. We just got a bundle of it here at the shop, but not in the usual 250-yard skeins. No, this time, we got a box full of 50-yard mini-skeins, and a fun pattern to suit them.

The pattern is Nancy Leuer’s “Technicolor Cowl,” a simple striped infinity scarf that calls for eight Classy mini-skeins.

When the mini-skeins arrived, I was given the enviable task of knitting a sample “Technicolor Cowl” for the shop, which meant that I got to pick eight colors from the 20+ colors we’d received. Everyone in the room was soon creating colorway after colorway, from the monochromatic to the wildly disparate.

It’s a delightful creative exercise, the “Technicolor Cowl” color game, and we didn’t want to deny anyone the opportunity to play along. Rather than pack them up into kits, we’re encouraging you to create your own colorways.

I settled on the following combination, somewhat reminiscent of Anne’s “Wisdom Wrap,” with its purples, greens, and dark grays.

This is a quick, nearly-mindless knit, one which requires little to no counting, not even an end-of-round stitch marker. The only stitches in play are knit and purl, and the project is going quickly and smoothly on my sharp and slick Addi Rocket needles.

Come by the shop to pick eight colors for a “Technicolor Cowl” of your own!

Work in progress: Charlie’s sweater.

Posted by Julia on July 5, 2014

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thanks, Polly, for sharing your process with us!

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

Posted by Julia on May 25, 2014

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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!

Hello, Ewe So Sporty.

Posted by Julia on March 17, 2014

This past week, we welcomed a brand new yarn to the shop: Ewe So Sporty, from Ewe Ewe!

Ewe So Sporty is a sport-weight version of the popular Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted, and both are soft and springy machine-washable merino wools with excellent stitch definition.

Along with this new sport weight yarn came a batch of new patterns written just for Ewe So Sporty. It’s a small but varied collection, showing the breadth of uses for this versatile yarn, from baby things to shawls, socks, and other accessories.

Come by the shop to see Ewe So Sporty for yourself!