We recently received a new book of baby and children’s knits; take a look at Sweet Pickles.
Norwegian knitwear designers Anna Enge and Heidi Grønvold present this collection of cozy garments and accessories for newborns, toddlers, and children up to age nine.
These garments are decorated with whimsical stripes and colorwork, but simply-shaped, designed with their wearer’s activities in mind.
Look for Sweet Pickles on the teacart with the latest books and magazines. See you at the shop!
We received a lovely bundle from Fyberspates last week, bursting with bags of their Vivacious 4ply yarn. Vivacious 4ply is a high twist, superwash merino wool in a fingering weight. Though we just started stocking this yarn in February, a reorder was already necessary, and their newest shades tempted us, too.
Each 100 gram skein has 399 yards, enough for a pair of socks or mitts, a hat, scarf, or shawlette. Vivacious 4ply is hand-dyed, so each skein is unique, even from the same dye-lot; remember you can alternate skeins to blend hand-dyed yarns in larger projects.
We were also delighted to see these two new books from Fyberspates. Vivacious Kids is a collection of garments and accessories for children ages 2-10, a range for which it is sometimes surprisingly hard to find knitwear designs. CoopKnits Socks Vol. 2 is a pleasing and diverse collection of sock patterns, from the simple to the ornate.
Look for Vivacious 4ply in the fingering weight section of the shop!
Isager yarns are a longtime favorite here at the shop. Anne’s passion for Marianne Isager’s yarns and designs has proved contagious, and we keep Alpaca 1 and Alpaca 2, Spinni, Tvinni, Highland, and Tweed in good stock as a result. We’re always on the lookout for new ways to use them, and to that end, we’ve recently added a nice bunch of patterns to the Isager binder.
Theresa Gaffey, who brought us the ever-popular “Stole,” has designed a new rectangular wrap with Isager yarns: “Stole 2.0.” This version is similarly simple to knit, but has a decidedly new construction and look, and brings Spinni and Alpaca 2 together for a different texture.
“Not Quite Plaid” is a striped garter stitch scarf made in Isager Alpaca 2, knit on the bias and decorated with dropped stitches. The pattern gives options for three different sizes, from skinny scarf to shawl, and instructions for 3 or 5 colors.
“Cardicho” is a buttoned poncho, also knit with Alpaca 2.
Like Shibui yarns, Isager yarns are often combined, two or three strands at a time, to create a range of gauges, unique fiber and color blends. These two patterns do just that.
Isager yarns, while not machine-washable, are suitable for children’s things as well as adult garments and accessories. Check out the adorable “Mathilde” and “Trille Rille,” as well as Susie Haumann’s All You Knit Is Love.
Look for even more Isager pattern ideas on our Pinterest boards. Come by the shop to peruse our growing selection of Isager patterns and yarns; you may find your next project there. See you at the shop!
Not long ago, we received a bunch of new patterns from Swans Island.
The “Axis Shawl” calls for two shades of Swans Island Organic Merino Fingering, which come together in a striped slip-stitch pattern against a background of soothing garter stitch. Lots of “Axis Shawls” are starting to pop up on Ravelry; look there for some interesting color combinations.
The “Northwoods Vest” and “Trail Ride Mitts” both make good use of Swans Island Organic Merino Worsted, and show how nice it looks in a cable pattern.
Most of our new Swans Island patterns call for their Organic Washable DK, which is soft and springy, with great stitch definition.
Swans Island makes this yarn machine-washable with a process called Ecowash®, which coats the yarn with an organic compound rather than stripping the scales from the fiber. This helps to prevent felting, making it easy-care for baby and children’s things.
Come by the shop to flip through the Swans Island pattern binder, which is full of inspiring uses for their special yarns!
Here on the blog, I like to share finished projects that started their lives as HYS yarns. The works in progress are often just as interesting, however, shining a light on the process that we all love so well. Here’s one such project.
Some months ago, Polly came in wanting to knit a sweater for a good friend’s grandchild. She had a specific vision for the sweater, so specific that she had no choice but to design the thing herself. Thinking, “the sun rises and sets with Charlie,” she got to work.
Armed with Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns, she selected four shades of Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted and got swatching. Budd’s book gives a range of projects in a range of sizes and gauges, making it a good source for a “blank slate” type of sweater pattern, ready to be embellished. She charted out the text and the sun on graph paper, then knit them in as intarsia motifs, centering them within the total number of stitches on the front of the sweater.
Her last step before piecing the sweater together was to crochet the rays of the sun onto the front. She emailed us this picture of the finished garment, washed and ready for giving.
Thanks, Polly, for sharing your process with us!
Meet Modern Cotton, a brand new yarn from Berroco!
Modern Cotton is a worsted weight blend of 60% cotton and 40% rayon, perfect for warm-weather knit and crochet projects, or year-round for those allergic to wool. Modern Cotton is soft in the hand with excellent stitch definition, qualities that this little cabled sweater illustrates nicely. You’ll find it at the shop, hanging on the wall above the worsted weight yarns.
