Knitscene.

Posted by Julia on October 10, 2015

The Winter 2015 issue of Knitscene is here!

Sweater weather is finally here, making winter knitting magazines more appealing than ever.

I spotted lots of HYS yarns in this issue. A cabled vest in Rowan Pure Wool Worsted, a textured pullover in Sincere Sheep Luminous DK, cowls in Malabrigo Rios and Fibre Company Canopy Fingering, a cabled hat in Berroco Ultra Alpaca…

You can find all of those yarns here at the shop, along with lots of others that can be substituted for these patterns should you prefer a different color or fiber than what the designer used. We’re always happy to help you decide which yarn is best for your pattern and project. Come by soon to plan your fall and winter knitting!

Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits Gifts.

Posted by Julia on September 21, 2015

Two more new knitting magazines have found their way to the shop, packed with ideas for fall stitching!

This issue of Vogue Knitting is anchored by two spreads of color-themed pattern collections, one all in teal, and another all in black and white.

I also spotted a feature on double knitting, a technique that creates two layers of fabric at once, making a cozy, reversible piece. This “Semicircular Double-Knit Shawl” is made in three shades of Fibre Company Canopy Fingering, a lovely yarn we just welcomed to the shop this month.

Interweave Knits Gifts is an annual special issue full of knitted gift ideas, Interweave’s yearly reminder to start working on holiday gifts before it’s too late.

You’ll find a wider variety of patterns in this issue than most, going beyond garments and accessories to include home goods, decorations, and things for children.

Some of these patterns are aimed at last-minute gift-knitters, or those with long lists of handknit-worthy recipients, who know the value of a beautiful gift that works up quickly. To that end, I noticed two familiar yarns from our Super-Bulky Weight department put to good use in this issue. The “Alpaca Poncho” below is made in Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande, and the “Orchid Scarf” calls for Berroco Peruvia Quick.

Come by the shop to browse the latest magazines, which can be found on the teacart in the front room, right as you enter the shop. See you there!

Hello, Fibre Company Canopy Fingering.

Posted by Julia on September 3, 2015

Time to meet another new-to-us yarn from the Fibre Company! Say hello to Canopy Fingering.

Canopy Fingering is a finer version of Canopy Worsted, composed of the same luxurious blend of alpaca, merino wool, and bamboo. These fibers combine to create a yarn that is smooth and round, soft and drapey, with excellent stitch definition and a slight lustre.

Each 50 gram skein has about 200 yards, enough for a “Springtime in Philadelphia” tam or a pair of “Veyla” fingerless mitts. If stranded colorwork is your pleasure, Kate Gagnon Osborn of the Kelbourne Woolens design team has written lots of tempting patterns for Canopy Fingering; consider “Selbu Modern,” “En Blekksprut Beret,” “Gretel,” and the “Setesdal Love Hat.”

Canopy Fingering is also well-suited to accessories like shawls, scarves, and cowls. Patterns for these garments are often knit somewhat more loosely than the colorwork hats listed above, only because a hat really ought to cling to one’s head, at least at the brim, while neckwear is free to drape. In the neckwear department, consider the “Sassafrass Shawl,” “Dovecote Triangle,” “Parquet,” and “Boson Cowl.”

Anne and I took turns knitting this swatch in Canopy Fingering on a range of needle sizes, from US 2 to 5, to show how it behaves at a range of gauges. As is true of all yarns, none of these gauges is right or wrong, nor are they the only options; fabrics of different densities are good for different projects.

Come by the shop to pick up a few skeins of Canopy Fingering, and browse our growing collection of Fibre Company yarns! See you there.

Hello, Fibre Company Road to China Lace.

Posted by Julia on August 30, 2015

We didn’t hold back when we visited the Fibre Company booth at TNNA this year. Not only did we order their newest yarn, Cumbria, we also picked up two other Fibre Company yarns that are new to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. Meet Road to China Lace.

Road to China Lace is a 2 ply lace weight blend of 65% baby alpaca, 15% silk, 10% camel, and 10% cashmere. It’s lustrous, silky, and slightly fuzzy, ideal for luxurious lace projects. Each 100 gram skein boasts 656 yards, enough for a good sized shawl.

