Tag Archives: marianne isager

A Knitting Life: Out into the World, by Marianne Isager.

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This week, as a new year begins, we welcome a beautiful new book by Marianne Isager, A Knitting Life: Out into the World ($47).

A Knitting Life: Out into the World is the second volume of Marianne Isager’s career retrospective, following the Danish designer as she travelled around the world beginning in the 1990’s.

Trips to Latin America, Africa, Greenland, and Nepal all informed and inspired her designs, presented in this book along with photos and prose.

As ever, Isager loves to mix and match various yarns for unique color and fiber blends.

Paging through the book, I was pleased to see Bouclé and Alpaca 3 in the mix, and Anne fell in love with this “Yakke” jacket, knit with Jensen and Silk Mohair.

A Knitting Life: Out into the World is $47, and available here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop, along with a wide selection of Isager yarns – you can also order online for local pickup or shipping. Hope to see you soon!

A Knitting Life: Back to Tversted, by Marianne Isager.

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This week, as a new year begins, we welcome a beautiful new book by Marianne Isager, A Knitting Life: Back to Tversted ($47).

Marianne Isager is a knitwear designer and co-owner of Isager Yarns, based in Denmark. In this new collection, the first in a series of three, she looks back on her first 20 years in the industry. Through prose and photos, she tells the story of inheriting Ase Lund Jensen’s yarn company and workshop, and combining family life and knitting life in the small village of Tversted.

Tversted is where all the new knitwear designs in this book were photographed, a striking landscape of sea, dunes, and flora that inspired her use of color, texture, and structure.

The patterns in A Knitting Life: Back to Tversted are thoughtfully updated from Marianne Isager’s earlier designs, drawing on techniques she has returned to again and again throughout her design career.

As ever, Isager loves to mix and match various yarns for unique color and fiber blends. In this book, she includes a full-size photo of the swatch for each project, so you can see some of this yarn blending in closer detail.

A Knitting Life: Back to Tversted is $47, and available here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop, along with a wide selection of Isager yarns – you can also order online for local pickup or shipping. Hope to see you soon!

Book Sale!

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Local Yarn Store Day is coming up, and we’re celebrating all week long with a Book Sale!

All in-stock books and magazines are 25% off from April 13 – 17, making this a great time to indulge in an exciting new publication, or pick up an older title that escaped notice the first time around – we have an awful lot of books to choose from!

Browse some of the latest and most popular publications below:

… and so much more! Place orders by phone or online for local pickup or shipping; we’ll take 25% all in-stock books and magazines ordered now through April 17. We’re more than happy to check our supply for any titles not listed here, just ask us – thanks for helping us make room for new books and magazines!

 

A reminder: all sales are final on discounted items; there will be no exchanges or returns. Thanks!

Knitting Needles & Chopsticks, by Marianne Isager and Jens Rahbek Hansen.

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Marianne Isager’s new book is another intriguing mix of recipes and knitting patterns, like Eat & Knit before it. Let’s take a peek inside Knitting Needles & Chopsticks!

Knitting Needles & Chopsticks is a collaboration with Danish-Japanese chef Jens Rahbek Hansen, featuring Japanese recipes along with scarves and shawls knit with all manner of Isager yarns.

We keep many Isager yarns in stock here at the shop, though not every single one – ask us and we’ll help connect you with the yarn you’re looking for or a good substitute.

Isager is known for combining yarns to create interesting color and fiber blends, and the “Sapporo” scarf/wrap is a great example.

Here, two lace weight yarns are held together – Japansk Bomuld, a unique cotton tape, and Alpaca 1, a fuzzy alpaca yarn. I’m intrigued by the combination, which sounds like a balance of cool and warm – the perfect accessory for early spring.

Knitting Needles & Chopsticks is $21.95; order online for local pickup or shipping via USPS Priority Mail!

Twelve Knitted Sweaters from Tversted.

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Today, let’s take a look at Marianne Isager’s latest book, Twelve Knitted Sweaters from Tversted.

Twelve Knitted Sweaters from Tversted features a sweater for each month of the year, a premise well-suited for this moment as we begin 2019.

As usual, these designs are knit with Isager’s own yarns, most of which are available here at our shop – Anne has been passionate about the Isager yarn and designs for years, and makes sure we have plenty of each on hand.

