Tag Archives: malabrigo

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!

Show and tell: Malabrigo.

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It’s high time for another round of show and tell! Today I’m here to share some finished projects that started life as yarn on our shelves, and they all have one thing in common: they’re all knit with yarn from the beloved Uruguayan company Malabrigo.

Above is Janet’s first-ever knitting project, a ribbed scarf made with the worsted weight, hand-dyed Malabrigo Rios. Rios is one of the most popular yarns in our shop because of its versatility, smooth, soft texture, and vibrant colors. Well done, Janet!

Here’s another scarf in Rios, showing a more subtle, tonally variegated colorway. The pattern is “Rockcliffe” and the knitter is Donita, who comes back to Rios again and again, as so many of us do.

I knit this little “Dog Star” with Malabrigo Arroyo for a friend who’s having a baby next month, having made the same sweater for another pregnant friend earlier in the year. Malabrigo’s superwash yarns are perfect for baby things, as they’re easy to care for and soft to the touch.

Malabrigo yarns also play well with others. Glen used Malabrigo Sock in natural white as the background color in his “Broken Seed Stitch Socks,” letting another variegated yarn shine.

Winnie took a similar approach with her “ZickZack Scarf,” pairing a semisolid Malabrigo Sock with the self-striping Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball for a lovely effect.

Emily used a variety of leftover yarns, including bits and pieces of Malabrigo Rios, in this “Randolph Raccoon,” a gift for her son. Toys like these are an excellent use of odds and ends, which is why I never get rid of even the smallest length of leftover yarn – Emily did a great job putting some of hers to use!

Many thanks to the talented knitters who shared the projects above, and to everyone who starts their projects with a trip to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. We love seeing what you make!

New colors in Malabrigo Mechita.

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This week brought us a big box of Malabrigo Mechita in nine brand new speckled colorways!

Mechita is a single ply superwash merino in a fingering weight, with a generous 420 yards on each 100 gram skein.

Suitable for sweaters, shawls, scarves, cowls, mitts, baby things and lightweight hats, Mechita has great potential.

In fact, it’s become a bit of a staple in our Fingering weight department, one we reorder again and again.

Look for Mechita in the fingering weight section here at the shop, and peruse our “Fingering weight” board on Pinterest for pattern ideas. We hope you find inspiration there, as well as among these colorful skeins of yarn!

Show and tell: colorwork sweaters.

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Two blog posts full of colorwork knitting just aren’t enough – here’s a third, with a focus on sweaters.

Here Margie models her “Townes” pullover, knit with a clever combination of speckled Malabrigo Mechita and a few solid and heathered shades of Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift.

Emily’s first adult-sized colorwork sweater is a perfect fit and features a beautiful, distinctive color combination – the pattern is tincanknits’ “Dog Star,” and the yarn is the unbeatable Brooklyn Tweed Arbor.

Kate has just finished a “Dog Star,” too, on a smaller scale for her daughter. For this one, she’s used Fibre Co. Arranmore Light, but she has another in the works in Arbor – can’t wait to see that one, too!

From left to right, here are Claire, Tom, Jayne, Barbara, Barbara, and Amy, all in their “St. Brendan” pullovers knit during Amy’s class on the subject. It’s so fun to see all these different color combinations together, not to mention all these happy knitters sporting their own handiwork!

Thanks so much to the knitters pictured above, and to everyone who’s ever taught or taken a class here, or started a project with a trip to our shop – we’re so grateful for all of you! It’s our community that makes our shop special. See you there!

Show and tell: colorwork hats.

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We love to see finished projects that started life as yarn on our shelves, and when I’m able, I love to photograph them and share them here on the blog. It’s been a busy spring so far, full of exciting new yarns, books, and magazines, all of which keep this blogger busy. Meanwhile, jaw-dropping projects keep coming through our doors, and it’s time to make time for show and tell. I have enough photos stockpiled for at least four blog posts – let’s begin with colorwork hats, on the heels of our HYS Colorwork Trunk Show.

Here’s Joanne’s “Seeds Hat,” designed by Jared Flood and knit with Brooklyn Tweed Loft. The soft sage green with the bright teal is a surprising combination that works well, especially with a jaunty pom-pom on top.

Sandy made a “Seeds Hat,” too, also using Brooklyn Tweed Loft; I snapped a photo just as she was weaving in the ends on this, her first colorwork project.

I made a family of “Banff” hats for my sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew for the holidays. I love Malabrigo Rios for its easy care, fun colors, and soft, squishy hand, and I love tincanknits’ straightforward pattern for its charming motif and huge range of sizes.

Marilyn knit this “Bousta Beanie” to practice her fair isle knitting technique before embarking on a larger colorwork garment; her even tension and excellent color choice show how ready she is for that exciting project. The yarn is Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift, a classic choice for colorwork and a personal favorite of mine.

