Mittens of Latvia, by Maruta Grasmane.

An older title found its way to our teacart recently, the table near the shop entrance where the newest books and yarns are usually displayed. Though it’s not a new release, we’re newly aware of it, and enchanted by it, as well – let’s look inside Mittens of Latvia, by Maruta Grasmane ($40).

This hefty hardcover book collects 178 traditional colorwork mitten patterns from Latvia, recreations of ethnographic mittens from the second half of the 18th century, the 19th century, and the beginning of the 20th century.

Chapters are organized by region, and Grasmane begins each one by noting the colors, motifs, and knitting motifs most commonly used in said region.

The mittens are photographed in close detail, and presented with their charts. Paging through Mittens of Latvia, I was mesmerized – all those tiny stitches and intricate patterns!

Because Grasmane is light on knitting instructions, Mittens of Latvia functions more as a coffee table art book than a user friendly book of patterns. But intrepid knitters who have made colorwork mittens in the past can likely fill in the blanks with experience, and I hope they do – I’d love to see some of these patterns in person, keeping clever hands warm!

Look for Mittens of Latvia here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop – we’re open 11am-5:30pm, Tuesdays-Saturdays; masks required for entry.

“Static Mittens” in Sandnes Garn Double Sunday.

Knit a pair of “Static Mittens” with Sandnes Garn Double Sunday!

“Static Mittens,” by Rows Knitwear, photo © Rows Knitwear

This eye catching pattern by Rows Knitwear uses both sides of the fabric to create a striped illusion pattern with stranded colorwork. They’re knit flat with DK weight yarn on US 6 needles, then seamed up the side to complete.

Bailey made this cozy pair as a sample for the shop, and chose a lovely combination of pale blush and cornflower blue in Sandnes Garn Double Sunday. We had fun picking other color combinations in this plush merino wool – here are a few to consider!

Look for Sandnes Garn Double Sunday in the DK weight here at HYS, along with many other suitable yarns for “Static Mittens” – think Brooklyn Tweed Arbor, Kelbourne Woolens Scout, and Fibre Co. Acadia. See you at the shop!

HYS Color Club: Peerie + Dipyramitts.

HYS Color Club members just got their very first project!

Inside the bag, there are 2 skeins of Brooklyn Tweed Peerie to knit a pair of “Dipyramitts,” by Emily Greene. We included a color wheel, too!

Greene’s clever colorwork hand warmer pattern includes options for fingerless mitts, mittens, or convertible mittens.

“Dipyramitts,” by Emily Green. Photo © Emily Greene.

Of course, you can make a pair even if you didn’t join the HYS Color Club – just pick a high contrast combination in Brooklyn Tweed’s soft and springy Peerie. Here are a few ideas!

If any of these catch your eye, pick your favorite and order online for local pickup or shipping! BT Peerie is $17.25 per skein, and we have 30+ colors in stock – come by the shop between 11 – 5:30 pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays to see them all.

Handcraft, by Helga Isager and Jóna Thórunnardóttir.

We’re delighted to have a beautiful new book from Isager – let’s take a look at Handcraft!

From designers Helga Isager and Jóna Thórunnardóttir, Handcraft is an elegant hardcover book of mittens and gloves.

It includes a basic pattern for mittens and another for gloves, then offers different edgings, stitch patterns, yarn combinations, and other variations to make all kinds of cozy hand warmers.

Adorn your mittens with cables, lace, stripes, texture, and marls; the knitting techniques are clearly and beautifully illustrated with drawings by Japanese artist Toshiko Koikegami.

Handcraft is $29, and available here at the shop – swing by between 11am – 5:30 pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays, or order online for local pickup or shipping!

Warm Hands.

Warm Hands is here!

This eclectic collection of mitten and handwarmer patterns is edited by Jeanette Sloan and Kate Davies, and features many other designers, as well.

Some mittens are colorful, some are textured, some are lacy or cabled, and some combine multiple techniques for intriguing effects.

The mittens in this book are knit with Kate Davies’ own lines of yarn, Àrd-Thìr and Milarrochy Tweed. Àrd-Thìr is a blend of Peruvian fibers, 60% highland wool and 40% alpaca. The texture is smooth and round, for sharp stitch definition and a springy elasticity in the hand. Look for it in our aran weight section!

Milarrochy Tweed is a fingering weight wool and mohair blend. We don’t have it here at the shop, but we have a great many excellent substitutes – Jamieson’s Shetland SpindriftTukuwool FingeringBrooklyn Tweed Loft and PeerieIsager Tweed, and more.

Look for Warm Hands on our teacart, among the latest books and magazines for knitters! We also keep a nice selection of Kate Davies’ older titles in stock, the likes of Colours of Shetland, Yokes, West Highland Way, Milarrochy Heids, Happit, Shore, and Handywoman.

See you at the shop!

Brooklyn Tweed Sample of the Month: BT Kids.

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!

Show and tell: colorwork accessories.

Time for another round of show and tell! Colorful knitting projects are popular around here – I had enough colorwork hats to fill a recent blog post, and now I’m back with other colorwork accessories.

Is a stuffed chicken an accessory? Whatever category it belongs in, Amy’s “Fancy Hen” is adorable, and beautifully knit. In preparation for a class on the subject earlier this year, she knit this charming chicken with Baa Ram Ewe Dovestone DK, a yarn well-suited to stranded colorwork.

