Show and tell: Swans Island All American Worsted.

Posted by Julia on January 27, 2015

We always love to see what you’re making with HYS yarns, and I love to take photos of your beautiful finished pieces to share here on the blog. I have a nice collection to share at the moment, enough for two blog posts. Today’s group all happen to be made in the same wonderful yarn: Swans Island All American Worsted, an aran weight blend of US-sourced Rambouillet wool and alpaca.

Emily came into the shop last week wearing her newly-completed “Halyard,” by Norah Gaughan, which she knit using 6 skeins of All American Worsted in a deep, saturated cobalt shade called “Newport.” She lengthened the sleeves from 3/4 length to full length for a cozy winter pullover.

I knit a sweater in All American Worsted recently, too. Here I am in my “Docklight,” by Julie Hoover. If you’ve been to the shop in the past month or two, you’ve probably seen me in it, as it’s become a favorite winter sweater. I’m thrilled with how it came out, and impressed with how the yarn is wearing. I used 6 skeins in “Frost,” a light blue-gray.

Nancy knit this “Hourglass Throw” by Anne Hanson using 8 skeins of All American Worsted in a warm brown shade called “Driftwood.” The light color really shows off Hanson’s intricate cable and lace design. This was Nancy’s first time knitting cables, and they are expertly rendered. Well done!

Anyone else out there knitting with All American Worsted? Tell us what you’re making with it , and come in to show us, too!

Thanks to everyone who starts their projects at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop, and to those who share their progress with us. Come by the shop to pick up some Swans Island All American Worsted for your next project, and keep your eye on the blog for more show and tell soon!

New colors in Canopy Worsted.

Posted by Julia on January 25, 2015

This week’s delivery from Fibre Company held more than just new colors in Acadia; we also got three new shades of Canopy Worsted!

“Turmeric” and “Dragonfruit” really brighten up the Canopy Worsted basket, and “Lemur” is a particularly beautiful steely gray that we simply couldn’t say no to.

Canopy Worsted is a light worsted weight blend of alpaca, merino wool, and bamboo. These fibers combine to create a yarn that is smooth and round, soft and drapey, with excellent stitch definition and a slight lustre.

What to knit with Canopy Worsted? Anne is rarely seen without her “Cumberland Cowl” around her neck, and has inspired many knitters to make Canopy cowls of their own. One 200 yard skein is all it takes, and the same is true of all five accessories in the Kelbourne Woolens Weekenders booklet. Consider the cabled “Greenpoint Cowl” from that collection; Amy is offering a class on the subject this spring!

Come by the shop to pick up a skein or two of Canopy Worsted for a cowl or two! See you there.

New colors in Acadia.

Posted by Julia on January 23, 2015

Fibre Company recently introduced new colors in Acadia, a luxurious blend of merino wool, silk, and alpaca.

We’ve carried Acadia for a few years now, and always delight in adding a new color or two. It’s amazing how just a few new shades deepen the color palette. Suddenly instead of one gray, we have a warm gray and a cool gray, and where we thought we were rich in purples, a deep eggplant shade emerges, expanding the spectrum.

Anne and I have both been working with Acadia of late. Anne has an “Easy Folded Poncho” on the needles in Acadia’s warm gray, “Driftwood.”

Last year, Fibre Company’s Courtney Kelley lent us an Acadia poncho that we missed after we sent it back; Anne’s poncho-in-progress will replace it on our walls. It’s nothing but stockinette, but the simplicity of the fabric lets Acadia shine, its silk slubs peeping out every now and then.

I took three shades of Acadia home to weave a scarf on my Cricket loom, and I’m thrilled with how it turned out.

Using a 10-dent reed, I warped with Acadia in asymmetric color blocks, creating vertical stripes. I used one shade of blue-green for the better part of the weft, delighting in the way it interacted with the two other colors. There are horizontal stripes of those colors at the beginning and end of the scarf, as well, making a kind of plaid.

Working from Betty Linn Davenport’s Hands on Rigid Heddle Weaving, I paid more careful attention to the tension of the warp, tried hemstitching for the first time, and finished the scarf with twisted fringe.

Check out the HYS Pinterest page for more Acadia pattern ideas. Come by the shop to see these new colors and plan your next project!

New from Cascade.

Posted by Julia on October 21, 2014

A couple of weeks ago, back when our big Berroco order arrived, an equally big box from Cascade showed up. Inside were some yarns and colors that needed restocking, and a few new things, too.

Highland Duo is an aran weight blend of alpaca and merino spun into a soft, fuzzy, single-ply yarn. Anne picked this palette, a range of neutrals with a pop of red–perfect for winter wear.

We also got these four new colors of Cascade 220 Fingering, heathered shades that fill out our existing selection nicely.

Cascade 220 Fingering is an affordable 2-ply wool in a fingering weight, well-suited to colorwork, shawls, garments and accessories. Head over to Ravelry for all kinds of pattern inspiration for this yarn, and come by the shop to pick some up for your next project!

See you at the shop!

Hello, Maai.

Posted by Julia on October 5, 2014

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of Shibui’s latest yarn, Maai.

Maai is a dk weight blend of alpaca and merino, soft and lofty due to its chainette construction. This yarn has tremendous elasticity, making it a pleasure to work with and surely a pleasure to wear.

Shibui’s yarns are designed to be mixed together, held two or three strands at a time to create bespoke yarn blends. For that reason, they’re dyed in closely matching colorways.

We’re delighted to add Maai to our selection of Shibui yarns, which have become favorites over the past year. I can’t wait to see how Maai behaves when knit together with Silk Cloud, Cima, Pebble, or Linen!

Maai is happy to be knit just as it is, however; Anne made this sample scarf using a single strand of Maai and the result is absolutely decadent. The pattern, “M.1,” is free when you buy Maai for the project; 3 skeins makes a scarf this size. Check out our “Inspiring Stitches” board on Pinterest for more ways to use Maai!

A photograph can’t do this yarn justice; you must come in and touch. See you at the shop!

Hello, Ultra Alpaca Chunky.

Posted by Julia on October 2, 2014

Meet the newest yarn from Berroco, Ultra Alpaca Chunky.

A bulky weight blend of wool and alpaca, Ultra Alpaca Chunky is the newest addition to Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca line.

Each 100 gram skein boasts 131 yards, enough for a hat or a pair of mitts. With a suggested gauge of 3.5 stitches per inch on a US #10, this is instant gratification yarn, perfect for cozy accessories and warm, jacket-like sweaters.

Berroco booklet #349 features patterns for Ultra Alpaca Chunky, a collection of accessories and garments.

A sample of one of these patterns, “Duchamp,” now hangs at the shop, knit in a cheery red.

“Duchamp” is a textured shawl, a modular knit whose construction is sure to keep you interested as you stitch.

Look out for this free pattern tucked into the Ultra Alpaca Chunky cubby–a cozy textured scarf, knit with just 3 skeins.

Come by the shop to see Ultra Alpaca Chunky and plan some instant gratification knitting of your own!

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 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: 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!