Tag Archives: alpaca

The Stole.

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I mentioned a few posts ago that the Stole, with a capital “S,” might be a good way to take advantage of our Annual Inventory Sale. Nine skeins of Isager Alpaca 2 have a way of adding up, and the month-long 15% discount on everything in the shop will help take the edge off. The Stole has become a bit of a hit here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop since we first got the new book Wearwithall. As in, we had to restock nearly every color of Alpaca 2, and we may need to do it again soon. I thought the Stole deserved more than a mention; here is its very own post.

Having seen several beautiful Stoles-in-progress, Anne recently cast on for one of her own, using seven colors of Alpaca 2 whose first life was as a colorwork pullover. After two years on the needles with only a few inches done, Anne decided it was time to rip out the colorwork and give the yarn a second chance as a Stole.

As you can see by all the progress she’s made in only a handful of weeks, she made the right choice. Sometimes it seems painful to rip out a work in progress that you realize you’ll never finish, but this is one of the major joys of knitting: yarn can be reused. Your efforts are not wasted when you rip something out; a pile of ripped-out yarn is a sign that lessons have been learned and a new project can begin.

It’s been such a pleasure to watch knitters break from the colors shown in the pattern to create their own combinations–this one cool in blues and greens, that one warm in neutrals, another autumnal with a pop of chartreuse. The Isager color palette is welcoming in this way, the colors play well together in all kinds of variations.

Come by the shop to quench your thirst for Alpaca 2, and to see Anne’s Stole-in-progress. This is a project that needs to be touched to be understood; photos don’t do it justice. See you at the shop!

Wearwithall.

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A new book, recommended by a friend, has arrived at the shop.

Wearwithall is a collection of patterns by the people at The Yarnery, a yarn shop in Saint Paul, MN. The book has a nice range of projects, including hats, socks, sweaters for babies and children as well as adults, and an eye-catching striped stole.

This stole, designed by Theresa Gaffey, is made from the exquisite Isager Alpaca 2 yarn, a fingering weight blend of wool and alpaca. It’s construction is simple, letting the brightest colors from the muted Isager palette do the talking.

Take a closer look at Wearwithall next time you’re in the shop. Be sure to visit the Alpaca 2 as well, and as you do, just imagine curling up in a cozy Alpaca 2 stole. Hard to resist, no?

Hello, Alpaca 1.

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When Anne returned from her trip to Denmark in August, she came back with many stories and many knitting ideas. The first one that she realized was simple: a triangular garter stitch shawl in Isager Alpaca 1, a 2-ply lace-weight yarn that at the time, we had just recently ordered in a pretty little spectrum of colors. Anne had seen one like it in Marianne Isager’s shop, and was determined to recreate it as a shop sample here. It may be a simple shawl, a “nothing pattern,” as Anne often describes it, but it has been a huge hit.

The particular combination of this yarn at this gauge makes simple garter stitch look new and somehow complicated. I’ve seen seasoned knitters puzzle over the shawl, asking about the stitch pattern. The texture is truly unusual, stretchy and fuzzy and light. Sometimes I wrap it around my neck like a scarf while I’m rearranging the Alpaca 1 basket, and I must say, it tempts one.

Having nearly run out of Isager Alpaca 1 due to the beguiling nature of the garter stitch shawl, it was time for a reorder at the start of the new year. As I put out the new colors, I felt content seeing them all together again, and daydreamed a bit about which color I’d choose if I were making one myself. What would you choose?

The next time you’re in the market for a mindless knit with exquisite yarn, consider the Alpaca 1 shawl. Try it on next time you’re in the shop and see if you’re not tempted.

Wintry wools.

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If you’ve noticed a leaning towards finer-gauge yarns around here, that’s astute. Marion Foale, Kauni, Malabrigo Sock, Isager… these and other thin yarns get a lot of attention on the blog as well as in the shop. Both Anne and I are often happiest working with fingering or lace weight yarns and tiny needles. Don’t let that fool you, though. The Hillsborough Yarn Shop is well-stocked in heavier weight yarns of many kinds. We are even more well stocked this week, having received two 40 pound boxes from Cascade. Some of those pounds can be attributed to the worsted weight Lana d’Oro and the aran weight Eco Duo, both of which are soft and fuzzy blends of wool and alpaca.

Most of the weight in those boxes, though, is due to these chunkier yarns: Eco + and Magnum. Each one thicker than the last. The Eco + is a bulky weight wool with a gauge of about 3.5 stitches to the inch on a size 10 needle. It comes in enormous skeins of 478 yards, making it possible to knit an adult sweater in just 3 or 4 skeins, depending on the size.  Eco + comes in a wide spectrum of solid and heathered colors, a spectrum we had only barely dipped into before this last reorder. Now we have about 18 different colors to choose from.

Meanwhile, the super bulky Cascade Magnum is easily the thickest yarn we carry, at 1.5 stitches per inch on a size 15 needle. This is a yarn for serious instant gratification knitting. Want to knit a hat in an evening? Reach for this yarn.

Come by the shop to say hello to these wintry wools from Cascade, and to begin dreaming up projects for these cozy, thick yarns.

Misti Alpaca.

