Author Archives: Julia

An Isager shipment. Part 1.

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As I’ve written here before, Theresa Gaffey’s Stole from the book Wearwithall has been a popular project at the shop lately. Gaffey’s design is beautiful in its simplicity, allowing knitters to relax and let the exquisite yarn do the talking.

The yarn is Isager Alpaca 2, a fingering weight blend of merino wool and alpaca. Only two weeks into our inventory sale, we were completely sold out of Wearwithall and very nearly sold out of Alpaca 2. I’m happy to announce that both are now back in stock. To all who were interested in making the Stole your next project: come and get it!

You can find Wearwithall and Isager Alpaca 2 in the Fingering Weight section of the shop in the second room. See you there!

After.

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It’s been a long, exhausting couple of days, but the shop reorganization is now complete. All our yarn is now sorted by gauge, the books are consolidated, and somehow the shop feels much bigger than it did before. You’ll have to come in to get a real sense of how dramatically this new arrangement has changed the shop, but in the meantime, here are a few photos.

We are so proud to welcome you to the newly organized Hillsborough Yarn Shop! Come by soon to see our new set-up, and some new yarn, too. We got a couple of shipments while we were closed for reorganization, so you can expect to read about their contents here in the next week. In the meantime, come see us at the shop!

During.

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Our reorganization of the shop is in full swing. Outside, our doors are locked, and we’ve hung sheets in the windows to hide the chaos within. What’s that? You’d like a peek at our chaos? You’re wondering just what we’re doing in there?

We’re rearranging all our yarn by weight, so that yarns with similar gauges are grouped together. Lace weight with lace weight, sport with sport, worsted with worsted, and so on, all the way up through super bulky. To get there, we’ve taken all our yarn off the shelves, bagged and labeled them, and sorted them by weight.

I know it looks like a sea of bags, but really it’s quite tame: the bagged bulky yarns go in this corner, the dk in that corner, the worsted weights go on the sofa, etc. The next step is getting them out of bags and into baskets and cubbies again, and we’re already well on our way. The books have been moved, as well, gathered onto just a few shelves from their disparate hiding places throughout the shop.

We can’t wait for Friday, when we can welcome you all back into the newly arranged Hillsborough Yarn Shop. See you then!

Closed for reorganization!

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As you may have read in our newsletter, or heard from Anne and I over the past couple of weeks, we’re planning a major reorganization here at the shop. Furniture will be moved, needles and books rearranged, and all 600+ kinds of yarn that we stock will be shuffled around into a new order. The shop will be closed Tuesday, August 7th – Thursday, August 9th while we reorganize. We’ll reopen at our regular business hours on Friday, August 10th, so come back then to see our new set-up! In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some “before” pictures.

We’re so excited to get in there and change it all up! See you on Friday for the big reveal…

Another round of show and tell.

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It was another great week for show and tell at the shop. So many knitters and crocheters came in with finished projects to share.

Petra came in wearing a hand-knit top and shrug, proving that it is indeed possible to wear hand-knit garments in even the hottest weather when lightweight plant fiber yarns are used. A beautiful ensemble!

Laura brought in a finished Faraway, So Close shawl to show off, fresh from Katherine’s class on the same project. Laura’s shawl is made with Malabrigo Silky Merino and edged with Louisa Harding Grace Silk & Wool, both of which are dk weight single ply yarns with great luster and drape.

Anne had some show and tell this week, too. She made this cute wool soaker for her new granddaughter, Willa, who is pictured wearing a Boston Whaler Hat in Ella Rae Bamboo & Silk yarn. (The hat has been such a hit that Anne has already taught two classes on it, and we’ve scheduled a third to begin Sunday, August 12th–read more about the Boston Whaler Baby Hat class and register on our website!) For the soaker, Anne used Briggs & Little Sport yarn, with a strand of pink and a strand of white held together.

Thanks for sharing your completed projects with us! It’s such fun to see what everyone’s stitching. See you at the shop.

Marion’s socks.

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Marion is one of our teachers at the shop, and while she has taught classes on everything from colorwork hats to lace sweaters, her specialty is undoubtedly socks. While Anne and I work our socks from cuff to toe on double-pointed needles, Marion uses one long circular to work her socks from toe to cuff, and it is this technique that she has taught so many knitters over the past few years. Every week, it seems, she’s working on a new pair of socks, incorporating cables, lace, and color patterns whenever possible. This week I snapped some pictures of her most recent sock-knitting projects.

Both pairs are made in Malabrigo Sock yarn, a fingering weight yarn made of 100% superwash merino wool. The stitch patterns featured in these two pairs of socks are from the recently-published Sock Knitter’s Handbook, by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott. All of the above can be found at the shop, of course, and if you’d like to learn the technique, Marion has two upcoming classes. One is her Magic Loop Socks from the Toe Up, in which Marion walks students through the creation of their first toe-up socks. For those who have already learned this technique and want to try knitting two socks at the same time on one long circular needle, Marion is teaching Two-at-a-Time Toe-Up Socks. Both classes begin in September; check our website to read more about these and other classes.