If this special yarn piques your interest, check out Laura Nelkin’s Pathways Collection for Kelbourne Woolens, featuring shawls, cowls, and shrugs knit in Road to China Lace. Also take a peek at our “Lace weight” board on Pinterest for more pattern ideas. See you at the shop!

Show and tell, and lots of it.

Posted by Julia on August 28, 2015

One of our greatest joys as yarn-shopkeepers is seeing what knitters, crocheters, and weavers make with our yarns. I’m always collecting photos of finished projects as they come through the shop for show and tell, letting them build up until I have enough for good-sized blog post. There have been so many exciting new yarns at the shop this month that I’ve let the show and tell build up entirely too much. Settle in for a marathon show and tell post!

Debbie brought her “Technicolor Cowl” in recently to show us how it came out. While the pattern calls for eight mini-skeins of Dream in Color Classy in eight different shades, she used just three shades, for a more intentional yet no less vibrant color combination.

Here’s another finished product in Dream in Color yarn: Paula’s “In Threes,” knit in the decadent Classy with Cashmere.

Paula came in with a bundle of show and tell, in fact. She knit this “Winter Woods Hat” from the 2014 issue of Interweave Knits Gifts using Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light. The combination of stripes, colorwork, and a little bit of lace intrigued her, and she executed all three perfectly.

Paula’s “Cassandre Cowl” is particularly beautiful, with its grand colorwork motifs and delicate picot edging. The pattern is from Knitscene Accessories, 2014, and the yarn is the always delightful Swans Island Natural Colors Merino Fingering.

Debra has been a busy knitter lately; she too came in with a bag full of finished projects to share. Above is her “Horse Beanie,” knit in Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift.

Debra’s biggest knitting accomplishment of late has been this “Shetland Knee Rug and Throw,” from Martin Storey’s Scottish Knits, knit in the incomparable Fibre Company Acadia. On a real colorwork kick, she used the leftovers to design and knit this hat, incorporating a found chart of birds on a wire.

Since purchasing a Schacht Cricket Loom, Sue’s show and tell has switched from knitting to weaving.

She wove this scarf with a variety of plant fiber yarns, some solid, like Habu Cotton Nerimaki Slub, and some variegated, like Linen Concerto.

Sue has been particularly keen on weaving with variegated yarns, marveling, as I often do, at how differently those yarns behave in woven fabric than in knitted fabric.

She came in with her loom to show us her latest project, made with the leftover yarn from a shawl she knit, studded with random stripes of Isager Alpaca 1 in a contrasting color. We laid the knit shawl next to the woven fabric on the loom and studied the differences, which colors stand out, how they pool and pattern.

Kathryn dreamed up and knit this sweet polar bear sweater for her soon-to-be son using Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift.

I’m so impressed by this little sweater, from the classic color combination to her expertly self-designed colorwork charts to the perfect buttons. Bravo, Kathryn!

A hearty thanks to all the fiber artists who start their projects here and share their work with us! We love to see our yarns grow up into finished garments, and are so inspired by the work you do. See you at the shop!

Hello, Fibre Company Cumbria.

Posted by Julia on August 24, 2015

Another new Fall yarn has found a home here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop! Meet Cumbria, from the Fibre Company.

Cumbria is a soft and sturdy worsted weight yarn, composed of 60% merino wool, 30% masham wool, and 10% mohair. The soft white merino is blended with the dark gray masham, creating a natural heathered base color over which all the other colorways are dyed.

Knitters at our recent Fibre Company Yarn Tasting got a sneak preview of Cumbria, and reported that it was lovely to work with. It’s somewhat toothier a yarn than we’ve come to expect from Fibre Company, with their buttery soft luxury fiber blends, but that’s because it’s designed with longevity in mind. A sweater knit in Cumbria should weather regular use and look great for years to come, which has become a more and more important quality to me the longer I knit.

Cumbria arrives with a fresh collection of patterns from the Kelbourne Woolens design team, who took their inspiration from the knitting tradition of the British Isles, from ganseys to stranded colorwork to cables.

The Cumbria Collection features a variety of sweaters and accessories that look fun and interesting to knit and comfortable to wear.

The yarn and the patterns both have me itching to cast on something cozy to wrap up in as soon as autumn arrives.

