Tag Archives: cashmere

Limited edition colors from Koigu & Dream in Color.

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Koigu & Dream in Color are two of our favorite hand-dyers, and we love to see the special limited edition colorways they come up with each month.

Koigu KPPPM:

  • fingering weight
  • hand dyed, variegated
  • 100% superwash merino wool
  • 175 yards/50 grams

Polaris is the latest shade from Koigu Collector’s Club, a deep blue with zippy neon streaks.  It would make a cute pair of Andrea Mowry’s “DRK Everyday Socks,” with contrasting cuffs, heels, and toes in Ewe Ewe Fluffy Fingering!

Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere:

  • fingering weight
  • hand dyed, each skein is unique; we recommend alternating skeins to blend in a larger project
  • 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon
  • 400 yards/100 grams
  • machine wash cool on gentle/hand wash setting, lay flat to dry

Dream in Color’s new Pop-Up Club colorway is Fen, a variegated mix of soft blues and greens. Two skeins makes the new “Frosted Forest Scarf,” by Lena Skvagerson, a cozy brioche scarf trimmed with stockinette ruffles.

Look for Koigu KPPPM and Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere in the fingering weight section here at the shop!

Dream in Color Pop-Up Club: Petrichor.

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Dream in Color’s Pop-Up Club is back! Original owners Nancy and Veronica handed their company over to Maddytosh earlier this year, who are capably continuing the Dream in Color brand. Their yarn is now hand-dyed in Texas by a team trained by Veronica, and the skeins of Smooshy Cashmere are just as vibrant as ever.

Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere:

  • fingering weight
  • hand dyed, each skein is unique; we recommend alternating skeins to blend in a larger project
  • 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon
  • 400 yards/100 grams
  • machine wash cool on gentle/hand wash setting, lay flat to dry

Petrichor is a highly variegated skein, blending ivory, brick red, burgundy, and olive green in a high contrast colorway.

This limited edition autumnal shade got me thinking about our latest batch of Hand Maiden Superkid Silk. These shades of light pink, sage, and bronze pair beautifully with Petrichor, perhaps for a “Cheri Chevron Shawl,” by Ambah O’Brien.

Inspired to cast on? Look for Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere in the fingering weight section here at HYS, and in our new online store!

Dream in Color Pop-Up Club: Kaleidoscope Eyes.

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Dream in Color’s Pop-Up Club is back! Over the past few months, owners Nancy and Veronica have handed over their company to Maddytosh, who are continuing the Dream in Color brand. Their yarn is now hand-dyed in Texas by a team trained by Veronica, and the skeins of Smooshy Cashmere are just as vibrant as ever.

Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere:

  • fingering weight
  • hand dyed, each skein is unique; we recommend alternating skeins to blend in a larger project
  • 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon
  • 400 yards/100 grams
  • machine wash cool on gentle/hand wash setting, lay flat to dry

Kaleidoscope Eyes is a vibrant, multicolored skein, blending bright pinks, purples, green, and orange in a way that’s both playful and bold.

As soon as Kaleidoscope Eyes came out of the box, I thought of Kelbourne Woolens Perennial and all its playful shades of pink. These three would make a striking “Temperance Shawl,” or a “Free Your Fade,” by Andrea Mowry!

Here are some other two- and three-color patterns for mixing and matching Perennial and Smooshy Cashmere:

Inspired to cast on? Look for Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere in the fingering weight section here at HYS, and in our new online store!

Dream in Color Pop-Up Club: Violetear.

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Dream in Color’s Pop Up Club is back! Every month, we’re getting a special new colorway from Dream in Color, a Tucson-based producer of small batch hand-dyed yarns. Their latest limited edition colorway is here while supplies last!

Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere:

  • fingering weight
  • 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon
  • 400 yards/100g
  • $36 each

Violetear is a variegated mix of white, bright blue, and shades of green, with burgundy speckles.

What to knit with these special skeins? Consider “Terra Hue Shawl,” a slip stitch scarf with a woven-looking texture that shines in highly variegated yarn like this. Simple stockinette or garter stitch are also a nice way to spotlight Violetear; consider the “Sockhead Slouch” hat or “Hitchhiker” shawl.

Look for Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere in the fingering weight section here at our shop!

Dream in Color Pop-Up Club: Mystic Prism.

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Dream in Color’s Pop Up Club is back! Every month, we’re getting a special new colorway from Dream in Color, a Tucson-based producer of small batch hand-dyed yarns. Their latest limited edition colorway is here while supplies last!

Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere:

  • fingering weight
  • 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon
  • 400 yards/100g
  • $36 each

Mystic Prism is a pastel rainbow of pink, aqua, lavender, and butter yellow.

Variegated skeins like these are beautiful on their own – one skein makes a “Sockhead Slouch” hat or “Reyna” shawl – but they always inspire me to create color combinations. Here are a few I put together with the “Temperance Shawl” in mind, a three color garter stitch and eyelet pattern that works well in low, medium, and high contrast color combinations.

  • Malabrigo Ultimate Sock: fingering weight, hand dyed, variegated and semi-solid colorways, 75% superwash merino wool, 25% nylon, 420 yards/100g; $21 each

Look for Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere and friends in the fingering weight section here at our shop!

Hello, Lang Cashmere Premium!

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A brand new yarn has arrived – meet Lang Cashmere Premium!

