New colors from Alchemy.

Posted by Julia on April 18, 2015

We recently freshened up our supply of Alchemy yarns, starting with one new colorway, shown here in Sanctuary, Sparky, and Lust.

Sanctuary is a sport weight blend of wool and silk, which, like all Alchemy yarns, is lovingly hand-dyed by designer Gina Wilde.

Anne picked six new shades of this sumptuous stuff, filling out our color selection nicely.

Use Sanctuary on its own, or in combination with Silken Straw or Sparky for Alchemy’s signature shibori-felted designs, like the “Wisdom Wrap” or “Simple Shibori Cowl,” both of which are on display at the shop.

Not long ago, Rosi finished this “Sparky Serpentine Scarf” knit in Sparky, a sample that now hangs on the wall here at the shop. The mesh lace pattern is easily memorized, and sparkles in this silk yarn, which is wrapped in a metallic thread.

Look for Alchemy yarns in the sport weight section of our shop, and don’t miss Lust in the fingering weight section! See you there.

Hello, Shibui Staccato.

Posted by Julia on March 8, 2015

Another new yarn from Shibui! Meet Staccato.

Staccato is a lustrous blend of 70% superwash merino and 30% silk in a fingering weight. Like Cima, it has a nice high twist, giving it the look of a string of pearls. Each 50 gram skein has 191 yards, enough for a hat or a pair of mitts; two skeins would make a lovely cowl, or a special pair of socks. Staccato looks to be a stellar sweater yarn, as well; check out the “Fingering weight” board on our Pinterest page for pattern ideas!

Both silk and superwash wool have a tendency to grow after washing and blocking; plan for this by washing your swatch and adjusting needle size accordingly. I know this can feel like an extra step sometimes, but it’s worth it to end up with a garment in the size you intended!

Look for Shibui Staccato in the fingering weight section, and be sure to check out our other Shibui yarns and patterns while you’re here. Come by the shop when you’re seeking inspiration; we look forward to helping you plan your next project!

Hello, Shibui Twig.

Posted by Julia on March 6, 2015

We’re thrilled to announce the arrival of Shibui’s newest yarn: meet Twig.

Twig is a slightly textured blend of 46% linen, 42% recycled silk, and 12% wool.

Each 50 gram skein has 190 yards, and it knits up at a sport or dk weight gauge into an open, draping fabric.

Shibui yarns are dyed in matching colorways across the line, designed to be knit on their own or held together to make bespoke yarn blends. Twig is no exception; I expect this yarn will play quite well with the others.

Like Shibui Linen, Twig has a crisp feel and a plant fiber’s tendency to stretch rather than cling, qualities that make it ideal for warm weather garments and accessories. If you like a little more elasticity, consider holding Twig together with Cima or Pebble.

The design team at Shibui has included Twig in its Spring/Summer 2015 collection, featuring the kind of loose-fitting, modern garments that Twig is best suited to.

Some patterns are for Twig alone, others pair it with different Shibui yarns, or offer several combinations to choose from.

That, after all, is what drives the Shibui mix concept: by combining more than one yarn and/or color, you can create exactly the fiber, texture, or color blend you’d like. As long as you’re getting the gauge the pattern calls for, you can mix and substitute yarns to your heart’s content.

Come by the shop to see Twig for yourself, peruse the Shibui Spring/Summer 2015 pattern collection, and plan a Shibui project!

Hello, Scrumptious Lace.

Posted by Julia on February 3, 2015

Along with our recent shipment of Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply came a new bundle of Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace.

Our first batch of Scrumptious Lace came out of our obsession with Kate Davies’ Yokes. Anne is planning to knit “Frost at Midnight,” an elegant cardigan with a beaded yoke, and simply had to have Scrumptious Lace for it.

This latest order rounds out our selection of Scrumptious Lace, so that we have a range of colors to suit a range of projects.

Scrumptious Lace is a shimmering blend of 55% merino and 45% silk, with a generous 1094 yards on each 100 gram hank. Its vivid solid colors and smooth texture make for sharp stitch definition, ideal for lace knitting. Consider Ysolda Teague’s “Ishbel,” “Pear Drop,” and “Barley Sugar,” Jared Flood’s “Rock Island,” and Laura Nelkin’s “Life Cycle.” Fine yarns like this one are perfect for lace crochet projects, too; check out Elena Fedotova’s “Scarlet Berry” and “Ink Ripples.”

