Tag Archives: colorwork

Lopi “Weatherman” kit & Berroco 123 DropShip.

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For the past few weeks, we’ve been participating in Berroco’s 123 DropShip program, which some of you have already taken advantage of – thanks so much for your orders!

This program allows you to order any Berroco yarn from us, even those we don’t usually carry, and Berroco will ship them directly to you. This makes a much wider variety of yarns available through our shop, and the price for shipping is just $7. The caveat is that Berroco DropShip sales are final, no returns or exchanges. Browse Berroco’s website to see what’s available, then head over to our online order form to place your requests!

 

Berroco also distributes Lang and Lopi yarns, which means they are also available through Berroco’s DropShip. One of them is featured in Berroco’s Project of the Week: G. Dagbjört Guðmundsdóttir’s “Weatherman,” a colorwork yoke pullover knit with Ístex Léttlopi, a classic Icelandic wool.

Choose from three colorways – Ocean, Snow, and Leaves – and three sizes:

  • 35″ chest circumference, 14 balls Léttlopi – $77 + $7 shipping
  • 39″ chest circumference, 15 balls Léttlopi – $82.50 + $7 shipping
  • 42.5″ chest circumference, 16 balls Léttlopi – $88 + $7 shipping

 

If you’d like to make a “Weatherman” pullover of your own, place an order through our website, making sure to include your preferred colorway and size. Individual balls of this rustic single-ply wool are also available in a rainbow of colors, if you have another project in mind – Léttlopi is a yarn we’ve often wondered about carrying here at the shop, so we’re looking forward to your feedback!

Thanks as always for continuing to support our shop – hope all are staying safe and enjoying some stitching.

Sale of the Week, Virtual Trunk Show: Kelbourne Woolens Andorra!

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Though we have to keep our doors closed during April, we’re still virtually open for mail orders, and we want to offer something fun during this uncertain time. Throughout April, we’ll have a special sale each week – 15% off a featured yarn, our Sale of the Week!

Our first Sale of the Week is 15% off Kelbourne Woolens Andorra, from April 1 – 7!

Andorra is a bouncy sport weight blend of merino and highland wool with a dash of mohair. It’s a wooly, lustrous 2-ply with a medium twist, not too tight or loose, and especially after knitting, it looks pleasantly fuzzy.

Designer Karen Vølund Fechter puts Andorra to good use in her “OneOne Winter Hat,” a stranded colorwork beanie with fetching vertical stripes, which are worked beautifully into the shaping at the crown.

“OneOne Winter Hat” takes two skeins of Andorra, one in each color; the hats in this Virtual Trunk Show are all made with Snow White and a high-contrast pop, which shows the pattern nicely.

Get in touch with us by April 7 to get 15% off Kelbourne Woolens Andorra – thanks so much for continuing to support our small business!

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

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!

Colorwork stitch dictionaries.

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Our current Strange Brew colorwork design classes have students itching for books of colorwork inspiration – stitch dictionaries in particular, books full of motifs that can be applied to a variety of projects. Three of our favorites are back in stock – let’s take a look!

Andrea Rangel’s Alterknits is a playful collection of 200 non-traditional colorwork stitch patterns, with geometric and figural patterns alike – from chevrons and op-art motifs to bicycles, chickens, and sheep.

Mary Jane Mucklestone’s 200 Fair Isle Motifs is focused on the particular Scottish colorwork tradition for which it is named.

Mucklestone has organized the motifs by the number of rows and stitches in each pattern repeat, making it easy to find a pattern that divides evenly into the number of stitches you’re working with on any given project – hat, socks, sweater, etc. Each chart is shown not only in the traditional black-dots-on-a-white-grid style, but also in a color photograph, a color variation, and an all-over version, giving the knitter a jump start on adapting these patterns for many uses.

Mucklestone brings the same inspiring approach to her 150 Scandinavian Motifs, which shares colorwork stitch patterns from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

Come by the shop to browse these and other books! We hope you find inspiration here.