The Knitter’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters.

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Interweave has just published a new book by Ann Budd, The Knitter’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters: Basic Designs in Multiple Sizes and Gauges, and a stack of them arrived at the shop last week. After studying it during several quiet moments at the shop, I decided it had to be part of my personal knitting library. Read on to learn why it might make a good addition to yours, as well.

Ann Budd is the author of a great many knitting resources, including but not limited to Sock Knitting Master Class, The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns, and The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. As I’ve written here before, we’re also quite fond of her Handy Guides to Yarn Requirements for knitting and crochet.

The Knitter’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters is the latest in her series of Handy Books which give instructions for simple garments in a wide range of gauges and sizes. This collection, as the title makes plain, is full of seamlessly-constructed sweaters that begin at the neck, working from the top down.

Some knitters begin a new project by falling in love with a pattern, then hunting for just the right yarn to match the gauge that the pattern asks for. Some knitters begin by falling in love with a skein of yarn, then go looking for a pattern to match. Ann Budd’s Handy Books can work either way, I think, but do a real service for the second group. For each basic top-down sweater shape, Budd gives instructions for range of sizes, from children to adults, and a range of gauges. Whether you’ve fallen in love with a sport weight yarn or an aran weight yarn, you can choose from any pattern in the book and follow the directions in your chosen size and gauge. Budd also gives yarn requirements for every size and gauge, so once you’ve fallen in love with that yarn, you’ll know how much to get.

The book is divided into four sections, by the sweater’s yoke shape: seamless yoke, raglan, set-in sleeve, and saddle-shoulder. For each shape, along with the general instructions are three good-looking patterns. Some are designed by Ann Budd, and others by guest designers Jared Flood, Veronik Avery, Pam Allen, and Anne Hanson.

 Budd also includes plenty of information on modifying her general instructions, making it easy to add color or texture patterns, and create different kinds of neckbands, collars, button bands, waist shaping, and edgings.

I’ve knit very few sweaters from the top down, having grown accustomed to using Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Percentage System (EPS) to knit unique sweaters from the bottom up. While EPS makes sweater design into a doable math problem, Ann Budd’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters is like the teacher’s edition–a series of sweater math problems shown with every possible answer. For knitters who love to knit seamless sweaters and make them their own using whatever yarn they’ve fallen in love with, this is the ultimate resource. Come by the shop to take a closer look at The Knitter’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters!

Crochet Traditions.

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We got another new magazine in at the shop this week.

Crochet Traditions is here, full of interesting articles, photos of intricate crocheted heirlooms, and patterns and techniques to keep your hooks busy.

I was particularly intrigued by an article on tobacco twine crochet, a regional crochet tradition local to North Carolina. According to the article, the Person County Museum of History in Roxboro is home to several incredible crochet pieces made from tobacco twine during the 1930’s. As a lover of fiber arts and a student of Southern history, I was so pleased by the intersection of the two in this article. Come by the shop to get a copy of Crochet Traditions if this is up your alley, too!

 

A reminder.

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July is coming to a close, which means that our annual inventory sale is ending soon. All month, everything in the shop has been discounted by 15%, unless, like the Cascade Lana Bambu or Rustic, they were already more deeply discounted to begin with. So many of you have already taken advantage of this discount, planning your next few sweaters, stocking up on supplies for holiday gift-knitting, indulging in new project bags, or finally getting the set of interchangeable needles you’ve been wanting for so long. For those of you who have been meaning to do any one of those things all month, but putting it off for whatever reason, here’s a reminder:

This is the last weekend of our annual inventory sale! Come into the shop before August 1st to save 15% on your purchase! 

 

Another important sale-related reminder: all sales are final on sale items; there can be no exchanges, no returns, nor will we special order. Discount applies only to in-store purchases. Thanks!

Noro Slip-Stitch Cowl.

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On Tuesday morning when I first opened the shop for the week, a new knit sample caught my eye. A cozy, woolen cowl in a riot of colors made me reach for my camera. Take a look at this Slip-Stitch Cowl from Knit Noro Accessories.

This cowl was knit by Katherine, an amazing knitter and crocheter that we are proud to have as a teacher at the shop. Her latest class is on this very cowl, which uses a simple slip-stitch pattern and two colors of the self-striping Noro Kureyon yarn to give the illusion of stranded colorwork. As I write this, there are only two spaces left in the class, which begins in September. Sign up now if you’d like to join Katherine and a great group of knitters in the making of your own Slip-Stitch Cowl!

If you’re unable to secure a space in the class, or would like to tackle this project on your own, come by the shop to page through the beautiful book Knit Noro Accessories. We have many colors of Kureyon in stock, as well; come and lose yourself in the endless color combinations!