Tag Archives: malabrigo

Another round of show and tell.

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It was another great week for show and tell at the shop. So many knitters and crocheters came in with finished projects to share.

Petra came in wearing a hand-knit top and shrug, proving that it is indeed possible to wear hand-knit garments in even the hottest weather when lightweight plant fiber yarns are used. A beautiful ensemble!

Laura brought in a finished Faraway, So Close shawl to show off, fresh from Katherine’s class on the same project. Laura’s shawl is made with Malabrigo Silky Merino and edged with Louisa Harding Grace Silk & Wool, both of which are dk weight single ply yarns with great luster and drape.

Anne had some show and tell this week, too. She made this cute wool soaker for her new granddaughter, Willa, who is pictured wearing a Boston Whaler Hat in Ella Rae Bamboo & Silk yarn. (The hat has been such a hit that Anne has already taught two classes on it, and we’ve scheduled a third to begin Sunday, August 12th–read more about the Boston Whaler Baby Hat class and register on our website!) For the soaker, Anne used Briggs & Little Sport yarn, with a strand of pink and a strand of white held together.

Thanks for sharing your completed projects with us! It’s such fun to see what everyone’s stitching. See you at the shop.

Marion’s socks.

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Marion is one of our teachers at the shop, and while she has taught classes on everything from colorwork hats to lace sweaters, her specialty is undoubtedly socks. While Anne and I work our socks from cuff to toe on double-pointed needles, Marion uses one long circular to work her socks from toe to cuff, and it is this technique that she has taught so many knitters over the past few years. Every week, it seems, she’s working on a new pair of socks, incorporating cables, lace, and color patterns whenever possible. This week I snapped some pictures of her most recent sock-knitting projects.

Both pairs are made in Malabrigo Sock yarn, a fingering weight yarn made of 100% superwash merino wool. The stitch patterns featured in these two pairs of socks are from the recently-published Sock Knitter’s Handbook, by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott. All of the above can be found at the shop, of course, and if you’d like to learn the technique, Marion has two upcoming classes. One is her Magic Loop Socks from the Toe Up, in which Marion walks students through the creation of their first toe-up socks. For those who have already learned this technique and want to try knitting two socks at the same time on one long circular needle, Marion is teaching Two-at-a-Time Toe-Up Socks. Both classes begin in September; check our website to read more about these and other classes.

More show and tell.

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Here are two more finished projects whose lives began as yarn from the Hillsborough Yarn Shop.

Kathy brought in her completed Wingspan made with a single skein of Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball, a self-striping fingering-weight yarn. Like Anne’s Wingspan made in Kauni, the color changes in the Zauberball highlight the unusual construction of this shawlette.

Carrie Anne brought in a cowl she made that used just one skein of the luscious, soft-as-cashmere Malabrigo Finito. It’s always great to see what the yarn becomes when it grows up into a finished piece, and to see projects that make the most of a single skein. Thanks for the show and tell, ladies!

Hello, Caper Sock.

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As many of you already know, String Theory yarns move quickly around here. One week, we’re tearing into a box of their hand-dyed yarn, and the next, it seems, we’re studying an emptying cubby of Caper Sock, wondering how we sold out of so many colors so quickly. It gives us an excuse to give them a call and request more, of course, and with each order, we are tempted by the many colorways we haven’t stocked before. Our most recent order brought the biggest variety of Caper Sock we’ve seen yet.

What a spectrum! I find myself selecting colors I’d normally pass over. Suddenly, I like purple, and grass green.

Those of you who subscribe to our newsletter may already know that I recently self-published a pattern using Caper Sock.

North Arrow is a two-color garter stitch scarf with a short-row triangle and chevron stripes. My version is now hanging in the shop, so you can see and touch the scrumptious, soft fabric that Caper Sock creates. With our current selection of colors, choosing a pair for North Arrow makes for a fun diversion. I’d love to see a North Arrow in any of these combinations, for example:

Or you could follow Anne’s lead, and knit a North Arrow in Malabrigo Sock yarn.

We have even more Malabrigo Sock to choose from than we do Caper Sock, if you’ll recall, making the color-combining into a seemingly-endless game. Come to the shop and play!

And do take a look at North Arrow on Ravelry, if you’re interested. I’d love to hear what you think!

Hello, Malabrigo Finito.

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A few months ago, I overheard Anne having a serious-sounding phone conversation with a representative from Malabrigo Yarns. I heard her request “a bag in every color” and knew it must be something good. Then a pause. Then, “better make it two bags in every color.” It must be very good indeed, I thought. How right I was!

Malabrigo has released another new yarn: Finito, a fingering weight superfine merino wool. Produced in limited quantities only once a year, Finito is made from the very finest of merino wool fiber, and beautifully hand-dyed in the usual Malabrigo fashion. The people at Malabrigo told us it was softer than their usual merino wool, which was hard to imagine, but I must say, they weren’t wrong. Each 50 gram skein is 200 yards long and deliciously soft to the touch.

Of course Anne has already selected enough for a sweater. I tried to exercise some restraint and only came home with three skeins to play with. What will become of these three skeins I don’t quite know, but I’m sure I will have a wonderful time finding out.

Come by the shop to see this newest Malabrigo yarn as well as the old favorites: Malabrigo Lace, Sock, Arroyo, Rios, Silky Merino, Worsted, and Twist. See you at the shop!

Interweave Knits.

