Tag Archives: brooklyn tweed

Show and tell: cables.

Posted by on

As I hinted in my last show-and-tell post, this group of projects all have one technique in common: cables. Let’s see some of the cabled projects folks are making with yarn from our shop!

Tom knit Irina Anikeeva’s “Cayley Pullover” with Fibre Co. Cumbria Worsted, a smooth blend of merino, masham, and mohair. He carefully measured his gauge and adjusted the sleeve length for a perfect fit – well done, Tom!

Leanne knit Joji Locatelli’s “Sammal” cardigan during a class here at our shop.

Though the pattern called for a lofty fingering weight wool knit somewhat loosely, she was able to substitute Cascade Ultra Pima, a DK weight cotton, and the resulting garment is exactly what she had in mind. Bravo to Leanne for this excellent yarn substitution, and for finding the perfect buttons!

Here is Joanne’s “Swilly,” a cabled scarf designed by Meghan Kelly. She knit it with Fibre Company Arranmore, and reports that it was a quick and fun knit in this soft bulky weight yarn.

Inspired by a recent trunk show, Margaretta recently knit Gudrun Johnston’s “Cetus” hat with Brooklyn Tweed Arbor, a DK weight wool known for its stellar stitch definition. These intriguing stitch patterns show up especially well in a light to medium shade, not too dark to see all the action.

Many thanks to Tom, Leanne, Joanne, and Margaretta for sharing their work with us, and thanks to everyone who starts their projects with a trip to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop! We look forward to seeing all that you create!

Laine Magazine, No. 8.

Posted by on

A beautiful new issue of Laine Magazine just arrived – let’s look inside issue No. 8.

Laine Magazine is a publication out of Finland, a knitting and lifestyle magazine with a love of natural fibers as its focus, and a reputation for beautiful designs and tantalizing photography.

Inside this issue of Laine, you’ll find lovely things to knit, designed by Justyna Lorkowska, Denise Bayron, and others, and tasty-looking things to cook, too.

This cable and lace wrap by Jenny Sauselin shows Brooklyn Tweed Loft at its best, that particular intersection between cozy and light.

Perhaps the biggest draw of this issue, however, is all the good reading – interviews with botanical dyer Ocean Rose and vintage inspired designer Susan Crawford, accompanied by photographs by Kate O’Sullivan, and a thoughtful column on representation and inclusivity by Jeanette Sloane.

Like Pom Pom, the creators of Laine are responding to conversations around racism and other biases in the knitting industry by making mindful attempts to include a wider variety of voices and faces in their publication. We are heartened to see this!

Come by the shop to page through Laine and our other books and magazines – there are so many new publications to see this month. We hope you find inspiration here!

Amirisu, Issue 18.

Posted by on

A new issue of Amirisu is here!

Amirisu is a knitting magazine based in Japan, each issue filled with articles, interviews, tutorials, recipes, and patterns. I spotted both of Brooklyn Tweed’s fingering weight yarns in this issue – colorwork patterns in Peerie and Loft.

Amirisu provides a glimpse into the textile and knitting culture of Japan, though fiber artists and knitwear designers from around the world are featured.

This issue in particular has features on fiber artists and yarn shops in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.

Look for Amirisu on our teacart, which is stacked high with all manner of new books and magazines. New issues of By Hand, Pom Pom Quarterly, and Laine also arrived this past week, so there’s plenty of exciting summer reading here at the shop. See you there!

Koigu Collector’s Club: Tulips.

Posted by on

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.

May’s special colorway is called Tulips, a riot of greens with flecks of other bright colors dyed on KPPPM, Koigu’s signature fingering weight superwash merino.

This highly variegated colorway has so many different colors in it! I had fun pairing it up with solid shades in other fingering weight yarns, thinking of Andrea Mowry’s brioche “Harlow” hat, which Amy is teaching in an upcoming class here at the shop. Brooklyn Tweed Peerie and Shibui Staccato are both wonderfully soft, come in a range of rich solid shades, and are the right gauge for pairing with Koigu KPPPM.

Peerie, with its stellar elasticity, is perhaps especially well-suited to the “Harlow” hat, if your interest is piqued by that pattern. Head to our Classes page to sign up now for a fun introduction to two-color brioche!

Other two-color projects that you might consider include Craig Rosenfeld’s “Drea’s Shawl,” Stephen West’s “All the Angles” and “Clockwork,” or Christy Kamm’s “ZickZack Scarf.”

Tulips and Riviera are a nice match to my eye – two limited edition colorways aligned!

Look for Tulips in our fingering weight section here at the shop. See you there!

The Weekender KAL: round and round, back and forth.

Posted by on

Our informal Weekender KAL continues! Anne and I are knitting “The Weekender,” by Andrea Mowry, and invite you all to join us, casting on and working at your own pace.