Brooklyn Tweed Sample of the Month: Voe.

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Our Brooklyn Tweed Sample of the Month for March is here! Come by this month to see “Voe.”

Designed by Gudrun Johnston for Brooklyn Tweed Loft, “Voe” is a colorwork yoke pullover worked from the bottom up – a style, technique, and construction that I count among my personal favorites.

Loft is a fingering weight, woolen-spun Targhee-Columbia wool. Loft is named for one of its best qualities, which makes it somewhat delicate, but especially warm for its weight. The rustic texture and heathered shades make it an ideal yarn for colorwork, which is apparent in this garment.

We have all 45 colors in stock, and are offering a 10% discount on Loft throughout March – come by the shop to see “Voe” for yourself and plan your next project!

 

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

Back in stock: Schoolhouse Press.

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Some of our favorite Schoolhouse Press titles are now back in stock!

The Opinionated Knitter is a collection of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s original newsletters and the clever designs within. It also includes updates from her daughter, Meg Swansen, and new photos of these classic designs. This is an inspiring book, and a bit sentimental for me – Zimmermann’s “Fair Isle Yoke Cardigan” was my first-ever colorwork sweater, igniting a curiosity and preoccupation that persists over a decade later.

Mary Rowe’s Knitting Tams is full of fair isle tam patterns using one of our favorite yarns, Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift. Anne made this one, which hangs on the wall of our shop with so many other colorwork hats. Even in this distracting context, Anne’s tam stands out, knit in cheery colors and featuring a bird motif near the brim, which some insist is a dinosaur. Either way, it’s a fun hat to knit, and has inspired some to knit through the whole book!

Meg Swansen & Amy Detjen’s Knitting With Two Colors is neither a book of sweater patterns nor a book of colorwork charts, but truly a book of techniques, a slim paperback volume that is absolutely bursting with information. Pick up this book for technical detail on steeking, guidance on altering existing colorwork patterns and designing your own, along with the hows, whys, and whether-or-nots of various hems, borders, and necklines. If there’s an ambitious colorwork project in your future, this book should be in your hands.

We’ve also got EZ’s famous “Baby Surprise Jacket” back in our single pattern binders, and a BSJ class in the works for the new year – swing by the shop soon to browse books and patterns!

Show and tell: stranded colorwork.

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While the shop is closed for a Thanksgiving break, I thought it would be fun to catch up on some show and tell here on the blog. We’ll reopen at our regular business hours on Tuesday, December 3; til then, let’s have a look at some of the projects folks have brought into the shop to show us!

I noticed a theme running through my current stash of show-and-tell photos: stranded colorwork. It’s a popular technique in our classroom, which is where these first two projects came to be. Above is Kristen in her “Galloway” cardigan, knit with Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, looking lovely in shades of blue and gray. Below is Peggy’s “Galloway,” and also her very first sweater – well done!

Shelter is a popular yarn for colorwork sweaters – it’s what Glen used for his “Knitter’s Dude” cardigan, designed by Andrea Rangel. This was his first steek, a milestone, and expertly executed. Nice job, Glen!

Emily knit this “Plum Pudding Pig” with Fibre Company Lore, a DK weight Romney wool that’s well-suited to colorwork. When she brought it in for show and tell, we all wanted to give it a squeeze.

Below is Shula’s “Tessera Cowl,” designed by Jared Flood, and knit with Brooklyn Tweed Loft. Not all knitting projects are a joy from beginning to end – of this one, Shula bluntly said, “This was a pain in the neck,” laughing, but relieved to be done with it. We’ve all had projects like this, no?

Shelley knit this “Còinneach” cardigan with Swans Island All American Sport in a striking color combination, candy-colored brights popping out against a neutral brown background. The pattern is from Kate Davies’ West Highland Way.