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The Spring 2012 issue of Interweave Knits is here!

Flipping through this new issue, I saw many familiar yarns in action. The bulky Cascade Eco Wool was put to good use in this textured vest.

Here’s a little shawl made from Tahki Coast, and a vest from the ever-popular Malabrigo Rios.

Another Tahki yarn makes an appearance in this lace-edged hoodie: Tahki Cotton Classic, a worsted-weight mercerized cotton.

You can find this issue of Interweave Knits on the teacart, surrounded by all the latest books and magazines, and if any of these yarns move you, you can find them at the shop as well. See you soon!

Malabrigo Sock.

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A box from Malabrigo is always met with excitement on our part. The bigger the box, the more excitement, and this week’s box was a big, big box. We got a few new colors in Malabrigo Lace and a few in Arroyo, but the big excitement with the big box was all about Malabrigo Sock.

Malabrigo Sock is always a hot commodity at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. The colors, the softness, and the long waiting period between shipments all conspire to make it disappear quickly from our shelves. It’s always a relief to have Malabrigo Sock yarn in stock, and so appealing to see all the colors together. It has me daydreaming about colorwork socks, but what else is new.

Have you used Malabrigo Sock before? I’m always curious what people are making with it–socks, scarves, shawls, sweaters, hats, baby things–because it has so many applications. Let us know what you’ve used it for and how you like it, and if you haven’t yet had the pleasure, give Malabrigo Sock a try and see what all the fuss is about!

More works in progress.

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About a month ago, I posted pictures of two of the works in progress that hang around the shop. Anne and I always have at least two samples for the shop on the needles–one on her needles and one on mine. Because the urge to talk about what we make and what we see others making is strong, we find ourselves talking about these projects at many points throughout the day. When the process is enjoyable, we’ll tell anyone who will listen about how soft the yarn is, how incredible the color. Since I last brought this conversation to the blog, two new works in progress have sprung up.

I’m working on a simple drop stitch scarf with the new Malabrigo Arroyo. This pattern is a particularly good choice for variegated yarns like this, as the elongated stitches highlight a stretch of color in the yarn that would otherwise be distributed differently along the row. We’re used to variegated yarns striping and pooling in stockinette and other texture patterns, but the drop stitch scarf pools differently, purposefully. 
Within three rows, I had the pattern memorized, and since then, it feels like it’s been knitting itself. 
Anne is also working on a scarf, but hers is made from the Swans Island Organic Merino in the fingering weight. The pattern came from our perpetual calendar, 365 Knitting Stitches a Year, a nice resource to turn to when you intend to make a scarf and don’t intend to use a pattern. Flip through the calendar, pick an attractive stitch pattern, cast on an appropriate number of stitches for said pattern, and go until you run out of yarn. A formula for scarf success.
This one will look particularly lovely when it’s blocked, I imagine. I can’t wait to see it. In the meantime, come by the shop to see these two very special yarns in action, and listen to us go on about them. See you soon!

2012.

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I spent much of this new year’s eve weekend with a burgeoning pair of socks, made with Malabrigo’s newest yarn, Arroyo. I turned the heel on the first sock, then cast on for the second while watching a movie on new year’s eve. On new year’s day, the socks came with me to a friend’s house, where we talked and laughed and drank tea. This morning as I sipped my coffee, knitted my socks, and listened to a podcast, I had an impulse to photograph the scene, and thought to myself: oh, man. What a blogger thing to do.

It’s been almost a year since I started this Hillsborough Yarn Shop blog, and since then I’ve grown accustomed to that impulse to photograph anything yarn-related, and have often given into it. When people come in showing off amazing work, or Phyllis looks particularly wonderful in a shop sample, or we move some furniture around, I pull out my little camera. When we amass great piles of hats or great piles of yarn, the camera comes out. After a year of moments like these, it seems to make perfect sense to photograph my morning coffee, so long as a sock-in-progress is near. I’m having such fun with the blog, and the beginning of a new year is as good a time as any to thank you all for reading, and for commenting, and for coming into the shop and saying, “You must be Julia, from the blog!” I’m looking forward to another year of documenting the goings-on at the shop. Happy new year, everyone!

And.

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Along with Arroyo, we received a handful of much-needed new colors in Malabrigo Rios, Sock, and Lace. We also got a shiny new shelf to display all the Malabrigo yarns together. The Sock is still with all the other fingering weight yarns in the front room, but now the Worsted, Twist, Rios, Silky Merino, Arroyo, and Lace can be found all in one place. Let’s have a look at the new colors, shall we?

In Rios, as you can see in the photo above, we got Pearl Ten, Teal Feather, Paris Night, and several other colors whose fanciful names have already left me. Lovers of turquoises, blues, and greens will be happy with the current selection.

In Sock, we got only four colors: Terracotta, Ochre, Boticelli Red, and Persia. A manageable number of colors to choose from when you decide you simply must get a skein while they’re still in stock.

After almost a year of stocking Lace in only one color, we suddenly find ourselves with an embarrassment of riches: a basket full of choices, each skein a different color. (I confess: I gave up halfway through the Saroyan, seduced by the String Theory Merino DK, which was the next shop sample on the to-knit list. The half-scarf blocked beautifully, though, and gives one a good sense of how the Lace works up.)

Alright, Malabrigo lovers, that concludes the tour of The Latest. Come by the shop to see it all for yourself.