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A while back, I wrote about our cotton tree, a twirling stand which holds most of our cotton yarns. What I didn’t mention then was that the cotton tree has a cold-weather cousin, the alpaca tree, another twirling stand that is home to most of our alpaca yarns. This week, just as the temperature dropped outside, the alpaca tree got some attention. I moved one alpaca blend, Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca Light, off of the tree to make room for some of the other alpaca yarns that were crowding it. 

The Ultra Alpaca Light, a favorite of mine, got a nice new home by the other sport-weight yarns, and an armful of new skeins from Misti Alpaca took its place. We’ve carried Misti Alpaca yarns for some time now, but the skeins were dwindling in number, so it was time to replenish. We got a handful of new colors in the Tonos Worsted, a semisolid blend of merino and alpaca, which fills out the selection nicely.

We also got Misti Alpaca’s Tonos Chunky, the bulky weight version of the Tonos Worsted.
Come by the shop to pet these and other lovely, fuzzy yarns on the alpaca tree. 

Hello, Paca-Peds H-T.

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This past Thursday, we received a box full of Paca-Peds H-T, an alpaca-blend sock yarn with an unusual feature.

Each soft and fuzzy hank of this yarn is actually two hanks, the larger of which is variegated, and the smaller of which is a complimentary semi-solid. Why? The answer is hidden in the title of the yarn: H-T stands for Heels and Toes, which is precisely what that semi-solid hank is set aside for. Look on Ravelry for examples of socks knit this way, as well as shawls that use the heels-and-toes yarn for an edging.

Come by the shop to give this soft, squishy sock yarn a squeeze!

Isager adoration.

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As you know, we at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop are big Isager fans. We stock many books by designer Marianne Isager, from perennial shop favorite Japanese Inspired Knits to Inca Knits, Classic Knits, and Knitting Out of Africa. We are also quite enamored of her daughter, Helga Isager, whose designs are collected in a series of booklets called Amimono. We keep all the Isager pattern books together, wedged between baskets of Isager yarns, which themselves are quite special: lightweight, delicate yarns of many fibers, designed to be held double or triple when a larger gauge is desired.

If you’ve been to the shop lately, you’ve likely seen Anne hard at work on one of Helga Isager’s designs from the latest Amimono collection, a lightweight wool top with unusual construction.

And, if you’ve been to the shop lately, you’ve likely heard that Anne has been invited to Denmark to attend a small workshop with Marianne and Helga Isager. Your jaw has likely dropped. Anne is leaving for her trip to Denmark in under a week, and could not be more excited. I’m almost as excited as she is just to hear all about it upon her return.

We can’t all go to Denmark, unfortunately, but there is a bit of new Isager goodness in the shop this week. We received a box of Isager Alpaca 1, a 2 ply laceweight made of 100% alpaca, soft and delicate, with a fuzzy halo. For as long as we’ve had Alpaca 1 in the shop, we only stocked it in black and white. I don’t know how we held out for so long, but this week, we opened up the Alpaca 1 spectrum to include a rainbow of colors.

A beautiful sight, to be sure, but even more remarkable to touch. Come by the shop to pet the Alpaca 1 and pore over the Isager pattern books if you haven’t yet. Helga and Marianne Isager are truly unique knitwear designers, worth a look even if you don’t plan to knit their patterns. See you at the shop!

Hello, Sulka. Hello, K’acha.

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From time to time, our yarn displays need what we call “fluffing.” We pull the skeins down from their cubby, or out of their basket, and commence fluffing: we rewind loose skeins, make sure all colors are represented, and then stack them up in a pretty spectrum, that they might look their very best. I was doing just this when I rediscovered a pair of Mirasol yarns that looked so lovely, I thought I ought to direct some attention their way.


Sulka and K’acha are alike in fiber content, but different in weight. Because they are both single ply yarns made of merino wool, alpaca, and silk, they share neighboring nooks on the brown bookshelf in the corner. Sulka, the bulky weight one, takes the left half of these little cubbies, and K’acha, the dk weight one, takes the right.

I was poking around on Ravelry, seeing what folks were making with these yarns, and I saw all kinds of projects: sweaters for women, men, and children, scarves, shawls, hats, mittens, and cowls. To me, this is a perfect yarn for special accessories. The looseness of the single ply in this yarn makes for something exquisitely soft, but more likely to pill and shed than some other yarns. Sulka and K’acha may not be for everyday wear, but for a cowl or shawl, something soft to wear right around your neck on a special occasion, these luxurious yarns are the perfect choice. Particularly since they, like all our yarns, are 15% off during the month of July. Think about it!

Royal Alpaca.

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There’s been a lot of talk about cotton around here lately. Now, for something less seasonally appropriate, but equally if not more appealing: 100% alpaca, from Aslan Trends. We’ve carried this yarn for some time now, but recently received three new colors.

The combination of chocolate brown, golden yellow, and bubble-gum pink is purely accidental, but I think the three look quite happy together. Though they also look quite at home with the rest of the Royal Alpaca family, there at the top of the alpaca tree in the front room.

Those of you who love alpaca enough to knit with it in even the warmest months are encouraged to give this particular yarn a try. It’s smooth, with a bit of a halo, and absolutely, incredibly soft. Royal Alpaca would shine in a garment worn close to the skin–a squishy scarf or cowl, fingerless mitts, or a warm hat. The yarn is lovely enough to stick with solid colors, but to me, they beg to be combined in stripes or stranded colorwork. Brown, yellow, and pink, perhaps?