Lang Cashmere Premium:

  • DK weight
  • 100% cashmere
  • 126 yards/25 g
  • $28 each

It’s been quite some time since we kept a 100% cashmere yarn in stock here at HYS. We’ve had a few that were discontinued, one by one, and so many other fibers that were luxuriously soft – alpaca, silk, and merino wool, to name a few. But enough people inquired that we felt compelled to seek out a new cashmere yarn, and when Anne got her hands on a sample ball of Lang Cashmere Premium, the choice was made.

Lang Cashmere is not sourced from a specific breed of goat, but rather from the long, fine undercoat of around 20 different subspecies of domestic goats. The soft and delicate cashmere hair is carefully combed out by hand, yielding just 200-380g of raw fiber from each animal.

Cashmere is known for its exquisite softness, of course, but also for being especially warm – yarn like this is best for smaller accessories, to make the most of each precious yard. Anne ordered Churchmouse’s “Cashmere Beret” pattern to go with Lang Cashmere Premium, a perfect pairing of yarn and pattern.

When it came to the shop sample, Anne, Bailey and I all agreed – it has to be something worn around the neck! I’m using two balls of Cashmere Premium to knit a “Scarf No. 4,” by My Favorite Things, and each stitch is decadent.

Here are some other pattern ideas!

Look for Lang Cashmere Premium in the DK weight section here at our shop!

Dream in Color Pop-Up Club: August + September, 2023.

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Dream in Color’s Pop Up Club is back! Every month, we’re getting a special new colorway from Dream in Color, a Tucson-based producer of small batch hand-dyed yarns. Limited edition colorways for August and September are here while supplies last!

Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere:

  • fingering weight
  • 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon
  • 400 yards/100g
  • $36 each

First up, August’s special colorway: Sagrada, a variegated and slightly speckled mix of pale aqua, magenta, rust, gold, and teal. Look closely and I’m sure you can find many other colors in these vibrant skeins!

Here’s Sagrada knit up into a “Terra Hue Shawl,” a slip stitch scarf with a woven-looking texture that shines in highly variegated yarn like this.

September’s colorway is Venice in Autumn, also highly variegated, but with warmer tones – olive, lime, and red, with streaks of cream and pink.

Dream in Color dyer Veronica is working on a “Terra Hue Shawl” herself, using Venice in Autumn – here’s a close up!

Inspired to cast on for a “Terra Hue Shawl” of your own? Look for Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere in the fingering weight section here at HYS, and ask us for a coupon code for 30% off the pattern!

Back in stock: Malabrigo Caprino.

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Our supply of Malabrigo Caprino dwindled to almost zero during our Annual Inventory Sale – we are so happy to have this yarn back in stock!

Malabrigo Caprino:

  • DK weight
  • hand-dyed, variegated, speckled, and semi-solid colorways
  • 80% merino, 20% cashmere
  • 159 yards/50 g
  • $18 each

Like all Malabrigo yarns, Caprino comes in a variety of vibrant, memorable hand-dyed colorways. What sets it apart is the extra softness of cashmere, which really makes Caprino a treat to work with and wear. Lately it’s been popular for PetiteKnit’s “Sophie Scarf,” a small garter stitch neckwarmer that many knitters have been making on repeat.

I knit Andrea Mowry’s “Nightshift” shawl with Malabrigo Caprino a couple of years ago, and it now hangs at the shop, inspiring knitters to make their own. It was fun to combine semisolid, variegated, and speckled colorways in this slip stitch pattern and see how they worked together.

What else to make with Caprino? Here are some ideas!

Look for Malabrigo Caprino in the DK weight section here at our shop!

Dream in Color Pop-Up Club: assigned pooling, June 2023.

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Dream in Color’s Pop-Up Club is back! Every month, we’re getting a special new colorway from Dream in Color, a Tucson-based producer of small batch hand-dyed yarns. There’s a special theme this time: assigned pooling, a clever way of showing off hand-dyed yarns like these. June’s new limited edition colorway is here, better late than never!

What is assigned pooling? As designer Dawn Barker describes on her blog, assigned pooling is a technique where “different stitches are assigned to the color changes within the skein. In other words, knit the background color of the yarn using one stitch and then stop and make a special texture stitch when the accent color occurs.”

Assigned pooling patterns by Dawn Barker, photo © Dawn Barker

June’s special colorway is mostly shades of pink, with a gold streak that pops up regularly as you knit through the skein.

Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere:

  • fingering weight
  • 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon
  • 400 yards/100g
  • $34 each

Curious about assigned pooling? Check out these patterns!

Look for Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere in the fingering weight section here at our shop!

Dream in Color Pop-Up Club: assigned pooling, May 2023.

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Dream in Color’s Pop-Up Club is back! Every month, we’re getting a special new colorway from Dream in Color, a Tucson-based producer of small batch hand-dyed yarns. There’s a special theme this time: assigned pooling, a clever way of showing off hand-dyed yarns like these. May’s new limited edition colorway is here while supplies last!

What is assigned pooling? As designer Dawn Barker describes on her blog, assigned pooling is a technique where “different stitches are assigned to the color changes within the skein. In other words, knit the background color of the yarn using one stitch and then stop and make a special texture stitch when the accent color occurs.”

Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere:

  • fingering weight
  • 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon
  • 400 yards/100g
  • $34 each

May’s special colorway is mostly turquoise, with a bold streak of red and cream that pops up regularly as you knit through each skein.

Dream in Color dyer Veronica knit Ambah O’Brien’s “Sweet Li’l Scarfette” with it, modifying the stitch pattern a bit for this special skein – head to her Instagram for a video tutorial!

Curious about what else you can do with assigned pooling? Check out these patterns!

Look for Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere in the fingering weight section here at our shop!