Tag Archives: yarn tasting

Shibiu Trunk Show: Fall 2019.

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Our walls are newly decorated with an exciting Shibui Trunk Show! We’ll have 5 garments and accessories from their Fall 2019 pattern collection on display here at the shop until Sunday, February 23, 2020.

Shibui’s Fall 19 collection shines a spotlight on one of their newest yarns, Nest. Nest is a DK weight merino and alpaca blend, and has a beautiful marled look, as shown in Sivia Harding’s “Clark” cardigan.

Sometimes it’s combined with a strand or two of other Shibui yarns – Echo brings softness and a heavier gauge, Silk Cloud brings a soft halo. Try out these combinations at our upcoming Shibui Mix Party, a yarn tasting event scheduled for this Sunday, February 16 – we still have a couple of spaces open, so sign up now if you’d like to claim one!

We have sample copies of all these patterns here at the shop so you can look them over before buying them on Ravelry.

The following Shibui yarns are featured in this collection: Silk Cloud, Echo, and Nest. All three are 10% off during the show, so come by and see it soon to take advantage of the discount!

A reminder: all sales are final on discounted yarn. There can be no returns or exchanges. Thanks! 

Fibre Company Yarn Tasting.

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This morning we hosted a delightful Fibre Company yarn tasting. A roomful of knitters arrived with their bags full of needles, ready to sample all that the Fibre Company has to offer.

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Everyone got their own little pouch of yarn samples, and a stitch sampler pattern with guidance on needle size and stitch count for each yarn.

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In between sips of mimosas and bites of bagels, attendees knit swatches of all the Fibre Company yarns, sharing pattern ideas as they stitched. Though at the moment we stock just five of the eleven available Fibre Company yarns, we invited our yarn tasting participants to order anything and everything they liked.

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Garments from the Knightsbridge Collection were passed around and admired, inspiring many new projects; I am so looking forward to seeing them emerge, stitch by stitch!

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A yarn tasting is a special opportunity to try out yarn before deciding to buy it, see how it feels on your needles and in your hands. It’s always a fun, friendly event, and because of that, they tend to fill quickly. If you’d like a heads-up when the next one is scheduled, let us know!

Shibui Mix Party.

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On Sunday, we hosted a Shibui Mix Party.

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In preparation for the event, I’d moved all our Shibui yarns into the spotlight, towards the center of the room, where we all gathered around to admire them and plan projects. 

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We tried on garments from the Monochrome Trunk Show, then plotted color and yarn combinations.

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Mix Party attendees sampled all five of the Shibui yarns that we now carry, including the newest, Maai. 

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In between sips of mimosas and bites of bagels, knitters and crocheters worked up swatches in all manner of Shibui yarns and yarn combinations, sharing pattern ideas as they stitched. I passed around a few new swatches Amy and I knit for the shop, showing what happens when Maai is combined with other Shibui yarns.

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It was a delightful morning, spent chatting and laughing with a great group of people, enjoying each other’s company as much as the yarns. If you’re sorry to have missed the Mix Party, get in touch with us–we’re happy to email you a heads-up when the next one is scheduled. In the meantime, come by the shop to see all things Shibui!

Shibui Mix Party.

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On Sunday, we hosted a Shibui Mix Party. We currently stock three Shibui yarns, but we offered our Mix Party attendees the opportunity to sample and place special orders for any and all nine of the beautiful yarns that Shibui produces.

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In between sips of mimosas and bites of bagels, knitters and crocheters worked up swatches in all manner of Shibui yarns and yarn combinations, sharing pattern ideas as they stitched.

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Garments from the Shibui Trunk Show were passed around, tried on, and petted, and we all had a good time putting color combinations together for some of Shibui’s beautiful patterns.

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So many amazing projects were planned, garments and accessories alike–I am so looking forward to seeing them emerge, stitch by stitch!

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It was a delightful morning, spent chatting and laughing with a great group of people, enjoying each other’s company as much as the yarns. Come by the shop to check out the Shibui Cima, Pebble, and Silk Cloud that we currently have in stock. Stay tuned for more yarn tastings –and more from Shibui– in the future!

New from Shibui.

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Shibui has just released their Spring/Summer 2014 pattern collection, six new Mix patterns that combine Shibui yarns two or three strands at a time to make unique fiber blends. We’re also excited to announce that in April, we’ll host a trunk show featuring these very garments. We can’t wait to see them in person!

