Shibui Sample of the Month: Ship to Shore.

Posted by Julia on May 8, 2017

May is here, and with it, a new Shibui Sample of the Month! We offer a 10% discount on Shibui yarn purchased for our featured sample til the end of the month.

This month’s featured sample is “Ship to Shore Shawl,” by Katie Rempe, a summery lace shawl knit with one skein of Shibui Linen.

Shibui Linen is cool to the touch and makes up into a lightweight, gently draping fabric – just right for a warm-weather accessory like this one.

We’re offering a 10% discount on Linen purchased for this project til the end of the month. Come by the shop to start a “Ship to Shore Shawl” of your own before May 31st!

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

Back in stock: Shibui Twig.

Posted by Julia on March 22, 2017

Spring is here, and at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop, that means favorite lightweight yarns must be restocked. With this change of season in mind, we recently more than doubled our supply of Shibui Twig.

Twig is a slightly textured blend of 46% linen, 42% recycled silk, and 12% wool. Each 50 gram skein has 190 yards, and it knits up at a sport or dk weight gauge into an open, draping fabric.

Twig has a crisp feel and a plant fiber’s tendency to stretch rather than cling, qualities that make it ideal for warm weather garments and accessories like Shibui’s “Slope” and “Tier,” or Churchmouse’s “Simple Tee.” If you like a little more elasticity, consider holding Twig together with Cima or Pebble, as in Shibui’s “Apex” or Julie Hoover’s “Wintour”.

Look for more pattern ideas on our sport weight Pinterest board, and look to our sport weight section for the yarn itself. See you at the shop!

Hello, Fibre Company Luma.

Posted by Julia on February 9, 2017

Meet Luma, the newest yarn from the Fibre Company!

Luma is a smooth DK weight blend of 50% merino wool, 25% organic cotton, 15% linen, and 10% silk. This balanced combination of elastic animal fiber and cool plant fiber is ideal for year-round wear, especially in our warm North Carolina climate.

The design team at Kelbourne Woolens have created a small collection of garments for Luma, exactly the kind of seasonless sweaters that suit this lightweight yarn. Print copies are coming to the shop soon, but you can take a peek at them online now. For more pattern ideas, look to our DK weight board on Pinterest, and also to patterns calling for the now-discontinued Fibre Company Savannah, which Luma replaced.

Look for Luma in the DK weight section here at the shop!

Hello, Isager Merilin.

Posted by Julia on September 9, 2016

I’m delighted to introduce the newest yarn from Isager. Meet Merilin!

Merilin is a fingering weight blend of 80% merino wool and 20% linen. Those two fibers take the dye differently, giving the yarn a heathered quality which is more pronounced in the darker shades.

The Isager color palette is one of the more distinctive across all the yarn companies we work with. Pastels, neutrals, and muted jewel tones are at the forefront in every Isager yarn, but especially Merilin; the upside to a limited, curated color selection like this is that they all go well together.

For pattern ideas, consider Suvi Simola’s “Frosty Acorn” and “Qipican” pullovers, as well as her “Leap Year Cardigan.” All those sweaters were designed for Isager Merilin, though it would do just as well in any other fingering weight pattern–Joji Locatelli’s “Boxy” and “3 Color Cashmere Cowl and Shawl” come to mind, as does Theresa Gaffey’s now-classic “Stole.” Visit our “Fingering weight” Pinterest board for more ideas, and explore your own Ravelry favorites for that gauge.

Look for Merilin in the fingering weight section here at the shop, where you may well find your next project. See you there!

Going-to-Market Sale spotlight: Fibre Company Savannah.

Posted by Julia on May 15, 2016

From May 10th – June 5th, we have Fibre Company Savannah, Colinette and Schulana yarns discounted during our Going-to-Market Sale: single skeins are 30% off, or 40% off when you buy 10 or more! Throughout the sale, I’ll be highlighting some of these yarns and giving ideas for what to make with them. Today: spotlight on Fibre Company Savannah.

Savannah is a sport weight mix of wool, cotton, linen, and soy, a nice combination of elastic animal fiber and cool plant fiber. Each of those fibers takes the dye differently, giving this yarn a rustic heathered look.

