Tag Archives: string theory

Show and tell.

Posted by on

Katherine came into the shop a few weeks ago with this beautiful bit of show and tell: a fair isle hat made with her fingering weight leftovers in Isager and String Theory yarns. This is her first attempt at stranded colorwork, a pattern called Edith the Hat. I’m impressed, not only with the color knitting technique, but also with this good use of leftovers. Let not a single precious yard of Alpaca 2 go to waste!

Another knitter brought a recently-completed sweater to show off, made with the last skeins of Berroco Jasper that were left in our sale trunk. There wasn’t enough in one self-striping colorway to make a whole sweater, so she carefully placed two agreeable colorways in different parts of one sweater to a delightful colorblock effect. Resourceful, no?

Victoria treated us to some woven show and tell this past week. Take a look at this incredible scarf, made in Louisa Harding Grace Silk & Wool and Lana Grossa Chiara. We see far more knitting and crocheting than weaving at the shop, so this was particularly exciting. Woven fabric and knitted fabric are so different from one another, and it was great to see how familiar yarns behaved in this unfamiliar-to-me technique. I can’t wait to see the next piece off her loom!

Thanks to all who bring their completed works to the shop to share with us! I look forward to bringing more of it to the blog soon.

Show and tell: Noro, Isager, String Theory.

Posted by on

We’ve seen some really special finished projects around the shop lately. How about some show and tell?

Shaunesy brought in her completed Diamond Motif shawl made in Noro Silk Garden. She took Katherine’s class on the shawl, the first in a series of classes Katherine has been teaching on projects from Knit Noro Accessories. If you like the look of Shaunesy’s shawl, come by the shop to see the book and all our colorful Noro yarns.

Natalie’s Volt took our breath away. The yarn is Isager Spinni, and the pattern is from Grace Anna Farrow’s fantastic book, The Fine Line.

Each shawl in The Fine Line makes great use of Isager’s singular color palette, and many of them, like Volt, use chevrons as a central motif. This book is definitely worth looking at if you’re a shawl-maker, and I know so many of you are. Find it with the other Isager books in the Fingering Weight section.

Catherine also brought some chevron-related show-and-tell: a completed North Arrow scarf. I was particularly touched by this as North Arrow is my own design–it is truly an amazing thing to see ones own instructions brought to life by another knitter. Catherine used String Theory Caper Sock for her scarf, and the colors are as gorgeous as the yarn is soft. If you haven’t worked with this yarn yet, do yourself a favor and make up an excuse to do so.

Thanks to all the fantastic knitters and crocheters who come and go at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop, wowing Anne and I and whoever else happens to be present with your skillfully-stitched creations. We are so thankful for the inspiration you bring, and so very impressed by all your work! See you at the shop.

More new colors from String Theory.

Posted by on

String Theory Hand Dyed Yarns are a Hillsborough Yarn Shop favorite. After being closed for reorganization, we reopened the shop with new colors in three String Theory yarns: Caper Sock, Bluestocking, and Merino DK.

You can find them all in the second room of the shop. Caper Sock and Bluestocking share a basket in the Fingering Weight section, and Merino DK hangs on a yarn tree in the DK Weight corner. See you there!

New colors from String Theory.

Posted by on

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve gotten a couple of boxes from String Theory. As I’m sure you know by now, we love boxes from String Theory, because along with the colorways we’ve come to know and love come the colorways we’ve never seen before. Tanis and Karen do amazing things with yarn and dye, and Anne and I are delighted to see what they’ve come up with. Most recently, we’ve received new colors in Selku, a sport weight merino and silk, and Caper Sock, a fingering weight superwash merino blended with cashmere for softness and nylon for strength. I know I’ve sung the praises of these yarns many times, but I can’t let a new shipment from String Theory come and go without devoting a blog post to it. Take a look at these colors!

 

As much as I love the Caper Sock, It’s the Selku I’ve got my eye on. So far I’ve seen an exquisite Marianne Isager sweater started in it, along with two shawls. Over and over again, I pick String Theory’s deep blue, Cobalt. I used it in Caper Sock on my North Arrow scarf, and then again in a pair of Bluestocking socks. As much as I love Cobalt, I’m not sure I can justify using it a third time, but I’m anxious to try Selku. What would you do with 378 yards of shimmering sport-weight wool and silk?

Come by the shop to take a closer look!

Bluestocking. Again.

Posted by on

Last week, we got another bunch of String Theory Bluestocking in another bunch of gorgeous colors.

This weekend, I finally cast on for a pair of Bluestocking socks, anxious to get my hands on a kind of wool I’d never tried before: bluefaced leicester. I chose a pattern from Clara Parkes’ Knitter’s Book of Socks, called Hickory, with a barklike ribbing down the leg and instep. The whole leg was done in three evenings, which is how I know I love both the yarn and the pattern.

Come by the shop to take a closer look at the Knitter’s Book of Socks, where there are 200+ pages of serious sock knitting inspiration, and to admire the String Theory Bluestocking. See you at the shop!

Hello, Bluestocking.

