Author Archives: Julia

Swans Island, now on sale!

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Everything in the shop is 15% off during July, our Annual Inventory Sale month, but there are a few items we’ve marked down even further – including every yarn we carry from Swans Island, now 40% off!

We’ve been carrying Swans Island here at the shop for over a decade, and we’ve always loved working with their thoughtfully produced hand-dyed yarns. They’ve decided to sell their yarn directly rather than through retailers like us, so we’re sending them off with a sale!

  • Swans Island Natural Collection: fingering weight, 100% certified organic merino wool, hand dyed, 525 yards/100 g; $32 each, $19.20 on sale
  • Swans Island All American Sport: sport weight, hand-dyed, 100% Rambouillet wool, 185 yards/40 g; $12.50 each, $7.50 on sale

  • Swans Island All American Worsted: heavy worsted/aran weight, hand-dyed, 75% Rambouillet wool, 25% alpaca, 210 yards/80 g; $24 each, $14.40 on sale

  • Swans Island Natural Colors Worsted:organic merino wool, 250 yards/100 g, $32 each, $19.20 on sale

Come by during July to get a great deal on Swans Island and all your favorite yarns, needles, notions, books and magazines! We’re open from 11am – 5:30 pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays; masks required for entry.

Just a reminder–all sales are final on discounted items; there can be no exchanges, returns, or special orders. Thanks!

PetiteKnit pairings.

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We recently restocked Isager Silk Mohair, a soft and shiny lace weight blend of mohair and silk, often used in tandem with heavier yarns. Fingering weight yarn seems to be a particularly popular playmate for Silk Mohair – here are some color combinations pairing it up with Isager Sock Yarn and Alpaca 2, and PetiteKnit pattern ideas below!

  • Isager Silk Mohair: lace weight, 70% kid mohair, 30% silk, 233 yards/25 g; $16 each
  • Isager Sock Yarn: fingering weight, 40% Easy Wash alpaca, 40% Easy Wash merino wool, 20% recycled nylon, 423 yards/100g; $20 each

  • Isager Alpaca 2: light fingering weight, 50% alpaca, 50% wool, 275 yards/50 g; $12 each

What to knit with these yarn pairings? You’ll find more ideas on a blog post of mine from November, but for today, let’s focus on PetiteKnit, who seems to especially favor this combination of lace + fingering weight yarns:

Accessories:

Sweaters:

Here’s a bit of show and tell, a close up on Margaretta’s own “Jenny Sweater,” knit with Isager Silk Mohair and Alpaca 2 held together throughout. The combination is deliciously soft, with elegant drape, and I love the ever-so-slightly-different shades of light green Margaretta chose, they blended together beautifully!

Look for these and other Isager yarns in our lace and fingering weight sections here at the shop!

Annual Inventory Sale!

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July is here, and that means it’s time for our Annual Inventory Sale!

From July 1 – 30, everything in the shop is discounted by 15%. If you’ve had your eye on a special skein, or have been planning a big project or two, now is the time to take the leap!

Pick up a few limited edition skeins from the Koigu Collector’s Club, treat yourself to a new book or the latest issues of Pom Pom, MDK, and Making, stock up on your favorite yarns, grab a Binkwaffle bag while you’re at it.

Come by during July to get a great deal on your favorite yarns, needles, notions, books and magazines! We’re open from 11am – 5:30 pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays; masks required for entry.

Just a reminder–all sales are final on discounted items; there can be no exchanges, returns, or special orders. Thanks!

Argyll’s Secret Coast, by Kate Davies.

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Kate Davies’ newest book is here! Let’s look inside Argyll’s Secret Coast.

Argyll’s Secret Coast ($30)is a collection of essays and knitting patterns exploring the history and landscape of its namesake.

“Geographically proximate to lowland Scotland but topographically distinct,” writes Davies, “Cowal is a landscape of hidden places, surprising stories, many secrets.”

Ever the scholar, Davies uses the Secret Coast as a jumping off point to ask bigger questions about how places are remembered and histories narrativized, along with other contributing writers.

Come by the shop to browse this and other Kate Davies books – she’s a favorite of ours, so we do try to keep her books in good stock! Currently we have Inkling, Bluestockings, Yokes, West Highland Way, Milarrochy Heids, Warm Hands, Shore, Colours of Shetland, The Book of Haps, and Davies’ memoir, Handywoman. 

Koigu Collector’s Club: Red Brick House.

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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.

Koigu KPPPM:

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

This month’s limited edition shade is Red Brick House, a warm variegated mix of coral, salmon, brown and beige.

I’ve paired up Red Brick House with shades of Brooklyn Tweed Loft, thinking of Andrea Mowry’s “Harlow” hat. It’s a great introduction to 2-color brioche, and an opportunity to mix different colors and textures of yarn.

“Harlow,” by Andrea Mowry, photo © Andrea Mowry

Koigu’s smooth, worsted spun texture and color variation contrasts against Loft, which is rustic woolen spun and heathered.

Here are even more color combinations for “Harlow,” turning back to older Collector’s Club colorways that are still on our shelves.

