Back in stock: Ultra Alpaca and Ultra Alpaca Fine.

Posted by Julia on September 30, 2014

These mighty big boxes arrived from Berroco last week, with over 30 pounds of Ultra Alpaca yarns in each one. New colors made up some of the weight, as did some old favorites; the rest was a new yarn entirely, but that’s for another post. The unpacking, sorting, storing, and displaying took Anne and I most of a day!

Good old Ultra Alpaca. This 50%/50% blend of wool and alpaca is a classic, with the structure and elasticity of wool and the drape, halo, and softness of alpaca.

It comes in reasonably-priced, 100 gram hanks with 219 yards each; enough yarn to make a small scarf, a hat, or a pair of mittens. Ultra Alpaca comes in a wide range of colors, from fun brights to classic neutrals; I’ve always particularly admired the heathered shades.

Ultra Alpaca is a great sweater yarn, too, as Mindy here can attest. A bit of show and tell: Mindy came in the other day, having heard about our big Berroco shipment, to show off her very first sweater, knit during a “Start Your First Sweater” class here at the shop. She used Ultra Alpaca in a heathered charcoal and a friendly top-down seamless cardigan pattern from our pattern binder. Look at the fabulous result!

We also got new colors in Ultra Alpaca Fine, a fingering weight blend of wool, alpaca, and nylon. Its fiber content and gauge suggest socks, but Ultra Alpaca Fine is equally at home in larger garments, and especially shines in openwork scarves and shawls.

The alpaca content gives it a bit of a fuzzy halo, something to keep in mind if you’re planning a project that requires sharp stitch definition–those fuzzy fibers can obscure delicate texture patterns a bit. That said, those fuzzy fibers also give the finished fabric softness and warmth.

Come by the shop to see all the new colors in Berroco Ultra Alpaca and Ultra Alpaca Fine, and keep them in mind for sweater, sock, and shawl-making this fall. Stay tuned for the newest Berroco yarn, or come by the shop to see it before it hits the blog!

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!

New colors in Titus Shades.

Posted by Julia on September 16, 2014

We’re delighted to announce the recent arrival of three new colors in Titus Shades!

Titus Shades is a fingering weight blend of alpaca, Wensleydale, and Bluefaced Leicester wools, sourced and spun entirely in the UK.

We’re proud to have been the first US stockist of the stuff, back in 2012 when it came in just one color. Since then, Titus has been warmly embraced by knitters, crocheters, and weavers all over the world, and now comes in no less than 11 glorious shades.

With new colors comes a new pattern collection: Coop Knits Toasty Vol. 1, by Rachel Coopey, featuring accessories of all kinds knit in Titus Shades.

Coopey’s designs use a variety of techniques that show how versatile Titus is. It shines in cables, lace, texture patterns, and stranded colorwork, behaves nicely at a range of gauges.

Rosi has been knitting a sample “Northallerton” hat from this collection, using all three new shades together.

Come by the shop to flip through Toasty, see Rosi’s hat-in-progress and my “Color Affection”–also knit with three shades of Titus. Consider this special yarn for your next project!

Back in stock: String Theory sock yarns.

Posted by Julia on September 12, 2014

Our supply of String Theory sock yarns has been getting dangerously low, a problem we’re always thrilled to correct because it means picking out colors! Karen Grover and Tanis Williams, the amazing dyers at String Theory, create so many delightful, memorable colorways. Many of them have become favorites that we must order if they’re available, but we always love to see new colors, too. Our most recent order brought some of both.

Bluestocking is a lustrous sock yarn, composed of 80% superwash Bluefaced Leicester wool and 20% nylon, for durability. I’ve tested its durability with my own two feet, having knit a pair of socks with a skein of Bluestocking back in 2012. They’ve survived two winters of frequent wear and are still going strong.

Anne has worked with Bluestocking, too, and came back to it for a new project this past week. Her sweet three-year-old grandson recently visited the shop for a quick hug and hello. Anne pointed to the String Theory cubby and said, “You can pick any color you like, and I’ll make you a pair of socks.” Purple it is!

String Theory’s other sock yarn, Caper Sock, is a plump and springy blend of 80% superwash merino wool, 10% cashmere, and 10% nylon.

The tight twist and the nylon content ensures that Caper Sock is sturdy enough to withstand the kind of wear that socks put up with, but it’s great for other garments, as well. My “North Arrow” scarf in Caper Sock is on display at the shop, so you can feel for yourself how nicely it knits up.

Come by the shop to dig into the String Theory cubby yourself! See you there.

Back in stock: Misti Alpaca sock yarns.

Posted by Julia on September 8, 2014

It’s rare that we run completely out of a yarn before reordering, but such was the case with Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn. By the time we made it to TNNA to place our Fall order, not one skein of the stuff remained on our shelves, so we picked a whole new color palette.

Along with the whimsical variegated colorways of Hand Paint Sock Yarn, we were drawn to Misti’s Tonos Carnaval. Both fingering weight yarns are composed of 50% alpaca, 30% merino, 10% silk, and 10% nylon for durability, but Tonos Carnaval is dyed in semi-solid colorways.