Thanks to Kristen, Peggy, Glen, Emily, Shula, and Shelley for sharing their work with us, and thanks to everyone who starts their projects with a trip to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop!

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday, we look forward to seeing you when the shop opens again on Tuesday, December 3. In the meantime, look for more show and tell on our blog in the coming days!

Back in stock, show and tell: Shetland.

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The appetite for Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift and colorwork knitting in general seems to be growing, if our frequent Jamieson’s orders are any indication. We recently unpacked yet another big box of Shetland Spindrift, a classic fingering weight 2-ply shetland wool, which has brought our selection up to 160+ colors at the moment!

It’s fitting, then that Marie Wallin’s Shetland is back in stock! This exquisite book is full of intricate fair isle designs in a kaleidoscopic array of colors, all knit with the quintessential Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift. We still have a couple of copies of her newest book, Meadow, as well.

What else to make with Shetland Spindrift? Two knitters we know have recently completed colorwork hats with it, an excellent use of one of our favorite yarns.

Above is Sue’s “Roadside Beanie,” knit during a recent class here at the shop. Below is Joanne’s “Alba.” Both of these knitters have become somewhat smitten with Shetland Spindrift, developing collections of the stuff for colorwork swatching and projects, and they’re not alone – give it a try and see if you don’t feel the same way!

Look for Shetland on the teacart here at the shop, amidst piles of new books and magazines, full of inspiration for new projects, and you’ll find Shetland Spindrift in our fingering weight section. See you there!

Brooklyn Tweed Sample of the Month: BT Kids.

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Our Brooklyn Tweed Sample of the Month for November is here! Come by this month to see selections from the BT Kids collection.

When we were planning our Brooklyn Tweed Sample of the Month program, Anne was especially excited to see “Atlas (For Kids),” a colorwork yoke that called her grandchildren to mind. When Kel at Brooklyn Tweed offered to lend us anything from the BT Kids collection, we jumped – you’ll find six pieces on display this month!

All of them are knit with Loft, Brooklyn Tweed’s signature fingering weight, woolen-spun yarn. It comes in 45 colors and we’re delighted to report that we have them all in stock. Even better, we’re offering them at 10% off during November!

We’ll be closed for a Thanksgiving break from Wednesday, November 27 – Monday, December 2, reopening at our regular business hours on Tuesday, December 3, so if you’re anxious to see these samples and get Loft at a discount, plan your visit accordingly. We hope to see you soon!

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

Back in stock: our favorite MDK Field Guides.

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The eleventh installment of the Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guide series was a popular one – we ordered and reordered Wanderlust and on both occasions, sold out in no time. For our third order, we decided to bring back some of our other favorite MDK Field Guides, just in case anyone had missed out on them the first time around.

Ann Shayne and Kaye Gardiner’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme or knitting technique. The theme of this eleventh Field Guide is Wanderlust, interpreted by designer Wendy Bernard as a choose-your-own-adventure approach to sock knitting. Summer is a perfect time for a small, portable project like socks – no wonder this Field Guide has been so popular!

Also back in stock is MDK Field Guide No. 5: Sequences, drawing on the inspired work of designer Cecelia Campochiaro. Back in 2017, Anne knit the “Swirl Hat” from this book using Brooklyn Tweed Arbor, a larger gauge than suggested to accommodate the size of her son-in-law’s head – you can read more about that in our original blog post.

Veronik Avery’s “Hadley Pullover” in Brooklyn Tweed Shelter was part of what made MDK Field Guide No. 2 so sought-after. This one focused on Fair Isle knitting, a favorite technique of mine, and Anne’s, too; if you’re intrigued, this little book is a fine and friendly introduction.

We’ve also restocked MDK Field Guide No. 1, a meditation on stripes which features the “Breton Cowl,” knit with the decadent combination of Shibui Drift and Silk Cloud.

Look for these Mason-Dixon Knitting Field Guides here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop – we hope you find inspiration here!