Posted by on

Surprise, surprise: I have some new yarn from String Theory to share. Say hello (again) to Bluestocking, a soft, sturdy fingering weight yarn composed of 80% Bluefaced Leicester wool and 20% nylon.

If it seems like we’re ordering from String Theory weekly, it’s because we are. Anne and I love this yarn, and it’s clear you all do, too, at the rate it’s disappearing from our shelves! While Caper Sock has been ordered and reordered several times, we hadn’t shown the same love to Bluestocking until this past week.

Anne started a pair of Bluestocking socks, couldn’t keep her hands off them, and suddenly we were on the phone with the wonderful people at String Theory Hand Dyed Yarn, in Blue Hill, Maine. Much to Anne’s dismay, I suggested we start small, to the tune of six colors. When we sold half of them on the day they arrived, it was clear that I was wrong and Anne was right: Hillsborough Yarn Shoppers have enough love for both Caper Sock and Bluestocking. We ordered more.

I’ve got a skein of the stuff waiting for me at home, and it is torture not to cast on immediately. Care to torture yourself in a similar fashion? Come by the shop and witness the glory of all of String Theory’s yarns. See you there!

Hello, Caper Sock.

Posted by on

As many of you already know, String Theory yarns move quickly around here. One week, we’re tearing into a box of their hand-dyed yarn, and the next, it seems, we’re studying an emptying cubby of Caper Sock, wondering how we sold out of so many colors so quickly. It gives us an excuse to give them a call and request more, of course, and with each order, we are tempted by the many colorways we haven’t stocked before. Our most recent order brought the biggest variety of Caper Sock we’ve seen yet.

What a spectrum! I find myself selecting colors I’d normally pass over. Suddenly, I like purple, and grass green.

Those of you who subscribe to our newsletter may already know that I recently self-published a pattern using Caper Sock.

North Arrow is a two-color garter stitch scarf with a short-row triangle and chevron stripes. My version is now hanging in the shop, so you can see and touch the scrumptious, soft fabric that Caper Sock creates. With our current selection of colors, choosing a pair for North Arrow makes for a fun diversion. I’d love to see a North Arrow in any of these combinations, for example:

Or you could follow Anne’s lead, and knit a North Arrow in Malabrigo Sock yarn.

We have even more Malabrigo Sock to choose from than we do Caper Sock, if you’ll recall, making the color-combining into a seemingly-endless game. Come to the shop and play!

And do take a look at North Arrow on Ravelry, if you’re interested. I’d love to hear what you think!

More String Theory.

Posted by on

Thank goodness for this week’s shipment from String Theory! Our Caper Sock cubby was practically empty. Just look at it now: a few new colors, a few familiar colors. A pleasantly full cubby.

We’ve also replenished our supply of String Theory Selku and Merino DK, which live in twin baskets on the teacart, by all the new books and magazines.

Come by the shop to take a look at our String Theory collection and daydream about how you’ll put it to use.

Hello, String Theory Selku.

Posted by on

On Tuesday, we got a box from String Theory, which is always cause for excitement. This box in particular was full of Selku, a 3-ply sport-weight blend of silk and merino wool. Selku is a yarn that I’ve written about before, which we’ve only stocked in a small handful of colors up until this week. This shipment brought five new colors of Selku, rounding out our collection in a truly lovely way.

Though I haven’t had a chance to work with Selku yet, I have stalked it enough on Ravelry to know that it’s a perfect choice for a special scarf or shawl. The weight and shine of the silk paired with the elasticity of merino should make for beautiful stitch definition and an elegant drape. Anne wants to use Selku to make the cover sweater from Connie Chang Chinchio’s Textured Stitches. Yes, our minds are buzzing, but we’ve yet to cast on. What would you make from this stunning stuff?

Come by the shop to ooh and ahh, to pet the yarn and consider the possibilities. See you soon!

Cowls.

Posted by on

We’re often asked if we know a good cowl pattern, or have a book of them. This request has been particularly common in the past month or so, so I thought I’d give a virtual version of my in-shop answer. A book of cowls: unfortunately, no. A good cowl pattern: here are four, and all the better because they are free.

To some, a cowl is a tube designed to fit closely around the neck, almost like a dickey. A turtleneck detached from its sweater. Here is one such cowl, in simple 2×2 ribbing, knit with the soft and slightly shiny Debbie Bliss Andes, a dk weight blend of alpaca and silk. The pattern is available at the shop–just ask for the Andes cowl.

To others, a cowl is a long loop of a scarf, designed to be wrapped around the neck twice. We have two cowls that meet this description, the first of which is available online, and the second, at the shop. Meet the Big Herringbone Cowl (above) and the Moebius Cowl (below). We used a worsted-weight merino/silk blend and a mohair/silk blend, respectively.

Somewhere between the two shapes is this newest cowl, knit from String Theory Merino DK. The Purl Ridge Cowl pattern is also available as a free pattern from the Hillsborough Yarn Shop, as of Thursday afternoon, when I bound off, wove in the ends, and immediately tried it on. Cozy.

My challenge to you: choose a color.

String Theory, as I have gushed several times in as many weeks, does incredible things with yarn and dye. My photographs don’t do it justice. Come and see the stuff with your own two eyes!