Mulling over the color-cards together at market, Anne, Rosi, and I decided that these two yarns were meant to be together. It’s easy to pair up solid colors with variegated, as many of the solid shades can be found within the multicolored skeins. For these photos, I picked two shades of Tonos Carnaval, either one of which pairs nicely with the Hand Paint Sock Yarn in the center.

Consider patterns like “Spectra,” “Daybreak,” “Andrea’s Shawl,” “Nymphalidea,” and “Color Affection.” These are all designs that lend themselves to a combination of solid and variegated colors.

Remember these Misti Alpaca sock yarns the next time a pattern you love calls for fingering weight yarn, and come by the shop to pair these colors up for your next project. See you there!

Hello, Swans Island All American Worsted.

Posted by Julia on September 5, 2014

We’re delighted to announce that Swans Island’s newest yarn has arrived at the shop: meet All American Worsted!

All American Worsted is a 2-ply woolen-spun blend of 75% Rambouillet wool and 25% alpaca. There are 210 yards on each 80 gram skein, every bit of which was grown, processed, spun, and dyed in the USA.

All the colors begin with this shade of gray, the natural color of the Rambouillet and alpaca blend. The gray skeins are then dyed with low impact acid dyes, giving each hue a rich heathered quality.

“Woolen-spun” means that the yarn is spun from fiber that has been carded, but not combed. The carding process organizes the fibers to some degree, but they are not as smoothly aligned as combed fibers, giving woolen-spun yarns a rustic look.

Woolen-spun yarns like All American Worsted are also quite lofty, making them more versatile in terms of gauge. Swans Island suggests a gauge of 4.25 stitches per inch, which we’d consider aran weight, but All American Worsted is happy at a range of gauges. After washing, the fibers bloom to fill whatever space your needles have given them. The bottom section of the little swatch below was knit at 4.5 stitches per inch on a US #8; from there, I switched to a US #9, and the gauge is about 4 stitches per inch.

I knit Stephen West’s “Dustland Hat” at 5 stitches per inch on a US #7, and the fabric is sturdy but supple. All American Worsted renders these knit/purl texture patterns beautifully, and I don’t doubt that it will perform just as well in cables, lace, and colorwork.

For pattern ideas, check the Swans Island binder here at the shop. Their Organic Merino Worsted is comparable, so patterns that call for that yarn will do just as well in All American Worsted. Also, check your Ravelry queue for any patterns calling for Brooklyn Tweed Shelter–I know I am! Of all the yarns we ordered at TNNA this year, this is the one I’ve been perseverating on the most. Any of the Brooklyn Tweed patterns would be stunning in Swans Island All American Worsted, but for myself, I’ve boiled it down to three favorites: “Bray,” “Wheaten,” and “Little Wave.”

Come by the shop to meet this gorgeous yarn in person, and plan your next project! Look for Swans Island All American Worsted in the aran weight section, near the Swans Island Organic Merino Worsted. See you there!

Back in stock: Mountain Colors Bearfoot.

Posted by Julia on September 3, 2014

We just got a new batch of Mountain Colors Bearfoot!

Bearfoot is a fingering weight blend of wool, mohair, and nylon that is well-suited to sock-knitting, among other things. One 400 yard skein is enough for a pair of socks, gloves, or fingerless mitts, a hat, scarf, or small shawlette. A Ravelry search turned up plenty of pretty “Hitchhiker,” “Traveling Woman,” and “Ishbel” shawls made in Bearfoot.

As I wrote last year, Bearfoot asks to be hand-washed with a bit of vinegar to prevent the bleeding that sometimes comes with richly saturated colors like these, and then as now, I think this special treatment is not too much to ask. Hand-knit socks are special, and will last longer and wear better if cared for as such.

Come by the shop to pick up a skein or two or Bearfoot for your next project!

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!

Back in stock: Isager Alpaca 2.

Posted by Julia on August 26, 2014

The July sale carved a deep hole in our stash of Isager Alpaca 2, a soft and fuzzy fingering weight blend of alpaca and merino. Knitters and crocheters were planning sweaters, shawls, and stoles left and right, and Anne and I looked on nervously as our supply dwindled.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I unpacked a giant box of the stuff earlier this month; it just feels right when all the available colors of Alpaca 2 are nestled together in their basket.

We’ve seen numerous amazing projects in Alpaca 2 over the years. I’ve shared some here on the blog, colorwork sweaters like Michelle’s “Stasis” and Shelley’s “Summer in Tokyo,” stoles by Catherine, Kathie, Paula, Kristin, and Anne, and most recently, Betty’s lacy “Sonetto Shawl.” Check our “Inspiring Stitches” board on Pinterest for even more ideas. There are so many beautiful uses for this soft, special yarn; have you worked with it yet? If so, what have you made, or what are you itching to make?

New colors in Canopy Worsted.

Posted by Julia on August 22, 2014

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.

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

Anne’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.

For 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.