Kate has been knitting with Shetland Spindrift, too; this “Snawheid” was designed by Kate Davies, for whom Kate and I share a great admiration. This playful combination of bright blue and natural white suits the snowflake motif and shows the pattern so well!

Margaretta’s “Tincture” hat is colorwork of a different kind – mosaic knitting, where some stitches are slipped and others are knit, for a color pattern with a bit of texture, too. She used Brooklyn Tweed Arbor in a high contrast combination for a striking effect.

Thanks to the knitters, crocheters, and weavers who bring in their work to show us what they’ve made! You inspire and amaze us, and we can’t wait to see what you get into next. Keep an eye on this blog for more show-and-tell soon!

Restocking.

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December is a busy month here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. Knitters and crocheters rush in seeking bulky yarns for last-minute hats, others pop by to pick up gift certificates, hoping to delight the yarn-lovers in their life, and still more wander in, entranced by the ballwinder in the window, curious what our shop is all about.

Our educational calendar calms down to make room for the busy personal schedules of our teachers and students, though we’ll pick up the pace in January with a surge of new classes.

We unpack the occasional new book, magazine, or notion, but a lot of what we order and receive during this busy time is familiar territory – just your average restock, filling up on yarns that have sold out and need replenishing.

We’ve filled up on Fibre Co. Cumbria Fingering and Tukuwool Fingering, brought back sold out colors in Berroco Ultra Wool and Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift, and unpacked boxes of Malabrigo yarns at least once a week.

Come by the shop to browse the newest yarns as well as our old favorites, and plan a project for the new year ahead!

Show and tell: lace.

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Our Thanksgiving break continues, and the shop will be closed until we reopen on Tuesday, Nov. 28th. Til then, I have more show-and-tell to share! The theme of this bunch is lace.

Betty knit this “Stone Point” poncho during Amy’s class here at the shop, her first-ever lace project! The yarn is Fibre Company Luma, a dk weight blend of wool, cotton, linen, and silk.

Sherri knit this beautiful blanket for her new daughter-in-law, Leah. The stitch pattern is good old feather and fan, a great introduction to lace knitting, and the yarn is a wide range of odds and ends from Sherri’s stash – this is a great way to use those bits and pieces and play with color along the way!

Here is a lace pattern on a somewhat smaller scale: Lois’s “Feather the Waves Socks,” knit with Malabrigo Sock. Lois has found a favorite in this vibrant hand-dyed yarn; this is the third pair she’s made with Malabrigo Sock!

Margaretta is an especially prolific lace-knitter, and lately her projects are made with Brooklyn Tweed yarns. After knitting a “Your Ice Cream Shawl” with Vale, she came back for another; this is her second project with Vale, Jared Flood’s now-classic “Girasole.”

After completing that, Margaretta took on Jared Flood’s “Lucca,” this time with Arbor. The heavier gauge of this yarn made a more substantial fabric and a larger piece, turning a circular shawl into a spectacular blanket.

Kellie has been knitting with Brooklyn Tweed, too – here she is modeling her “Hop Brook” shawl, knit with Loft. What a lovely match of yarn and pattern – a little rustic, a little delicate, and the light color lets the lace edging shine.

We love seeing what folks make with our yarns – thank you so much for sharing your projects with us. Hope you’re enjoying the holiday weekend, and we look forward to seeing you on or after the 28th!

Show and tell: texture.

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While the shop is closed for a Thanksgiving break, let’s enjoy another batch of show-and-tell! Here are some highly-textured knits made with yarns from our shop.

Corey knit the cowl above with Fibre Company Knightsbridge, a luxurious blend of camel, alpaca, and silk. The pattern is “Alastair,” a textured loop scarf that we were pleased to see Corey wearing when he attended our Anniversary Party back in October.

Amy knit this “Blackberry Cable Pillow Cover” with Berroco Peruvia Quick, a sturdy bulky weight wool that’s well-suited to this kind of project.

Mary put a different Berroco yarn to use in her “Cumberland” cowl; Maya is a chain-plied, worsted weight blend of cotton and alpaca. It makes a lightweight accessory suitable for the transitional weather of spring and much of the fall here in North Carolina. It also renders texture patterns beautifully!

Here is Michele’s “Spectrum,” knit with Shibui Rain and Silk Cloud. The only stitch pattern in this luxurious wrap is stockinette – it’s the yarns that make this a textural piece. Sometimes the two yarns are held together, and other times the lace weight Silk Cloud is worked alone for those sheer stripes.

Rosi’s textured show-and-tell is still underway, but I couldn’t resist sharing a picture of her work-in-progress: “Vanora,” knit with Brooklyn Tweed Loft. I made the same sweater earlier this year using Fibre Co. Cumbria Fingering and it’s amazing how different it looks just on account of the color and the texture of the yarn.

