Tag Archives: shawls

LYS Day 2023: Casapinka colorways from Dream in Color!

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Happy Local Yarn Store Day! Come by the shop tomorrow, Saturday, April 29, for 25% off featured yarns and 50% off select books – you can read all about those sales on our recent blog post.

Each year on Local Yarn Store Day, designer Casapinka releases a pattern to celebrate. This year, it’s “Kitation,” an asymmetrical triangular shawl in two colors. Get a coupon code for a free download when you buy two 400 yard skeins of any fingering weight yarn at our shop this Saturday!

“Kitation,” by Casapinka, photo © Casapinka

Dream in Color dyer Veronica has created new colorways especially for Casapinka’s LYS Day 2023 pattern, and we’re delighted to have them here at our shop!

Each bundle includes 2 skeins of Dream in Color’s signature luxury fingering weight yarn, Smooshy Cashmere.

Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere: fingering weight, 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon, 400 yards in each 100g skein; $68 for LYS Day pair

These LYS Day pairs will also work well for Casapinka’s “Breathe and Hope,” “Ric Rac,” and “Albuquerque Sunset” shawls.

We only have two of each pair, so hurry in if you want to claim one! Thanks for supporting our shop on LYS Day and every day, we love being your local yarn store!

Back in stock: Bamboo Pop!

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Just in time for spring, we’ve got a fresh supply of Universal Bamboo Pop!

Universal Bamboo Pop:

  • DK weight
  • solid and variegated shades
  • 50% cotton, 50% bamboo
  • 292 yds/100g
  • $11 each

We chose a mix of solid and variegated shades, designed to stand alone in one-color projects or pair up for high and low contrast combinations. Anne is working on a “Hitchhiker” shawl with Bamboo Pop – check it out next time you’re here at the shop!

What else to make with Bamboo Pop? Here are some ideas!

Tees and tanks:

Accessories:

Come by the shop to plan your warm-weather knitting! We look forward to seeing you there.

Isager Alpaca 2 + Vertices Unite.

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Isager Alpaca 2 has a particularly harmonious color palette – each shade is lovely on its own, but they are even happier in combination. Looking through multi-color projects on Ravelry, Stephen West’s “Vertices Unite” caught my eye – a five color shawl in two sizes, composed of various geometric shapes that build on one another as you knit, in a playful modular fashion.

“Vertices Unite,” by Stephen West, photo © Stephen West

Stephen West is well known for his whimsical and sometimes wild use of color, but this particular piece is more muted. Inspired by this colorway and by the yarn itself, I’ve created some “Vertices Unite” combinations of my own, using Isager Alpaca 2.

Isager Alpaca 2: light fingering weight, 50% alpaca, 50% wool, 275 yards/50 g; $12 each, $60 for bundles of 5 to make the small size shown above.

Come by the shop to put together a “Vertices Unite” colorway of your own; we have 30 shades of Isager Alpaca 2 to choose from! We are still taking online orders as well, so if any of these color combinations grabs you, order online for local pickup or shipping.

Show and tell: PetiteKnit patterns.

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It’s been far too long since I shared show-and-tell here on the blog, though it’s an ongoing part of our daily Instagram posts – let’s see what folks have been making with yarn from our shop!

PetiteKnit has become one of the most-mentioned knitwear designers here at our shop. Almost every day, at least one knitter comes in shopping for, working on, or wearing a PetiteKnit design. Here are some of the PetiteKnit projects I’ve captured lately!

Margaretta is a fan of PetiteKnit – here are her two most recent sweaters, “Ingrid Sweater Baby” in Berroco Ultra Wool above, and “Moby Sweater” in Isager Jensen and Silk Mohair below.

Morgan knit this “No Frills Sweater” with Brooklyn Tweed Loft and Isager Silk Mohair held together throughout – the result is lovely, a perfect balance of structure and softness.

Michele came in wearing her first PetiteKnit sweater, “Sycamore Sweater,” and reports that the pattern was detailed and well written – she used Isager Jensen, Spinni, and Shibui Tweed Silk Cloud in this striking garment.

I knit my first PetiteKnit pattern recently, too, though it’s a far simpler design – here’s the “Sophie Shawl” I knit as a shop sample in Fibre Co. & Make Aran. The size small makes a such a nice scarf, wrapped around and tied like a kerchief, that I decided to make one for myself, too!

Thanks to Margaretta, Morgan, and Michele for sharing their work with us! We love to see what you make with our yarns, and can’t wait to see what comes off your needles next.

Koigu Collector’s Club: Hay.

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The Koigu Collector’s Club continues! Each month, we’ll receive 21 skeins of KPPPM in a limited edition color dyed especially for a select group of local yarn stores that carry Koigu. KPPPM is a fingering weight superwash merino, hand-dyed in vibrant colors by mother/daughter team Maie and Taiu Landra on their farm outside of Toronto, Canada.

Koigu KPPPM:

  • fingering weight
  • hand dyed, variegated
  • 100% superwash merino wool
  • 175 yards/50 g
  • $15.50 each

This month’s limited edition shade is Hay, a creamy neutral colorway with streaks of pumpkin and bronze, and the occasional charcoal speckle. It happens to look a lot like the yarn used in Joji Locatelli’s “The Lone Skein Shawl,” though you’d need 3 skeins of KPPPM for that lovely project.

Hay is a natural match with Caramel, in Malabrigo Ultimate Sock – together, they’d make a lovely autumnal “Moonflowers Shawl,” by Ambah O’Brien.

Here are a few more color combinations for this new mosaic shawl pattern, using other Koigu Collector’s Club colorways – Space Exploration, Red Brick House, The Pond, and Tapestry.