Come by the shop to see Cumbria for yourself, and peruse the Cumbria Collection in search of your next project. See you there!

More new magazines.

Posted by Julia on August 6, 2015

Two more new magazines have landed here at the shop!

We were pleased to see a familiar yarn on the cover of the 2015 issue of Crochet Scene.

Soft, drapey Shibui Staccato is a perfect choice for a lightweight crochet garment like this one. Look to Crochet Scene for a variety of crocheted garments and accessories, from mitts and cowls to totes and crocheted jewelry.

The Fall 2015 issue of Interweave Knits is a good one, bursting with cozy sweaters that have us anxious for cool weather.

I spotted lots of friendly faces in this issue, like a pullover in Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift, and another in Fibre Company’s newest yarn, yet to be released.

I was also pleased to see an article on Baa Ram Ewe and their revitalization of the Yorkshire textile industry. We were the first US stockist of their Titus yarn, and can hardly wait for the arrival of their new yarn later this season!

Come by the shop to pick up a few new magazines to feed your knit and crochet habit. See you there!

Fibre Company Yarn Tasting.

Posted by Julia on August 2, 2015

This morning we hosted a delightful Fibre Company yarn tasting. A roomful of knitters arrived with their bags full of needles, ready to sample all that the Fibre Company has to offer.

Everyone got their own little pouch of yarn samples, and a stitch sampler pattern with guidance on needle size and stitch count for each yarn.

In between sips of mimosas and bites of bagels, attendees knit swatches of all the Fibre Company yarns, sharing pattern ideas as they stitched. Though at the moment we stock just five of the eleven available Fibre Company yarns, we invited our yarn tasting participants to order anything and everything they liked.

Garments from the Knightsbridge Collection were passed around and admired, inspiring many new projects; I am so looking forward to seeing them emerge, stitch by stitch!

A yarn tasting is a special opportunity to try out yarn before deciding to buy it, see how it feels on your needles and in your hands. It’s always a fun, friendly event, and because of that, they tend to fill quickly. If you’d like a heads-up when the next one is scheduled, let us know!

Knightsbridge Trunk Show!

Posted by Julia on July 25, 2015

We’re excited to be hosting a Fibre Company Trunk Show: the Knightsbridge Collection!

The Knightsbridge Collection features menswear-inspired designs from Kate Gagnon Osborne, Courtney Kelley, and the rest of the Kelbourne Woolens design team, along with independent designers, the likes of Bristol Ivy, Isabell Kraemer, Carrie Bostick Hoge, and more. This collection boasts a wide variety of garments, from hats, scarves, and legwarmers to vests, cardigans, pullovers, and one stunning shrug.

All of these pieces are knit in Fibre Company Knightsbridge, a light worsted weight blend of llama, merino, and silk that knits up comfortably between 5 and 5.5 stitches per inch.

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

We’ve stocked up on Knightsbridge and all of these patterns in time for the Trunk Show; come by to look them over, try on a sweater or two, and perhaps find your next project.

We’ll have the Knightsbridge Trunk Show on display here at the shop until August 19th, 2015. Stop by soon to see it for yourself!

New yarns from old friends.

Posted by Julia on May 30, 2015

It’s been an exciting day at market! We visited some of our favorite people today, and it was great to chat about what’s new, see sample garments, and admire each company’s full range of fibers and colors. Shibui has a luxurious new yarn for fall, and a bundle of new patterns to boot. We were happy to return to the Sincere Sheep booth to admire their US-sourced yarns, which are all hand-dyed with natural dyes. I was particularly taken with Fibre Company’s newest yarn, Cumbria, and the exciting new patterns that go with it. I also spotted this gorgeous woven scarf made in Meadow, which I could not stop looking at. Malabrigo surprised us all with a brand new yarn in an unexpected fiber. Perhaps the most exciting moment of our day occurred in the Isager booth, where we ran into Helga Isager herself, in from Denmark. Over the years, Anne and Rosi and I have admired many of her designs, and knit some, too. Anne was wearing one, “Robin,” knit in Isager Spinni, so I had to snap a picture. We’ve already placed so many exciting orders, and there’s more to come. Our trunk show schedule is growing quickly, too. We can’t wait for all these goodies to arrive throughout the fall, to share the new yarns with you, and knit with them ourselves!