There are loads of lovely patterns out there calling for Savannah, from baby things to hats, shawls, and cowls. “Sweet Bunting” is a yoked baby sweater; “Norie” is a textured lace hat, and “Schieffelin Point,” “Currituck Shawl” and “Wicker Cowl” are all free accessory patterns from Kelbourne Woolens, distributors of Fibre Company yarns. Look for more on our “Sport weight” board on Pinterest!

Fibre Company Savannah is a favorite of ours, and we were sad to learn that it’s no longer manufactured. The Fibre Company folks are busy finding a new mill to spin Savannah, and hope to reconfigure and reintroduce this yarn one day. Til then, come and get what’s left of our Savannah stash at 30% off, or 40% off when you buy 10 skeins or more!

A reminder: all sales are final on discounted yarn. There can be no returns or exchanges, nor special orders–the discount applies only to what we currently have in stock. Thanks!

New, for weavers.

Posted by Julia on December 15, 2015

Over the past week or so, we’ve gotten a couple of new weaving-related items in stock.

First up, we’ve got the latest issue of Handwoven magazine, which focuses on weaving with linen.

Projects include wearables, like the log cabin wrap above, and lots of home goods, like napkins and kitchen towels.

Handwoven always includes projects for a variety of loom types and sizes, including rigid heddle looms, like the Schacht Cricket Looms we keep in stock here at the shop. We got a fresh batch of them recently, knowing that Cricket Looms are topping many a holiday wish-list this year. We also have new scarf kits for rigid heddle looms from DJE Handwovens, which would make excellent gifts for beginner weavers.

Deb Essen’s kits include pre-measured warp and weft yarns from Mountain Colors, and thorough instructions for weaving a simple, colorful scarf on a rigid heddle loom. We also got a few new Swatch Critter kits, to go with the Schacht Zoom Loom. Come by the shop to see what we offer for weavers, crocheters, and knitters alike!

Hello, Shibui Twig.

Posted by Julia on March 6, 2015

We’re thrilled to announce the arrival of Shibui’s newest yarn: meet Twig.

Twig is a slightly textured blend of 46% linen, 42% recycled silk, and 12% wool.

Each 50 gram skein has 190 yards, and it knits up at a sport or dk weight gauge into an open, draping fabric.

Shibui yarns are dyed in matching colorways across the line, designed to be knit on their own or held together to make bespoke yarn blends. Twig is no exception; I expect this yarn will play quite well with the others.

Like Shibui Linen, Twig has a crisp feel and a plant fiber’s tendency to stretch rather than cling, qualities that make it ideal for warm weather garments and accessories. If you like a little more elasticity, consider holding Twig together with Cima or Pebble.

The design team at Shibui has included Twig in its Spring/Summer 2015 collection, featuring the kind of loose-fitting, modern garments that Twig is best suited to.

Some patterns are for Twig alone, others pair it with different Shibui yarns, or offer several combinations to choose from.

That, after all, is what drives the Shibui mix concept: by combining more than one yarn and/or color, you can create exactly the fiber, texture, or color blend you’d like. As long as you’re getting the gauge the pattern calls for, you can mix and substitute yarns to your heart’s content.

Come by the shop to see Twig for yourself, peruse the Shibui Spring/Summer 2015 pattern collection, and plan a Shibui project!

New colors in Shibui Linen.

Posted by Julia on June 20, 2014

Linen is the newest Shibui yarn in our collection, a chain-plied yarn in a light fingering weight. We’ve stocked it for just over a month, and already we’ve had to reorder many of the six colors we started out with. Thrilled that knitters and crocheters are as intrigued by the stuff as we are, we ordered a few new colors, too.

We now have Shibui Linen in “Ivory,” “Poppy,” and “Suit,” and they make nice additions to our color selection. I got to arranging them in groups of fours as I photographed them, thinking of Shibui’s free pattern, “L.1.”

“L.1” is a simple striped wrap shown in two main colors, neutrals, and two contrasting colors, one bright and one dark. With that composition in mind, I came up with these colorways, though of course there are many different color strategies to play with.