Marsha knit this tiny “Fine Fella” with Malabrigo Sock, sizing an adult hat down to a preemie size by altering the gauge of yarn and needles – from worsted weight on US size 6 to fingering weight on a US size 1, to be exact. It’s an heirloom-quality bit of charity knitting Marsha did as part of the Ol’ North State Knitting Guild, a generous use of her talent and time.

Thanks to the knitters who shared their work on the blog today, and to all those whose projects begin with a trip to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. We love seeing what you make!

Show and tell: Malabrigo.

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We love Malabrigo yarns around here. We have over 10 different Malabrigo yarns in stock, from delicate Lace up to super bulky Rasta and Caracol, and hardly a day goes by that we don’t send some happy knitter or crocheter home with a shopping bag full of Malabrigo. They’re known for their buttery soft merino wool and their lively, memorable colorways. Here are a couple of finished projects knit with Malabrigo yarns that found their way back to us for some show-and-tell!

Above is Donna’s “Drafter’s Cardigan,” knit with Malabrigo Arroyo in “Regatta Blue.” She knit it for her daughter, finishing the job with the perfect pearly blue buttons.

Lois came in last week with another beautiful pair of socks knit with Malabrigo Sock. The pattern is “Summer Slice,” and she used the color “Boticelli Red” with “Diana” as an accent at the heels and toes.

Mary is a big Malabrigo fan, and she particularly loves to work with “Aniversario,” a wildly variegated colorway that’s truly unique from skein to skein.

She crocheted this “Sea Shells Scarf” with Malabrigo’s newest yarn, Dos Tierras, and trimmed it with Shibui Dune for a bit of a stained glass effect.

Thanks to Donna, Lois, and Mary for sharing their Malabrigo projects with us! Come by the shop to see all the Malabrigo Lace, Finito, Sock, Mechita, Arroyo, Silky Merino, Dos Tierras, Rios, Mecha, Rasta, and Caracol we have in stock. See you there!

Show and tell: socks.

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We love seeing projects made with yarns from our shop, and we truly feel honored that so many of you bring your finished pieces in for show and tell. When I’m able, I like to take pictures of these completed projects to share here on the blog. I’m always collecting them, and sometimes they seem to sort themselves into themed posts – all one kind of wool or technique, one yarn in particular, or even a shared color palette. Today’s theme is socks, a favorite project of ours, and the knitters featured here have made some amazing pairs.

Glen knit the vibrant pair above with MJ Opulent Fingering, a hand-dyed blend of merino, cashmere, and nylon. The pattern is “Dublin Bay Socks,” a free download from Ravelry, and it looks excellent in this semi-solid colorway, showing off the lace detail down the leg.

Lois’s socks have a lot in common with Glen’s: the pattern, “Socks on a Plane,” is available for free, they have a little pattern running down the leg and foot on a stockinette background – in this case, a cable, and they were made with hand-dyed yarn, the beloved Malabrigo Sock. I often warn knitters that cables and other patterns don’t show well in highly variegated yarn, but this is exactly the kind of exception that proves the rule. I love the way the wild colorway shines in simple stockinette, and the cable doesn’t disappear into it. Rather, it pops out a bit, brings welcome textural interest to an already interesting color. Well done, Lois!

Above are Karin’s “Sidney” socks, from Rachel Coopey’s CoopKnits Socks Vol. 2, made with Malabrigo Sock. These are the latest in a long series of increasingly intricate handknit socks that Karin has crafted for herself and her family. Like many of us, she likes to challenge herself a bit with each new project, trying a new stitch pattern or technique, and a sock is a good-sized project for that kind of experimentation. It’s a good way to learn a lot in a relatively short time, and Karin is living proof!

Margaretta is another generous, challenge-seeking sock knitter, and this “Harlequin” pair from New Directions in Sock Knitting pretty much blew my mind when I saw them in progress – organizing the bobbins alone looked like quite a task. She rose to the occasion, though, mastering intarsia-in-the-round along the way, and surprised me again when she came back for more yarn to knit a second pair.

This pair, like the first, is made with Malabrigo Sock, which you can tell is a popular sock yarn here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. Margaretta insists that her technique improved measurably from the first pair to the second, and while I believe her, I honestly think both pairs look equally flawless. Still and all, she gave the second pair as a gift to a friend, knit yet a third pair and gave them to another friend, and kept the “learner” pair for herself.

 

Thanks to the knitters who shared their work on this post, and to the many more who begin their projects with trips to our shop! We appreciate your support, and love seeing what you make. If you’re not a sock-knitter but would like to become one, check out Amy’s upcoming class on the subject, an introduction to basic socks that may send you on a sock-making spree. Look out for more show-and-tell on the blog in the near future!