For more pattern ideas, look to our “Inspiring Stitches” Pinterest board. Come by the shop to pick up a skein or two of Scrumptious Lace and plan your next project!

New colors in Acadia.

Posted by Julia on January 23, 2015

Fibre Company recently introduced new colors in Acadia, a luxurious blend of merino wool, silk, and alpaca.

We’ve carried Acadia for a few years now, and always delight in adding a new color or two. It’s amazing how just a few new shades deepen the color palette. Suddenly instead of one gray, we have a warm gray and a cool gray, and where we thought we were rich in purples, a deep eggplant shade emerges, expanding the spectrum.

Anne and I have both been working with Acadia of late. Anne has an “Easy Folded Poncho” on the needles in Acadia’s warm gray, “Driftwood.”

Last year, Fibre Company’s Courtney Kelley lent us an Acadia poncho that we missed after we sent it back; Anne’s poncho-in-progress will replace it on our walls. It’s nothing but stockinette, but the simplicity of the fabric lets Acadia shine, its silk slubs peeping out every now and then.

I took three shades of Acadia home to weave a scarf on my Cricket loom, and I’m thrilled with how it turned out.

Using a 10-dent reed, I warped with Acadia in asymmetric color blocks, creating vertical stripes. I used one shade of blue-green for the better part of the weft, delighting in the way it interacted with the two other colors. There are horizontal stripes of those colors at the beginning and end of the scarf, as well, making a kind of plaid.

Working from Betty Linn Davenport’s Hands on Rigid Heddle Weaving, I paid more careful attention to the tension of the warp, tried hemstitching for the first time, and finished the scarf with twisted fringe.

Check out the HYS Pinterest page for more Acadia pattern ideas. Come by the shop to see these new colors and plan your next project!

Araucania Coliumo: now on sale!

Posted by Julia on January 8, 2015

UPDATE: As of 4/22/2016, we are totally sold out of Araucania Coliumo!

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Another discontinued yarn has found its way to the sale trunk. We’re now offering Araucania Coliumo at over 35% off!

Coliumo is a single-ply, super-bulky wool and silk blend, with 95 yards on each 100 gram skein, and a suggested gauge of 3 stitches per inch on a US #11 needle. One skein is enough for “An Unoriginal Hat” or “Anthro-tastic Headband,” while three or four skeins would make a cozy “GAP-tastic Cowl.” Come by soon to pick up some Coliumo before it disappears!

A reminder: all sales are final on discounted yarn. There can be no returns or exchanges, nor special orders–the discount applies only to what we currently have in stock. Thanks!

Yokes.

Posted by Julia on December 13, 2014

Yokes is here!

Yokes is writer and designer Kate Davies’ newest book, and one that we’ve been eagerly anticipating since October, when she started posting previews on her blog.

I’ve been reading her blog for years now, admiring her patterns and appreciating her written voice.

An historian as well as a knitwear designer, Davies approaches her subject with academic rigor, and because of this, Yokes is so much more than a collection of inspiring sweaters.

Pick up this book, and you’ll learn about Swedish Bohus yokes, the Icelandic lopapeysa, classic Shetland motifs, Elizabeth Zimmermann’s seamless innovations, and the connections between all of the above.

As a lover of circular yoke sweaters, particularly those adorned with colorwork, I was quick to add Yokes to my own knitting library. I’ve been reading it before bed this week, savoring the text and photos. Davies speaks my mind when she writes, “I am happy spending days working away on acres of plain stockinette, if, at the end of it, there is the yoke’s delicious promise.”

I am knitting one such sweater right now, in fact: “Puffin Sweater,” a design from Davies’ Colors of Shetland. I’ve knit the body and one and a half sleeves, looking forward all the while to the colorful chevron yoke. (Almost there!)

Anne has fallen for a sweater from Yokes, “Frost at Midnight.” This beaded yoke is knit in a delicate lace-weight yarn called Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace, a shimmering blend of merino and silk, which, oh by the way, we now stock at the shop.

We have only a few shades in stock, but will happily order whichever color you’d like. Come by to see the colorcard!

Look for Kate Davies’ Yokes on the teacart in the front room. It will make a perfect holiday gift for the history-loving knitter in your life, and if that knitter happens to be you, send your nearest and dearest in for a copy. See you there!

