Tag Archives: color combinations

Shibui Spring 2020 patterns.

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Shibui recently released a pattern collection for Spring 2020 – let’s take a look!

This collection comes from Shellie Anderson, who was an in-house designer Shibui for some years and still loves to work with their yarns. She has a knack for creating garments that look simple, but feature thoughtful details to “challenge and delight the knitter,” in her words.

Most of these garments feature Koan, Shibui’s latest yarn, a linen and silk blend that’s perfect for warm-weather knitting.

Anne has “Calla” on her needles now, a striped tank with a bit of texture. She’s stretching a little by knitting in this bright aqua shade, which looks sharp with dark gray stripes.

There are so many fun combinations possible in Koan – below are a few I came up with, but I’m looking forward to seeing what others choose!

Patterns from the Spring 2020 collection are all available to purchase on Ravelry, and we have plenty of Koan in stock, along with many other Shibui yarns. Use our new form to Order Online – though our storefront is closed to walk-in traffic, we’re still here filling mail orders!

Brooklyn Tweed Sample of the Month: Voe colorways.

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Gudrun Johnston’s “Voe” is our current featured sample from Brooklyn Tweed, and we’re offering BT Loft at 10% off throughout the month!

This colorwork pullover is knit with three shades of Loft, a light, medium, and dark – Snowbound, Faded Quilt, and Old World, respectively. With 45 colors to choose from, it’s great fun to pick a trio for “Voe,” if also a bit dizzying – here are a few I came up with to get you started.

Left to right: BT Loft in Fossil, Camper, and Homemade Jam.

Left to right: BT Loft in Postcard, Soot, and Plume.

Left to right: BT Loft in Iceberg, Almanac, and Cast Iron.

Left to right: BT Loft in Fossil, Foothills, and Artifact.

Left to right: BT Loft in Fossil, Hayloft, and Fauna.

Come by the shop to create your own “Voe” color combination, and get BT Loft at 10% off during March!

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

Sindi.

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“Sindi” is a new cowl design from Shibui for their very newest yarn, Nest.

It’s a simple stockinette tube, with a bit of reverse stockinette at the top and bottom, but it’s still an entertaining knit on account of the yarn itself.

“Sindi” is knit holding one strand of Nest together with two strands of Silk Cloud, changing which shades of Silk Cloud are in the mix as you go. This creates a subtle gradient from light to dark, and a luxuriously fuzzy texture. 

Nest in Ivory, Silk Cloud in Ivory, Ash, and Graphite.

I knit our sample “Sindi” using Nest in Ivory and Silk Cloud in Ivory, Ash, and Graphite, a grayscale colorway, but there are so many other options between the Nest and Silk Cloud color palettes. One knitter who saw me working on the sample cleverly came up with a darker gray colorway, for her daughter who loves to wear black. I can’t wait to see it knit up!

Nest in Abyss, Silk Cloud in Ash, Graphite, and Abyss.

Here are a few others I dreamed up as I was photographing the yarn the other day.

Nest in Dusk, Silk Cloud in Ash, Twilight, and Dusk.

Nest in Cove, Silk Cloud in Ash, Fjord, and Cove.

Nest in Suit, Silk Cloud in Shore, Blueprint, and Suit.

Nest in Bordeaux, Silk Cloud in Tango, Bordeaux, and Velvet.

Come by the shop to create your own “Sindi” color combination – we can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Nest in Pollen, Silk Cloud in White, Caffeine, and Pollen.

Koigu Collector’s Club: Tulips.

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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!

Weel Riggit.

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© Kate Davies

Kate Davies has designed just two patterns so far for her newest yarn, Àrd Thìr. They are both named “Weel Riggit,” which means “well dressed” in Scots and Shetland dialects.

© Kate Davies

The sweater pattern is currently exclusive to Davies’ club, but eventually it will be available as a single pattern. The “Weel Riggit Hat,” on the other hand, is available to purchase from Ravelry, and has been the subject of much discussion here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop since Àrd Thìr arrived!

Color A: Kiloran, B: Ardnave, C: Vatersay, D: Luskentyre.

Color A: Camusdarach, B: Firemore, C: Huisinis, D: Kintra.