Want to make your own “Moonflowers Shawl” combination, or pick up a special lone skein for “The Lone Skein Shawl?” Look for Koigu KPPPM in the fingering weight section here at our shop, along with many others! We’re here from 11am – 5:30pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays; masks required for entry.

Painting Shawls, by Stephen West.

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Exciting news – Stephen West’s latest book is here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop! Let’s take a look at Painting Shawls.

Painting Shawls ($40) is a collection of 13 shawl patterns from Stephen West, a designer known for bold color choices and intriguing shawl construction and techniques.

Each of these patterns features a main color framing several contrast colors, using only stripes and slipped stitches to form playful, rhythmic shapes throughout the garment.

West encourages knitters to choose their own colors for these shawls, and provides playful, intuitive tips for color selection along with practical tutorials on casting on, modifying the size, weaving in ends, and more.

Styled with West’s signature dramatic flair and photographed with a keen sense of movement, Painting Shawls is great fun to flip through.

Look for Painting Shawls on the teacart here at our shop, surrounded by the latest publications! We’re still taking online orders as well – just fill out our online order form for local pickup or shipping.

HYS Color Club: Loch Lomond + Pressed Flowers.

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The Spring season of HYS Color Club wraps up with a bigger project, a fun change of pace after April’s “Duality” scarf.

Club members got seven skeins of BC Garn Loch Lomond to knit Any Christoffers’ “Pressed Flowers,” a 2-color triangular shawl covered in mosaic stitch flowers.

“Pressed Flowers,” by Amy Christoffers, photo © Amy Christoffers.

A high contrast color combination is important for this project, ensuring that the pattern shows clearly. It was so fun to pick pairs for each of our Club members in these rich, tweedy colorways – I can’t wait to see their shawls take shape!

Of course, you can make a “Pressed Flowers” even if you didn’t join the HYS Color Club – just pick out two colors you love in Loch Lomond or another DK weight yarn.

BC Garn Loch Lomond: DK weight, 2 ply tweed, 100% wool, 170 yards/50 grams; $14 each. For “Pressed Flowers,” you’ll need 4 skeins in Main Color and 3 skeins in Contrast Color.

Come by the shop between 11 – 5:30 pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays to pick your own combination!

Loft + SSP (slip stitch party) shawl.

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Isabell Kraemer’s latest design looks like so much fun, a slip stitch shawl in six shades of Brooklyn Tweed Loft!

“SSP (slip stitch party) shawl,” by Isabell Kraemer, photo © Isabell Kraemer

As soon as I saw “SSP (slip stitch party) shawl,” I went straight for our Loft display, intrigued by the play of low and high contrast combinations in Kraemer’s design.

Brooklyn Tweed Loft:

Here are a few more possibilities, though with 35+ shades in stock, this is just the tip of the iceberg!

We recently ordered a big bundle of Loft, anticipating upcoming shortages due to the permanent closure of the Philadelphia dyehouse Brooklyn Tweed has been working with since 2010. Unfortunately, this means that our most recent shipment of Loft may be our last of 2022. BT is working hard to find a new way to produce their beloved woolen spun yarns, but in the meantime, we’re well stocked in Loft and Shelter!

Come by the shop to plan a “SSP (slip stitch party) shawl” of your own, or order online for local pickup or shipping if one of these colorways is right up your alley.

HYS Color Club: Rios + Inclinations Shawl.

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The Winter season of HYS Color Club wraps up with a bigger project, a fun change of pace after January’s colorwork mitts.

Club members got six skeins of Malabrigo Rios to knit Andrea Mowry’s “Inclinations Shawl,” a colorful triangular shawl knit in half fisherman’s rib.

“Inclinations Shawl,” by Andrea Mowry. Photo © Andrea Mowry

For this project, the six color palette is composed of two three-skein fades for a harmonious colorway. From there, the colors can be arranged in many different ways – I can’t wait to see these shawls take shape!

Of course, you can make an “Inclinations Shawl” even if you didn’t join the HYS Color Club – just pick out six colors you love in Malabrigo Rios.

  

Pictured here are the colorways our HYS Color Club members received, but there are so many other shades of Rios on our shelves – we have 30+ in stock, including Rios Solidos – come by the shop between 11 – 5:30 pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays to pick your own combination!

Worsted: a Knitwear Collection Curated by Aimée Gille of La Bien Aimée.

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The latest book from Laine Publishing is here – let’s look at Worsted: a Knitwear Collection Curated by Aimée Gille of La Bien Aimée!

Aimée Gille is the dyer behind La Bien Aimée, and for this collection, she reached out to designers with a wide range of aesthetics, whose work differs from one another and speaks to all kinds of knitters.

Many of these designers are well known, and the others are worth getting to know – Nadia Crétin-Léchenne, Stephen West, Sylvia Watts-Cherry, Andrea Mowry, Tif Neilan, Saysha Greene, Norah Gaughan, Maxim Cyr, Nancy Marchant and Thien-Kieu Lam. She asked them to create sweaters and accessories in her new Corrie Worsted yarn, and what they’ve come up with is inspiring and varied, indeed!

While we don’t carry La Bien Aimée Corrie Worsted, we have so many lovely substitutes in our worsted weight section: Brooklyn Tweed Shelter and Tones, Kelbourne Woolens Germantown, Malabrigo Rios, Fibre Co. Cumbria Worsted, Berroco Ultra Alpaca, Plymouth Galway, Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted, and more.

 

Worsted: a Knitwear Collection Curated by Aimée Gille of La Bien Aimée is $40, and available here at the shop – we’re still taking online orders for local pickup or shipping, as well.