It’s been almost a month since I last shared our progress, and we spent most of that month going round and round on the bodies of our sweaters. Above is a photo of Anne’s sweater in that stage. We have both been smitten with the easy rhythm of stockinette in the round, punctuated by that slip stitch detail at the front and back of the piece.

Our friends Debbie and Nancy come by the shop now and then to work on their Weekenders, knitting, like Anne, with Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in shades of gray. Debbie’s is above, in the Snowbound color, and at the same round and round stage. Nancy’s is below, in the Pumice color, just a bit darker than Debbie’s Snowbound. After the bodies of our sweaters reach our desired length, we begin working the front and back flat up to the shoulders, and that’s just where I caught Nancy in this photo.

There are a few short rows near the top, to shape the shoulders, then a bit of ribbing, a tubular bind-off at the neck, and a three needle bind off at the shoulder – a flurry of techniques after many peaceful inches of stockinette. As of now, we’re all at different points in this flurry, and hurrying quickly through them. Here’s my Weekender, made with Kelbourne Woolens Scout, just after I joined the shoulders, and before I blocked it to something close to the dimensions on the schematic.

Are you knitting along with us? Where are you in the process, going round and round, or back and forth, or well beyond what’s pictured here? Let us know in the comments, or on Instagram with the hashtag #hysweekenderkal !

Brooklyn Tweed Trunk Show: Winter 19.

Posted by on

Our latest Brooklyn Tweed Trunk Show just arrived, featuring garments and accessories from their Winter 19 collection!

This group of sweaters and accessories is rich with saturated colors and a variety of techniques, from lace and texture to cables and colorwork.

Seeing these garments close up and in person is one of the great joys of a Trunk Show. Another joy is trying them on for size, making sure you like the fit and feel before you invest in a big project. We like to add one more joy: a 10% discount on purchases of the featured BT yarns during the trunk show!

We’ll have the show until May 19, and then we’ll pack it up and send it on to the next shop. Come in soon to take a look!

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

The Weekender KAL: casting on.

Posted by on

Our informal Weekender KAL is underway! Anne and I are knitting “The Weekender,” by Andrea Mowry, and invite you all to join us, casting on and working at your own pace. It’s been just over a week, and we’ve both cast on, worked the bottom hems, and begun knitting the body of the sweater. I’m working with Kelbourne Woolens Scout in “Sunflower Heather,” a sunny stretch for this blue- and gray-loving knitter.

Mowry calls for a tubular cast-on, which makes a tidy, rounded edge on the 1×1 ribbed hem. As in all of knitting, there are many different ways to make a tubular cast-on, and I substituted my favorite method for the one in the pattern. It’s one I encountered in my “Stasis” and “Docklight” sweaters, and the instructions come from Brooklyn Tweed.

Anne used the same tubular cast-on, but modified the split hem so the front and back are the same length, as opposed to the longer back hem shown in the pattern.

She’s working with Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in “Soot,” a heathered gray that is right in line with Anne’s favorite and most-worn colors.

We are both loving the ease of this pattern, just cruising through the body, mindlessly knitting stockinette in the round, pausing only for the slip stitch at the center back and center front of the sweater. Sometimes simple is just right, and it seems the simplicity of “The Weekender” has landed at just the right time for each of us!

Are you knitting along with us? What yarn are you using, in what color, and how are you liking the experience? Let us know in the comments, or on Instagram with the hashtag #hysweekenderkal !

New marls in Brooklyn Tweed Shelter and Loft.

Posted by on

Brooklyn Tweed just released two new marled shades in Shelter and five in Loft, and we’re delighted to have them here at the shop!

“Marled” means that each ply of the yarn is a different color, making a candy cane twist of the two.

They knit up looking flecked and pleasantly irregular, and if the two colors within the marl are close in value, they might appear blended from a distance, as in the photo below – this shows Shelter in the color Narwhal, which is composed of Fossil and Sweatshirt.

Shelter has had three marled colorways up to this point, all neutrals. You can see them at work in BT patterns like “Atlas,” “Mason,” “Mossbank,” and of course Andrea Mowry’s “The Weekender,” the subject of our current informal knit-along.

The two new shades are Caraway, an earthy mix of Hayloft and Truffle Hunt, and Amaranth, a fiery combination of Cinnabar and Long Johns.

Loft hasn’t had any marled colorways until this week, and these new additions sent me back to the BT pattern archive, looking for designs that would do well in marled colors.

Consider “Redford,” “Benton,” “Eternity Scarf,” and “Kelpie,” as a starting place – there are so many incredible patterns for Loft!