Back in stock: Misti Alpaca sock yarns.

Posted by Julia on September 8, 2014

It’s rare that we run completely out of a yarn before reordering, but such was the case with Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn. By the time we made it to TNNA to place our Fall order, not one skein of the stuff remained on our shelves, so we picked a whole new color palette.

Along with the whimsical variegated colorways of Hand Paint Sock Yarn, we were drawn to Misti’s Tonos Carnaval. Both fingering weight yarns are composed of 50% alpaca, 30% merino, 10% silk, and 10% nylon for durability, but Tonos Carnaval is dyed in semi-solid colorways.

Mulling over the color-cards together at market, Anne, Rosi, and I decided that these two yarns were meant to be together. It’s easy to pair up solid colors with variegated, as many of the solid shades can be found within the multicolored skeins. For these photos, I picked two shades of Tonos Carnaval, either one of which pairs nicely with the Hand Paint Sock Yarn in the center.

Consider patterns like “Spectra,” “Daybreak,” “Andrea’s Shawl,” “Nymphalidea,” and “Color Affection.” These are all designs that lend themselves to a combination of solid and variegated colors.

Remember these Misti Alpaca sock yarns the next time a pattern you love calls for fingering weight yarn, and come by the shop to pair these colors up for your next project. See you there!

Hello, Knightsbridge.

Posted by Julia on August 20, 2014

Fibre Company’s newest yarn is here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop! Meet Knightsbridge.

Knightsbridge is a soft and fuzzy blend of llama, merino, and silk, a light worsted weight yarn that knits up comfortably between 5 and 5.5 stitches per inch.

The colors are heathered, the fibers dyed and lightly blended before spinning.

The sweaters, vests, and accessories that make up the Knightsbridge pattern collection were some of the more memorable garments we saw at TNNA.

I love classic-looking sweaters like these, and they look entertaining to knit, too.

Knightsbridge renders cables and other texture patterns surprisingly well for such a soft yarn; I’m really impressed with how it behaves on the needles as well as in knitted fabric.

Come by the shop to meet Knightsbridge and plan your next project!

Hello, Alchemy Sparky and Lust.

Posted by Julia on August 7, 2014

For three years now, we’ve visited Alchemy’s booth at TNNA and replenished our Alchemy stash with Silken Straw and Sanctuary. While we certainly bulked up our supply of those two yarns this year, we were also sorely tempted by two of Alchemy’s newest yarns. It’s no surprise we gave into temptation; meet Sparky and Lust.

Silken Straw is a sport-weight silk ribbon like no other, and Sparky is like Silken Straw dressed up for the opera. Both yarns feel crisp on the skein but soften up after stitching and washing; Sparky has a metallic thread wrapped around it, giving it a distinct glittery sparkle.

Lust is a fingering weight blend of merino and silk, a thinner version of Sanctuary. It’s soft and slinky, many-plied for great stitch definition, and felts well in Alchemy’s signature shibori felting designs.

Like all Alchemy yarns, Sparky and Lust play well together. Anne used one skein of each in this “Alchemy Sparky Shawlette,” which you’ll find tucked into the basket that holds Silken Straw and Sparky at the shop.

Since we unpacked our most recent Alchemy order, our favorite pastime is coming up with color combinations between the four Alchemy yarns we now stock. For the “Alchemy Sparky Shawlette,” Anne used Lust in a variegated colorway and picked a solid shade of Sparky to go with it.

For a less overtly striped shawl, you might try a lower-contrast pairing.

Consider also the “Straw Into Gold Shawl,” which is shown knit with Silken Straw, Sparky, and Lust all in one shade, a glorious pale beige called “Sand Dollar.”

We were so taken with this sample when we saw it at market that we ordered all three yarns in exactly this color.

No reason to stop there, however–Alchemy yarns beg to be grouped together in all kinds of color combinations, from muted and monochromatic to bright and surprising.

Come by the shop to play the Alchemy color game yourself, and plan a project with these unique and inspiring yarns. You’ll find a handful of knit samples in Alchemy yarns here at the shop; look for more pattern ideas on our Pinterest page. We’ve got lots of great uses for Alchemy yarns on our “Inspiring Stitches” board. See you at the shop!