The pattern is “Diggory,” from Berroco booklet #345, which puts this brightly-colored, easy-care yarn to good use in all manner of baby and children’s garments.
Modern Cotton is also a very good value, with a relatively low price tag for the yardage. That along with its soft feel and machine-washability made me think blankets. The range of colors both neutral and bright brought to mind the Purl Bee’s delightfully simple garter stitch baby blanket pattern, “Super Easy Crib Blanket,” a riot of color in seven shades.
Berroco has also released some free patterns for Modern Cotton, like the lacy “Saurey” baby blanket, and two women’s sweaters: “Joyce” and “Sanpoku,” a tee and a cardigan, respectively. Norah Gaughan used Modern Cotton in her most recent Berroco booklet. Modern Cotton will do well in any pattern calling for worsted weight yarn where the drape of plant fibers is welcome. Check it out when you’re next at the shop, along with the “Diggory” sample, which can give you a good sense of how the yarn behaves in knitted fabric. See you there!
Speaking of show-and-tell: knowing how much we love to see projects made in HYS yarns, so many of you have brought impressive finished pieces by the shop this past month or so. We’ve seen knit sweaters, scarves, and hats, crocheted cowls and shawls, fingerless mitts, stuffed bunnies, and more, many of which were thoughtfully crafted as gifts for friends and family. As usual, I wish I could photograph them all; here are some of the projects you’ve shared with us lately.
Victoria wove this scarf for her son using three different yarns: the fingering weight Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine and Colinette Jitterbug, and the dk weight Sandnes Garn Alpakka. I love the bold color combination and the herringbone pattern.
If you’ve come by the shop lately to see our newest yarns, we’ve likely ushered you into the lace weight corner to admire the Shibui yarns. Where once you’d find my Mix No. 23 cowl hanging near the Shibui patterns, now you’ll find Amy’s, made up in the delightful Shibui Cima. Amy is now teaching a class at the shop on this double-knit cowl, so I’m hoping to see even more Mix No. 23’s in the coming months. (Intrigued by Shibui? There are still a few open spaces in our upcoming Shibui Mix Party—sign up and join us!)
Mary made this “Drop Stitch Cowl” in no time, using 3 balls of the super soft, super bulky Katia Fabula. I always love to see how drop stitch patterns change the way colors fall in variegated yarns, and this cowl is no exception. Mary reports that Fabula became even softer and more pliable after a Eucalan soak. The pattern is available as a free download on Ravelry, and would also look great in Malabrigo Mecha or Mountain Fusion Teton, among others.
Anne recently knit a cowl, too, one which she has worn every day since completing it. And no wonder: it’s made with one skein of the luxurious Fibre Company Canopy Worsted, a blend of alpaca, merino, and bamboo. The pattern is “Cumberland,” available for purchase at the shop as a Ravelry In-Store Pattern Sale. Come by the shop to pick up a skein of Canopy Worsted for your own Cumberland Cowl, and you’ll likely find Anne wearing hers.
Anne has also been hard at work making colorwork vests in preparation for her upcoming Intro. to Fair Isle class. The class project is Onslow’s Vest, a free pattern for a tiny vest, fit for a doll or stuffed bear. Thinking of her grandchildren, Anne substituted the bulky Cascade Eco+, with larger needles to match, and came out with the following.
Of course, with one little girl vest behind her, Anne has begun the first of two little boy vests for her twin grandsons. For those, she’s chosen the soft and springy Swans Island Organic Washable DK–a lighter weight fabric will better serve her boys in these Southern climes.
Thanks again for sharing your projects with us! We so love seeing what you create with yarns from the Hillsborough Yarn Shop.
We’ve had so much new yarn coming in, so many new patterns and magazines, that I’ve let the show and tell pictures pile up. It’s time to share the projects our knitters and crocheters have brought in to show us, and today, there’s a gracious plenty.
First up is Rosi, who is modeling an incredible lace sweater she made using String Theory Selku, a sport weight blend of silk and wool. The shimmer and drape of Selku is perfectly suited to this “Sampler Tabard,” a Cheryl Oberle pattern from Meg Swansen’s A Gathering of Lace. As Rosi will tell you, this sweater isn’t nearly as complicated as it looks–each individual lace pattern is straightforward, and only repeated a few times before you switch to the next pattern, making it suitable for beginner lace knitters.
Molly has been knitting sweaters for her granddaughters. This one is made from a Knitting Pure & Simple pattern using Malabrigo Rios. Rios is a great choice for a child’s sweater: smooth, next-to-skin soft, machine-washable, and colorful.
Here’s Margie in her completed Chamomile shawl, a Helga Isager pattern from her Amimono Knit Collection 2010. The pattern calls for two Isager yarns, the fingering weight Tvinni and lace weight Alpaca 1. Margie substituted the fingering weight Malabrigo Finito for Isager Tvinni and came out with a stunning shawl.