Davies’ pattern shows the hat in two colorways, both of which share a certain logic: color A (pictured here on the right) is much lighter in value than the three contrast colors, B, C, and D, which are themselves similar in value. With this strategy in mind, I’ve created a few more “Weel Riggit” color combinations.

Color A: Camusdarach, B: Luskentyre, C: Ardnave, D: Huisinis.

Color A: Luskentyre, B: Vatersay, C: Kiloran, D: Camusdarach.

Color A: Huisinis, B: Kintra, C: Veyatie, D: Glamaig.

After much deliberation, I decided to knit my own “Weel Riggit” hat in the colorway shown at the very top of this post, in Davies’ “Weel Riggit Pullover.”

Color A: Ardnave, B: Camusdarach, C: Kiloran, D: Vatersay.

I’m so pleased with the outcome – the experience of knitting it was satisfyingly quick, and the finished hat blocked beautifully, relaxing and softening an already lovely fabric.

You can read more about Davies’ design process on her blog, where she also discusses a bit of the history and cultural context for “Weel Riggit.” Come by the shop to see this “Weel Riggit” hat on display, and to pick four shades for your own!

Back in stock: Crazy Zauberball.

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Last week brought a colorful box of yarn our way – hello again, Crazy Zauberball!

Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball is a fingering weight yarn that slowly changes from one color to the next several yards at a time, so that whatever you’re knitting or crocheting with it comes out striped. The 2-ply construction of this yarn gives the finished fabric a marled look.

Over the years, we’ve seen Crazy Zauberball put to good use in all kinds of projects, from socks to shawls to cowls. Christy Kamm’s “ZickZack Scarf” (Winnie’s version is pictured above) has been an especially popular pattern around here, a simple chevron stripe made beautiful by the yarn and color selection. Our Fingering weight section here at the shop is full of possibilities for this pattern; here are a few ideas to start with.

We’ve had several knitters pair the self-striping Crazy Zauberball with a solid color for a dramatic effect. Consider the clear solid shades of Brooklyn Tweed Peerie or the gentle heathers of CoopKnits Socks Yeah! 

A semi-solid hand-dyed yarn works well here, too; here’s one possible combination in Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply.

I haven’t seen a speckled “ZickZack” yet, but I’d love to see how it looks! Try Malabrigo Mechita if you’re similarly intrigued.

Come by the shop to pick up some Crazy Zauberball for your next project!

Lucerne.

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Our shop is abuzz with excitement over Brooklyn Tweed’s new yarn, Peerie. The folks at BT were kind enough to send a couple of sample skeins our way in advance of the release, giving Anne just enough time to knit “Lucerne.”

Jared Flood’s “Lucerne” is a colorwork hat in two, three, or four shades of Brooklyn Tweed Peerie. It’s a perfect starting place for those new to stranded colorwork, and Peerie’s 45 shades are an absolute playground for knitters of all experience levels.

Anne’s “Lucerne” is in two shades, the dark green Nori and pale gray/green Gale. In this sample, the darker shade is the main color, but their positions could easily be swapped for an equally attractive, but very different look. Here are a few more two-color combinations to consider.

I couldn’t stop here, of course – in fact, I spent the better part of Wednesday afternoon creating and photographing color combinations for this project! Next up are three-color combinations. I began with one that Flood suggests in his pattern.

The formula here is straightforward: three colors, all from the same family – one light, one medium, and one dark. I had fun creating a few more in this vein.

The possibilities for four-color combinations are even more varied, of course. There are no rules, but it’s wise to have a range of values, so the individual colors can be distinguished from one another in the context of the pattern. Here’s one from Jared Flood.

Here are a few I came up with, just the beginning of what’s possible.

Until June 30th, the pattern is free when you buy Peerie here at our shop. Look for the yarn in the fingering weight section. We can’t wait to see what color combinations you come up with for “Lucerne” hats of your own!

Candy Darling.

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One of the great pleasures of our work here at the shop is making samples that show how our yarns knit up, and that hopefully inspire our customers in their own creative projects. When it was time to make a sample in Fibre Co. Arranmore Light, it was easy to decide what to make. Colorwork is one of Anne’s favorite knitting techniques, so “Candy Darling” stood out from the Kelbourne Woolens Pop Collection.