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“Mix No. 25” is a long, lightweight cardigan, knit with two strands of Shibui Pebble held together throughout–the same yarn combination used to make the “Cliff” hat that we have on display here at the shop. The handsome “Mix No. 26” scarf is also knit with Pebble, two shades in a chevron colorwork pattern. We got a few new shades of Pebble in this past week, making it even more fun to come up with “Mix No. 26” color combinations.

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I find “Mix No. 29” perhaps the most tempting of the bunch, in part because I’ve had my double-knit “Mix No. 23” cowl wrapped around my neck all winter, and find another Shibui cowl hard to resist.

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“Mix No. 29” is knit with the springy Cima and tweedy Pebble held together, a combination that makes a light and lovely fabric. It can be hard to imagine how two different yarns will behave when knit together, which is why we have swatches in each possible combination of the three Shibui yarns we currently carry. Look for a stack of them in the Shibui Mix Box, where you’ll also find the Shibui lookbooks, color-cards, and pattern binder.

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Another way to take the guesswork out of yarn-combining is to swatch these yarns yourself before you buy them, which is exactly what happens at a Shibui Mix Party. We had one here at HYS in January, where knitters and crocheters sampled Cima, Pebble, and Silk Cloud. I’m delighted to announce that we’ve got another Shibui Mix Party on the schedule, and this time, we’re offering samples of all nine Shibui yarns! Because of our small space, we’re limiting this special event to 15 participants, so sign up now if you’d like to attend!

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Come by the shop to see the latest from Shibui and plan your next project. (Maybe Stephen West’s new “Pebble Parallelograms,” a colorful scarf knit in five shades of Pebble and one of Silk Cloud, all of which are in stock at the shop right now, and pictured above? Just sayin’.) See you there!

Shibui Mix Party.

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On Sunday, we hosted a Shibui Mix Party, featuring samples of three Shibui yarns.

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In between sips of mimosas and bites of bagels, knitters and crocheters worked up swatches in Cima, Pebble, and Silk Cloud, sharing pattern ideas as they stitched.

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Many of Shibui’s patterns call for their yarns to be combined, two or three strands at a time, to create unique fiber blends and different gauges, and that yarn mixing was the activity of the day.

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Our Shibui samples were passed around, tried on, and petted, and we all had a good time putting color combinations together for some of Shibui’s beautiful patterns. Anne and I shared two works in progress using Shibui yarns: her Mix No. 19 made with two strands of Silk Cloud, and my Carpino made with Isager Highland and Silk Cloud. So many amazing projects were planned, garments and accessories alike–I am so looking forward to seeing them emerge, stitch by stitch!

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It was a delightful morning, spent chatting and laughing with a great group of people, enjoying each other’s company as much as the yarns. Come by the shop to see all our Shibui yarns and patterns, and consider them for your next project. Stay tuned for more yarn tastings –and more from Shibui– in the future!

Shibui Mix Party.

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We’re delighted to announce that we have an exciting event coming up: a yarn tasting featuring three yarns from Shibui, a small yarn company out of Portland, Oregon. Because Shibui’s yarns are designed to be combined, two or three strands at a time, they call their yarn tastings “Mix Parties,” where attendees are encouraged to mix yarns together as they swatch.

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When you’re planning to hold two or three different yarns together, it can be hard to imagine how the resulting fabric will feel or look. A Mix Party allows you to try out Shibui yarns before buying them, working up a little swatch to see how they behave as a fabric. Attendees will bring needles or hooks in a variety of sizes and we’ll serve up samples of three yarns from Shibui, along with bagels, fruit, and mimosas.

  • Cima: a lace weight blend of baby alpaca and merino wool
  • Silk Cloud: a lace weight blend of kid mohair and silk
  • Pebble: a lace weight blend of cashmere, fine merino, and recycled silk

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We’ll have a collection of pattern ideas for all three yarns. Take advantage of our Shibui promotion and get a 15% discount on your Shibui purchases as well as prepaid Shibui Yarn orders made during the Mix Party.

The Shibui Mix Party is scheduled for Sunday, January 12th, 2014, from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm. There is a small fee for attending, so that we might cover the cost of food and drink, and because of our small space, we’re limiting this event to 15 people. It’s filling up quickly–sign up now to save your space! If you can’t make it to the Mix Party, no worries–I’ll report back here on the blog and tell you all about it.

Fibre Company Yarn Tasting.

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On Sunday, we hosted a yarn tasting featuring four yarns from the Fibre Company.

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It was the last day of the Fibre Company Trunk Show, and as the yarn tasting attendees filed in, the 8 shawls and scarves that make up the Allium Collection came down from their hangers to be petted, admired, and tried on. I also passed around my not-quite-complete Crow’s Nest Cardigan in Canopy Worsted to give a sense of the yarn’s drape and stitch definition.