These yarns vary in gauge and in fiber content, but share a harmonious color palette, and Isager often combines them in her designs for unique fabric.

Look for this lovely book on our tea cart at the shop, with the latest books and magazines. We hope you find inspiration here!

New patterns for Isager yarns.

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Along with new yarn came new patterns from Isager.

This spring collection features Bomulin and Japansk Bomuld, a light fingering weight cotton/linen blend and a lace weight cotton tape, respectively.

Sometimes they are used individually, sometimes together.

All of these patterns come from Danish designers Marianne Isager, Annette Danielson, and Mette Winge.

Look for these patterns and others in our Isager pattern binder, which is bursting with interesting designs for these special yarns. See you at the shop!

Hello, Isager Bomulin.

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February has just begun, but new Spring yarns are already beginning to arrive here at the shop. Two have come from Isager, in Denmark – let’s begin with Bomulin.

Bomulin is a light fingering weight blend of 65% cotton and 35% linen, with 231 yards per 50 gram ball.

Plant fibers like these have little elasticity and a lot of drape, making them perfect for spring shawls and scarves, or loose-fitting warm-weather garments.

Anne is knitting a tank with two strands of Bomulin held together, Marianne Isager’s “Braided Top.” The construction on this piece is unexpected, and worth a closer look; come by to see Anne’s work in progress and she’ll tell you all about it.

Look for pattern ideas on our Fingering weight Pinterest board, and come by the shop to browse new Isager patterns for Bomulin. See you at the shop!

Laine Magazine, No. 3.

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Last week, we welcomed another beautiful new issue of Laine Magazine.

Laine Magazine is a relatively new publication out of Finland, a knitting and lifestyle magazine with a love of natural fibers and handicraft as its focus.

Inside Laine, you’ll find a mix of knitting patterns, articles, recipes, profiles on fiber artists, and a travel guide to Berlin.

There are plenty of familiar names sprinkled throughout this issue, like Brooklyn Tweed, Marianne Isager, and Rachel Coopey, but we love getting to know new designers and yarn companies through Laine, too.

Come by the shop to page through Laine and our other books and magazines. We hope you find inspiration here!

Hello, Isager Jensen Yarn.

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A brand new yarn has arrived from Isager in Denmark! Meet Jensen Yarn.

Jensen Yarn is named for Danish knitwear designer Ase Lund Jensen, the subject of Marianne Isager’s latest book. It’s a DK weight wool sourced and spun entirely in Denmark, with about 275 yards on each 100 gram skein.

Jensen Yarn is smooth and round, which will give excellent stitch definition for texture and cable patterns. Wooly and toothsome, Jensen Yarn is not the softest fiber in our shop, but it’s sturdy and full of character, sure to wear well for years to come. I can’t wait to work with it!

Look for pattern ideas on our “DK weight” Pinterest board, and look for Jensen Yarn in the DK weight section here at the shop!

Ase Lund Jensen.

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Marianne Isager’s newest book is here, and it is a beauty! Let’s look inside ALJ: Ase Lund Jensen – a Danish knitwear designer.

As its title suggests, ALJ is a tribute to Danish knitwear designer Ase Lund Jensen, a pioneer in textile arts from the late 1950’s until her death in 1977. Jensen recognized a talent for design in young Marianne Isager, and it’s Jensen’s yarn company and workshop that Isager built into what we know today as Isager yarns.

Jensen designed impeccably tailored knits, studied traditional textiles of Greenland and Denmark, and had a fondness for muted shades that couldn’t be satisfied by the yarn manufacturers of the day. Working with a Danish mill, she developed a color palette informed and inspired by natural, plant-based dyes, a palette that Marianne Isager has grown but never strayed from.

The book also includes a great many patterns for sweaters, accessories, and a few home goods, designed by Jensen, Marianne and Helga Isager, and Annette Danielson, all knit with Isager yarns.

Along with a biography of Ase Lund Jensen, there are also articles on the history of knitting, and political knitting in particular.

A copy of ALJ came home with me as soon as it arrived at the shop, and I loved learning more about Danish textile history in general and Jensen and Isager in particular.

Look for ALJ on the teacart here at the shop, where the latest books and magazines mingle. We have more news from Isager coming in the next few blog posts, so keep an eye out, or come straight to the shop to see it all for yourself!