“Candy Darling” is a three-color hat and mitten set in high contrast colors, with stripes in all directions and playful geometric motifs. The hat pattern includes instructions for three different color arrangements, so that you can make good use of three skeins of Arranmore Light – there’s enough yardage among them for at least three hats.

And three is just how many “Candy Darling” hats Anne knit this fall. The first was a sample for the shop – look for it on a hat-stand in our DK weight section – and the next two went to her granddaughters.

Left to right: Arranmore Light in Malin Head, Slieve Sunset, and St. Clare.

Often when I’m selecting multiple colors for a knitting project, I look at them through the black and white filter on my camera. This grayscale effect shows the contrast in the value of the colors, and how they relate to one another. For example, “Candy Darling” is shown in black, hot pink, and white, a punchy combination of dark, medium, and light.

Here are a variety of other color combinations in Arranmore Light that have similar spreads of dark, medium, and light.

Left to right: Arranmore Light in Meara, Odhran, and River Esque.

Left to right: Arranmore Light in Ciaran, Cronan, and St. Clare.

Left to right: Arranmore Light in Ruari, Bradan, and St. Clare.

Left to right: Arranmore Light in Kinnego Bay, Orla, and Narin Beach.

 

This is just a starting place, of course – there is so much to choose from, and the great fun in colorwork projects is seeing how they all come together as you knit. Come by the shop to start a “Candy Darling” trio all your own!

Bousta Beanies.

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Lately I am enamored of Gudrun Johnston’s “Bousta Beanie,” the official hat pattern of Shetland Wool Week 2017. I downloaded it from Ravelry as soon as it was published back in March, but it zoomed to the top of my queue when a knitter brought one in for show and tell.

This is Kerry’s first “Bousta Beanie,” knit with Brooklyn Tweed Loft. Her bold color choice perfectly complements the graphic motif of the pattern, an eye-catching combination. While I snapped pictures, muttering about how badly I wanted to knit one of my own, Kerry selected a second colorway in Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift. Now that I’ve cast on for a “Bousta Beanie,” I can understand how this might happen. It’s downright exhilarating to watch the colors come together, to see how one affects another depending upon the placement, and it gives you ideas for the next hat.

I’m knitting mine in the brand new Tukuwool Fingering, a Finnish wool that is as well-suited to stranded colorwork as Shetland wool. I have little to no interest in wearing hats, but I still like to make them now and again, usually to audition a yarn that intrigues me. I chose colors I’m somewhat inexplicably drawn to, though they’re nowhere to be seen in my wardrobe. Simply put: knitting this “Bousta Beanie” has been somewhat impulsive, and deliciously fun.

Anne is starting a “Bousta Beanie” in Tukuwool Fingering, too, a playful combination of mustard yellow, red, and natural gray. Here are a few more “Bousta Beanie” color ideas, since I can hardly keep my hands out of the Tukuwool basket.

Consider these a jumping-off point as you dream up your own colorway, which I can’t wait to see!

Don’t stop at Tukuwool, however – we have many lovely fingering weight yarns that are well-suited to this pattern. Consider Baa Ram Ewe Titus, Fibre Co. Cumbria Fingering, and Isager Alpaca 2 along with Loft and Shetland Spindrift. See you at the shop!

Shibui Sample of the Month: Breton Cowl colorways.

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Our November Shibui Sample of the Month is on display at the shop til November 30th, and we’re offering the Shibui yarns for this project at 10% off throughout the month!

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This particular “Breton Cowl” is knit with a relatively high-contrast combination of colors, namely Drift in “Graphite” and Silk Cloud in “Suit.” There’s an argument to be made that high-contrast colorways are better suited to this pattern than subtle ones, and here are a few such colorways.

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Above: Drift in “Tar” and Silk Cloud in “Apple.” Below: Drift in “Velvet” and Silk Cloud in “Raspberry.”

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Ginny recently brought her finished “Breton Cowl” in for show-and-tell, and it’s this very combination that she used. I love the bright pop of “Raspberry” against the deeply saturated “Velvet.”

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For those who favor subtlety, here are a couple of low-contrast color combinations that I find just as exciting.

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Above: Drift in “Suit” and Silk Cloud in “Blueprint.” Below: Drift in “Pollen” and Silk Cloud in “Mineral.”

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Come by the shop to create your own “Breton Cowl” color combination, and get the Shibui yarns for this project at 10% off during November!

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