 

Jared Flood has also designed a new brioche hat for Loft, “Skipp,” which is free when you purchase 2 skeins of Loft from our shop before April 30th. He’s included options for single- and two-color brioche, as well as two different fits, watchcap and slouchy.

 

You’ll find Shelter in our worsted weight section and Loft in our fingering weight section. See you at the shop!

 

 

 

The Weekender KAL: swatching.

Posted by on

As you may have read in our most recent email newsletter, Anne and I have fallen in love with Andrea Mowry’s “The Weekender.” It’s been a popular pattern since it came out in late 2017, but somehow neither of us was compelled to cast on for it until recently. Maybe it’s because we’ve seen so many knitters make it successfully, maybe it’s because Shelter is the one Brooklyn Tweed yarn Anne hasn’t knit with yet, maybe it’s because my “Ursula Cardigan” is taking forever and I crave a simpler project. No matter the reason, we’re excited to announce an informal knit-along!

Copyright Andrea Mowry.

 

How to participate? Simply cast on for your own “Weekender” and knit at your own pace. There will be no deadline, just the camaraderie of working from the same pattern at the same time. Anne and I are here to answer questions as you select your yarn, needles, and what size you’ll knit, and will post our progress along the way.

So far, we’ve gotten as far as swatching.

Mowry has cleverly designed the body of this sweater to be knit in the round with the wrong side facing, so you can peacefully knit in stockinette, then turn your work inside out for a reverse stockinette fabric. Because the sweater is knit in the round, it’s important to swatch in the round.

Anne is knitting with the recommended yarn, Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, a worsted weight, woolen spun wool that is lightweight and spongey, excellent for sweater-making. Mowry calls for 4.5 stitches per inch in stockinette stitch in the round, so Anne cast on as many stitches as it took to fill her 16″ circular needles for a real, honest-to-goodness sense of her gauge and fabric. Before blocking, it was looking like she’d get gauge on US 10 needles, but after blocking, US 9 needles turned out to be right on.

I’m following the lead of a few projects I found on Ravelry and knitting “The Weekender” with Kelbourne Woolens Scout, a robust DK weight wool that I’ve been anxious to get on my needles. I knit my swatch in the round on DPNs, casting on for about 8″ of fabric, and was surprised and delighted to get stitch and row gauge on US 7. My “Weekender” will be somewhat more loosely-knit than Anne’s, and I’m excited to see how it turns out.

Copyright Andrea Mowry.

We both plan to knit the 44″ size, which will give us several inches of positive ease, but less than the 10″ Mowry suggests – Anne and I both prefer more close-fitting sweaters and this will already be a few more inches of ease than we normally knit for ourselves.

Have you been thinking about making “The Weekender,” or wanting a simple sweater that’s as effortless to wear as a sweatshirt? Cast on with us this week, or next week, or whenever suits you – knit along with us at your own pace, and come by the shop any time to ask questions and share your progress! Brooklyn Tweed just came out with two new marled colorways in Shelter, just to complicate your color selection process – more on that soon!

Show and tell: Brooklyn Tweed Peerie.

Posted by on

I’m back with more show and tell, focused this time on accessories and garments knit with Brooklyn Tweed Peerie. Peerie is one of the four yarns featured in our current BT Wool People 12 Trunk Show, so it seems fitting to share some of the projects folks are making with this special yarn.

Kathryn knit this “Lucerne” hat with Peerie, enlisting her young daughter’s help in selecting colors. I love what they came up with, as well as Kathryn’s description of Peerie – “supernaturally springy.”

Elsbeth knit this “Architexture” scarf with Peerie and came back for more to make another one, an excellent endorsement of yarn and pattern alike. Peerie’s smooth, round texture is perfect for showing off knit and purl texture patterns like those featured here.

Margaretta has also been charmed by Peerie, having used it to knit both the “Afton” scarf above and the “Hazelfern” socks below.

Both of these texture-rich patterns were thoughtfully designed by Jared Flood, and Margaretta appreciated the quality and clarity of the patterns as much as the yarn.

Jane knit this impressive “Butterfly / Papillon” shawl with six shades of Peerie during Nancy’s recent class here at the shop.

I’m particularly struck by Jane’s unique color combination, a balance of warm and cool colors, light and dark. Well done, Jane!

Here’s Ruth in her “Boardwalk,” knit with Peerie in a cheery pink shade. This pattern has been a popular one, whether knit in Peerie or in Loft, in part because of how wearable it is. The design is clever and flattering, a layer that manages to look both smart and casual.

Thanks to Kathryn, Elsbeth, Margaretta, Jane, and Ruth for sharing these knits with us, and to everyone whose projects begin with trips to our shop.

Come by before March 3rd to see the Wool People 12 Trunk Show and get 10% off Brooklyn Tweed Peerie, Loft, Vale, and Arbor. See you there!

 

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