Look for Koigu KPPPM and Brooklyn Tweed Loft in the fingering weight section here at our shop, along with many others! We’re here from 11am – 5:30pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays; masks required for entry.

Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide No. 21: Brioche.

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The twenty first installment of the Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide series is here!

MDK’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme, knitting technique, or designer. This newest Field Guide is an introduction to brioche, featuring designs by master of the technique, Nancy Marchant – let’s take a look inside!

Brioche is a dimensional stitch pattern often worked in two colors, which creates a bouncy, reversible fabric. Marchant’s “Cushiest Cowl” is a perfect introduction to the basics of 2-color brioche, and the patterns that follow build on these skills.

Most of these patterns call for MDK’s new yarn, which we don’t have on our shelves, though our worsted weight section is full of lovely substitutes. Think Brooklyn Tweed Tones, Shelter or Ranch 02, Kelbourne Woolens Germantown, and Malabrigo Rios.

MDK Field Guides are $15.95 each; order online for local pickup or shipping, or come by to shop in person – we’re open from 11am – 5:30 pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays!

Painting Shawls, by Stephen West.

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Exciting news – Stephen West’s latest book is here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop! Let’s take a look at Painting Shawls.

Painting Shawls ($40) is a collection of 13 shawl patterns from Stephen West, a designer known for bold color choices and intriguing shawl construction and techniques.

Each of these patterns features a main color framing several contrast colors, using only stripes and slipped stitches to form playful, rhythmic shapes throughout the garment.

West encourages knitters to choose their own colors for these shawls, and provides playful, intuitive tips for color selection along with practical tutorials on casting on, modifying the size, weaving in ends, and more.

Styled with West’s signature dramatic flair and photographed with a keen sense of movement, Painting Shawls is great fun to flip through.

Look for Painting Shawls on the teacart here at our shop, surrounded by the latest publications! We’re still taking online orders as well – just fill out our online order form for local pickup or shipping.

Amirisu, Issue 24.

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A new issue of Amirisu is here!

Amirisu is a knitting magazine based in Japan, each issue filled with articles, interviews, and patterns from designers all over the world.

Rosemary Hill, Dianna Walla, Sari Nordlund, Yamagara, and others have contributed to this issue, designing garments and accessories inspired by inheritance – important places or things passed down culturally or within their families.

 

I spotted some familiar fibers in this issue – colorwork sweaters in Brooklyn Tweed Loft and Shelter, a unique brioche shawl vest in Isager Highland Wool, and a richly textured cowl in Brooklyn Tweed Peerie.

Amirisu often includes tutorials and essays on crafts other than knitting, and this issue has a quilted tote, a profile of a ceramics artist, and a crafter’s travel guide to Toronto.

Amirisu is $24 – swing by to pick up a copy or order online for local pickup or shipping!

Pom Pom Quarterly: 10th Anniversary issue!

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The 10th Anniversary issue of Pom Pom Quarterly has arrived here at the shop!

This unique new issue has a flip double cover, and the patterns within are divided between warm and cool weather garments and accessories.

PPQ has also switched to a larger format and increased the number of pages, so photos are bigger and instructions are easier to read.

Issue 41 features patterns by James N Watts, Sylvia Watts-Cherry, Dawn Henderson, Sari Nordlund, and more.

I love seeing almost every garment knit in multiple colorways, and shown on a few different models – it gives a sense of the enormous possibility that exists in each design.

As ever, there’s good reading material in this issue, too – an essay about cultural appropriate and Sashiko by Atsushi Futatsuya, a crafter’s guide to London, where Pom Pom was founded, and a thoughtful guide to yarn substitution.

Pom Pom Quarterly is $25.50 – come by to snag a copy between 11am – 5:30pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays. We’re also taking orders online for local pickup or shipping. Along with this issue, we have the Summer 2019, Autumn 2019, Summer 2020, Autumn 2020, Spring 2021, Summer 2021, Winter 2021, and Spring 2022 issues in stock – these older issues are $18.50 each, preview them on our blog and get in touch if you’d like to add them to your Pom Pom collection!

Back in stock: Isager Alpaca 2.

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Isager Alpaca 2 has long been a favorite here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. There always seems to be a steady demand for this fuzzy blend of merino and alpaca, beloved for its soft hand and harmonious color palette. A very large box of the stuff arrived with the brand new Isager Sock Yarn, bringing some bestselling colors back into stock and adding a few new shades, too!

Isager Alpaca 2:

  • light fingering weight
  • 50% alpaca, 50% merino
  • 275 yards/50 g
  • $12 each

Our seasoned “Stole” sample has hung on the wall for years now, yet it regularly catches the eye of knitters seeking a soothing, repetitive project, one that’s easy to execute, but with graceful results.

Here are some other pattern ideas for Alpaca 2!

Look for Alpaca 2 in the fingering weight section here at our shop! We love Isager yarns and carry a lot of them – Silk Mohair, Spinni, Alpaca 1, Alpaca 3, Tvinni, Highland Wool, Jensen, Sock Yarn, and more.