Ellen knit these intricate colorwork mittens with Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift. The pattern is from Jorid Linvik’s Big Book of Knitted Mittens, a great resource if colorwork mittens are your cup of tea. A cute pair of mittens is a great starting place for learning and practicing stranded knitting, just like a hat or any small accessory.

Here’s Margie in her “Fresco Crescent” shawl, by Kieran Foley. This shawl is an impressive combination of knitting techniques from lace and stranded knitting to intarsia, stripes, and beading.

She used Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift in a big palette of neutrals, reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows, working these colors intuitively into the piece as she went, rather than planning it all out ahead of the knitting.

Gwen’s “Hudson” shawl, by Shannon Cook, is a simpler design of stripes and lace, but no less striking. Gwen’s color choice in Ewe Ewe Baa Baa Bulky is particularly eye-catching; she knit it to wear to a spring wedding and finished just in the nick of time.

Karin knit not one, but two pairs of Rachel Coopey’s “Alfrick” socks, using Coopey’s own CoopKnits Socks Yeah! yarn for both projects.

Thanks as always to the talented knitters who shared their work here today, and to everyone who starts their projects with a trip to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. I’ve got even more colorwork show-and-tell in store for the coming weeks – stay tuned!

New colors from the Fibre Company.

Unpacking shipments is an exciting part of my work at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. Even if it’s not a new product I’m aching to take home myself, it’s always fun to see what’s in the box, and admire and sort colorful bags of yarn. That said, when the box holds something I do plan to take home, the unpacking is that much more exciting. It was with that extra excitement that I cracked open a big box of yarn from the Fibre Company last week.

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This box was packed with new shades in Fibre Company Acadia and Cumbria Fingering, the latter of which was the object of my desire, and the makings of my next sweater.

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Cumbria Fingering is a tightly-plied blend of 60% merino wool, 30% masham wool, and 10% mohair. For a yarn so sturdy, it’s awfully soft, and though the mohair makes it slightly fuzzy, it still has fantastic stitch definition.

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We’ve seen that nice definition in two new shop samples, mittens from the Kelbourne Woolens Year of Mittens Knit-Along. Marsha knit the “August Mitten” (above) and Amy knit the “September Mitten” (below), which is the subject of an upcoming class. Read more about it and sign up on our Classes page!

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The new shades of Acadia are particularly vibrant this season, a saturated little rainbow of six that fits beautifully into our existing selection.

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Acadia’s silk slubs give it color and texture interest, so it doesn’t take fancy stitching to make this yarn shine; any one of these shades would make a lovely “Easy Folded Poncho” or pair of “Welted Fingerless Gloves,” simple knits that let the yarn take center stage. Look at Kelbourne Woolens’ Acadia Collection for more ideas.

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I’m unpacking an awful lot of boxes these days, as fall is fast approaching and new yarns are arriving daily. Come by the shop to see what’s new from the Fibre Company and all our other favorites!

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Show and tell: critters.

Time for another round of show and tell! Here are some finished projects that started life as yarns on our shelves. These knitted things have something else in common, as well: they all feature animals!

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Amy designed and knit this “Baby Turtle Frenzy Blanket” for her granddaughter-to-be using Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted. It shows sea turtle hatchlings on their journey from the sandy beach through the breakers to the deep blue sea. She wrote a separate pattern for the tiny turtles themselves; get them together at a discounted price on Ravelry or here at the shop.

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Amy’s also offering a Tiny Turtle class here at the shop, for those interested in knitted toys–head to our Classes page to sign up!

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Ali came by the shop not long ago with two knitted critters. Above are her “Moose and the World’s Tree” mittens, from Annemor Sundbø’s Norwegian Mittens and Gloves, knit in Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift. Below is her “Hedgehog,” whose belly and face is also made of Shetland Spindrift, with garter stitch spines in Plymouth Galway held double.

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I, too, knit a hedgehog from this pattern a couple of years ago, and loved the process as much as the end product. Seeing this one made me want to knit another!

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We can’t talk about knitted critters without mentioning the “Baa-ble Hat,” a free pattern with well over 5,000 projects on Ravelry in the year and a half since it was first published. The “Baa-ble Hat” above is my second, and may not be my last. I used bright shades of Plymouth Tweed and Queensland Kathmandu Aran for this one, and love the way the colorwork looks in these speckled yarns.

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Amy just finished teaching an introductory class on stranded colorwork featuring the “Baa-ble Hat,” and the hat above was knit by one of her students, Clarine. She used Jamieson’s Shetland Heather Aran for three out of the four shades, knitting the soft green grass with Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed.

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Sarah was one of Amy’s students, too; she knit her hat in Malabrigo Rios, and left the shop after class with yarn for another “Baa-ble Hat.” It’s a pleasing little pattern, and a great way to try stranded colorwork for the first time. Amy’s offering another class on the subject in October–sign up now if you’d like to join!

Thanks to all those who share their work with us here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. We are inspired by your great ideas, and love to see them take shape!

Mountain Colors mitten kits.

We just got in some new kits from Mountain Colors, the Montana hand-dyers that make Bearfoot. Here are the “X-Country Mitten” kits, with the pattern and yarn needed to make a cozy pair of colorwork mittens.

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The yarn inside these kits is the worsted weight Mountain Goat, a lustrous blend of wool and mohair. Each kit has four little skeins of the stuff, three in hand-dyed colorways and one in cream.

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The “X-Country Mitten” kits would make a great gift for any knitter, particularly a knitter who’s interested in giving stranded colorwork a try. Come by the shop to pick one up for yourself or a friend!