Come by the shop to see Shibui Linen for yourself, and while you’re here, be sure to admire Amy’s “Mix No. 28,” a vest made with Shibui Linen and Pebble held together. See you there!

Hello, Shibui Linen.

Posted by Julia on May 6, 2014

We’re delighted to announce that we now stock Shibui Linen. Our first six colors are now in, and more are coming!

Shibui Linen is a light fingering weight yarn composed of 100% linen, with a unique chain ply structure and 246 yards on each 50 gram skein. It has that somewhat crunchy texture that many linen yarns have, but like all linen, it will soften with washing and wearing. Shibui Linen is cool to the touch, perfect for spring and summer knitting and crocheting, and makes up into a lightweight, gently draping fabric.

For Linen pattern inspiration, you might begin with the Shibui patterns, though you should not feel limited to them. Consider “Mix No. 27,” a structured two-color tank that you might have seen at last month’s Shibui Trunk Show, or “Mix No. 13,” an oversized mesh pullover knit with two strands of Linen held together throughout–no doubt an excellent layering garment for our warm climate.

Shibui yarns are designed to be used in combination with one another, two or three strands at a time. Shibui Linen definitely plays well with others, bringing its drape and texture to whatever yarn it’s paired with.

I’ve recently started knitting a v-neck pullover with Shibui Linen and Cima held together–“Mix No. 17.” I’m loving the interplay of these two yarns, one cool and one warm, one stiff and one stretchy, and the resulting fabric is a happy medium between their two extremes. This is definitely an unusual sweater for me; I’m a devoted lover of wool yarns, with their springy elasticity, but the Linen is a nice change of pace. Also, it’s yellow, a bold color choice for this gray enthusiast. I can’t wait to wear this sweater!

Shibui Linen and Pebble are used together in “Mix No. 28,” a vest that was featured in last month’s Shibui Trunk Show. I had so much fun pairing Linen and Pebble colorways, finding colors that are close but not identical.

Pebble offers its lofty hand and tweedy appearance to the fabric, bringing textural interest to a mostly-stockinette garment.

Shibui Linen and Silk Cloud are another winning combination, but what, we often rhetorically wonder, does Silk Cloud not improve? With its fuzzy mohair and shiny silk content, Silk Cloud brings a bit of drama to the humble Linen.

Though “Mix No. 3” calls for Silk Cloud and Staccato, I predict that Shibui Linen will make an excellent Staccato substitute. Though the fiber content is quite different, the gauge is similar, and linen’s natural inclination to stretch out and hang nicely will make for an elegant shawl.

Come by the shop to see Shibui Linen for yourself! We’re so looking forward to seeing the rest of the colors we ordered, which are on backorder for the time being. I’ll be sure to post when they come in, and as usual, if there’s any color you’re looking for in particular, please let us know–we’re happy to do special orders. See you at the shop!

Kindling shawl.

Posted by Julia on February 20, 2014

A new lace shawl now decorates the walls at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop: “Kindling,” by Kate Gagnon Osborn, knit with three skeins of Fibre Company Savannah.

If you’ve visited the shop on a Sunday recently, you may well have seen Rosi stitching on this shawl. Once the knitting was done, she passed it on to me so I could try my hand at blocking it with blocking wires–a new skill for me.

Using a Knitter’s Pride Lace Blocking Kit and some online tutorials, blocking the “Kindling” shawl was easier than I thought it might be.

It’s always amazing to me how the fabric changes with a good soak, and this is particularly true for lace patterns. When they first come off the needles, they look rumpled and bumpy, but after blocking, the eyelets open up and the lace pattern can really shine. It was satisfying to see, even though I hadn’t knit the thing myself.

Fibre Company Savannah is a sport weight blend of 50% wool, 20% cotton, 15% linen, and 15% soya, which gives it the elasticity of wool and the lightness of plant fibers–a perfect spring and summer yarn.

Come by the shop to admire Rosi’s handiwork and see our “Kindling” sample for yourself. You’ll find Savannah in the sport weight section, and the pattern is always available as a Ravelry In-Store Pattern Sale–we’ll print it out for you and save a digital copy in your email or Ravelry pattern library. Hope to see you there soon!