Marion, who teaches our magic loop sock-knitting classes, is cranking out socks as always. Here is one of the many pairs that have graced her needles over the past couple of months, knit in Colinette Jitterbug. Magic loopers interested in learning to knit two socks at a time on one long needle should check out our class schedule, as Marion will teach this technique in October.
Ashley is a crocheter and an avid fan of Malabrigo yarns. She whipped up this pair of baby hats for some twins-to-be using Malabrigo Arroyo, a sport weight, machine-washable merino. The stars were crocheted with Jitterbug in just the right shade to complement this Arroyo colorway.
Monika is a knitter and HYS customer all the way from the Netherlands, where we shipped her the last two skeins of Baa Ram Ewe’s Titus Dark that she needed to complete this hoodie. At the time, Titus was so popular in Europe that it became hard to find, so it was a relief to connect Monika with those desperately needed skeins. She designed this sweater herself, and was kind enough to send photos upon completing it.
Thanks to all who share their work with us! It’s truly inspiring to see what your creative hands make with our yarns. Keep it coming!
Here are a few more show and tell projects, sweaters and cowls that were recently completed and brought into the shop to share.
Mara showed up at the shop wearing this tank top she knit with Berroco Touche, a worsted weight blend of cotton and rayon. She was excitedly shopping for yarn, Birthday Club postcard in hand, but I had to interrupt her to take her picture. The pattern is Pennekamp, one of the many free patterns available from Berroco’s website–a great resource. I love the color, and the reminder that handknits are wearable year-round, even into the heat of summer, if the fiber and design are right.
Abby brought in this sweet little sweater she recently finished knitting, modeled on a favorite store-bought sweater that has already been passed down from her older daughter to her youngest. This new hand-knit iteration is made in three shades of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, and designed by Abby herself, with some guidance from Ann Budd’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters.
Here’s another top-down sweater: Molly’s recently-finished Gemini pullover. She used the dk weight Katia Linen yarn that the pattern calls for, and the result is a lightweight fabric that’s cool to the touch, perfect for summer wear. Like many Gemini-knitters, Molly plans on adding a single crochet border to the neckline in an effort to stabilize it and minimize stretching.
Margie made these two cowls using the free Abstract Leaves Cowl pattern. The purple cowl is knit with Marion Foale 3-ply Wool, a solid-color fingering weight yarn. The gray and white cowl is knit with Malabrigo Lace, a lace weight single ply merino. Seeing these two side-by-side is a great illustration of how one pattern can be used to create very different-looking garments just by using different yarns. Though the fiber content of the two yarns is similar, they differ greatly from there–different stitch definition, different coloration, different gauge, different drape, a different look entirely. Margie’s cowls are intended as gifts, and it’s a great gift pattern for knitters who are low on time, or yardage–a mere 125 yards of lace or fingering weight yarn are called for.
Thanks to all these knitters for their show and tell, and thanks to everyone who starts, continues, and completes their projects at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop! We love to see what you create with our yarns.
Time for another round of show and tell, where I get to show off all the incredible things folks are making with yarns from HYS. I’m always pleased by the variety of projects you all are working on, from skirts to scarves, from sweet knits for babies and children to sophisticated garments for adults.
Abby knit this three tier skirt for her daughter’s fifth birthday, then kindly brought her in to model it for us. The yarn is Cascade Ultra Pima, a dk weight cotton that is sure to stand up to all the twirling and playing and other five-year-old wear-and-tear that it’s meant for.
Robin sent us this photo to share a pair of baby blankets she made for a soon-to-be-born set of twins. The pink one was made with Plymouth Select Worsted Merino Superwash, and the blue one was made with Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran. Both are soft, squishy, machine-washable wools that are perfect for cuddly blankets like these.
Margie saw the Argosy scarf hanging on the wall at the shop and decided she wanted to make one. Not two weeks later, she had finished two Argosy scarves, one in Noro Matsuri and one in Noro Silk Garden Light. Both dk weight yarns self-stripe in those signature Noro colorways, but Matsuri is mostly cotton, with a bit of wool, and Silk Garden Light is a blend of wool, silk, and mohair.
The results are slightly different in terms of stitch definition, but equally striking, with their diagonal stripes and geometric openwork. Want to make an Argosy scarf of your own? Amy is teaching a class on the subject in July, where you’ll learn chart-reading, lace, cable cast-on, and other skills. Read more about it and sign up on our website!
Pat fell in love with this color of Araucania Chacabuco, a textured bulky weight cotton yarn, but wasn’t quite sure what to make with it. She took it home, found a simple poncho pattern, knit it up, and then came back to show us what she’d come up with. Because of the boucle texture of this yarn, a simple stockinette stitch is all that’s needed to show it off; the yarn is interesting enough without a complicated stitch pattern. The resulting garment is soft and surprisingly lightweight for such a thick cotton–a success.
Thanks to all the knitters and crocheters who share their work with us! Over and over again, Anne and I are wowed by what you create. Keep the show and tell coming!