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In between sips of mimosas and bites of bagels, these knitters and crocheters worked up swatches in Meadow, Savannah, Acadia, and Canopy Worsted, sharing pattern ideas as they stitched. We have a binder at the shop full of patterns from the Fibre Company, and I collected a list of independently-designed patterns that use these yarns as well:

They’re all available as Ravelry In-Store Pattern Sales, which means you can buy them from us at the shop, where we’ll print a copy for you and make sure that a digital copy is also saved in your email or Ravelry pattern library.

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We pulled out our Fibre Company color-cards so everyone could see any colors that we didn’t have in stock–for example, many of the available shades in Meadow, which has been popular enough to merit two reorders in the two weeks since it first arrived at the shop. When I left the shop on Sunday, we were down to just 9 skeins. (Don’t worry–there’s more coming!)

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It was a delightful morning, spent chatting and laughing with a great group of people, enjoying each other’s company as much as the yarns. After such a positive yarn tasting event, it’s safe to say that we at HYS are big fans of the Fibre Company. Come by the shop to see all our Fibre Company yarns and consider them for your next project, and stay tuned for more yarn tastings in the future!

Fibre Company Yarn Tasting.

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We’re delighted to announce that we have an exciting event coming up: a yarn tasting featuring four yarns from the Fibre Company, a small yarn company out of Pennsylvania. The Fibre Company combines plant and animal fibers in interesting ways, seeking yarns that provide both softness and structure. Their patterns put their yarns to good use in accessories and garments alike.

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A yarn tasting allows you to try out yarn before deciding to buy it, working up a little swatch to see how it feels in your hands and how it behaves as a fabric. Attendees will bring needles or hooks in a variety of sizes and we’ll serve up samples of four yarns from the Fibre Company, along with bagels, fruit, and mimosas.

  • Meadow: a lace weight blend of merino wool, baby llama, silk, and linen
  • Savannah: a sport weight blend of wool, cotton, linen, and soya
  • Acadia: a dk weight blend of merino wool, baby alpaca, and silk
  • Canopy Worsted: a light worsted weight blend of baby alpaca, merino wool, and viscose from bamboo

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We’ll have a Meadow trunk show to inspire, and pattern ideas for all four yarns. Get a 15% discount on Fibre Company purchases and pre-paid orders made during the yarn tasting.

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The Fibre Company Yarn Tasting is scheduled for Sunday, October 20th, from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm. There is a small fee for attending, so that we might cover the cost of food and drink, and because of our small space, we’re limiting this event to 15 people. It’s filling up quickly–sign up now to save your space! If you can’t make it to the yarn tasting, no worries–I’ll report back here on the blog and tell you all about it.

Mountain Meadow Wool Yarn Tasting.

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This past Sunday, we hosted a yarn tasting featuring four yarns from Mountain Meadow Wools. Fifteen knitters arrived with their bags full of needles, ready to swatch. As bagels were munched and mimosas were sipped, Anne told us a bit about Mountain Meadow Wool: how they got started, their environmentally-friendly practices, and the many wonderful qualities of their US-sourced merino wool. Then the sample skeins were handed out and everyone put their needles to work, casting on and knitting with a range of Mountain Meadow Wool yarns from fingering- up to bulky-weight.

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In between swatches, project ideas were tossed around, colorcards were examined, and finished garments and swatches were admired.

 

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I’d managed to finish a sweater in Mountain Meadow Wool Cody just a day before the yarn tasting, so that was passed around along with other samples from the company itself.

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It was especially heartening to hear so many positive reviews of Cody, a yarn that I fell in love with after just a swatch, and only love more having spent a sweater’s worth of time with it. Cody is springy and stretchy, somehow softer on the needles than in the skein, and becomes a velvety smooth fabric, much more consistent in texture than one might expect from the slight unevenness of many 2 ply yarns.

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Our generous MMW sales rep, Andrea Marquis, is also a knitwear designer, and sent along copies of her newest pattern for the yarn tasting–the Ridgeline neckwarmer is yet another great use for Cody. (If her name sounds familiar, that’s because she also designed the Range Wrap, which currently hangs in our front window.) We are so grateful to Andrea, not only for making the yarn tasting possible, but also for introducing us to Mountain Meadow Wool! After such a positive yarn tasting event, it’s safe to say that we at HYS are big fans of their yarns. Come by the shop to see Cody and consider it for your next project, and stay tuned for more MMW yarns and perhaps more yarn tastings in the future.