Tag Archives: variegated

Dream in Color Pop-Up! Club: October.

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Dream in Color’s Pop Up! Club is back! Every month, we’re getting a special new colorway from Dream in Color, a Tucson-based producer of small batch hand-dyed yarns. October’s new limited edition colorway is here while supplies last!

Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere:

  • fingering weight
  • 70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon
  • 400 yards/100g
  • $34 each

This month, dyer Veronica was inspired by the irresistible colors of fall at a vineyard in Napa, and she painted some of them on Dream in Color’s aptly-named Smooshy Cashmere.

Smooshy Cashmere is perfect for a special pair of socks, like Dawn Henderson’s “Lyne Socks” or “Autumn Dawn Socks,” but for a larger project as the season slowly turns, a cozy shawl is just the thing. Consider Rebecca McKenzie’s “Francy Shawl,” Joji Locatelli’s “Venezia Shawl,” Tamy Gore’s “Pop Tart,” or Francoise Danoy’s “Whakahoahoa Shawl.”

Get in touch if you’d like to place an order – we can ship these pretty skeins directly to you or hold your purchase here for pickup while our storefront remains closed to walk-ins!

Dream in Color Sock-It Club: August.

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The Dream in Color Sock-It Club is back! This time around, each limited edition skein of Smooshy comes with a 100-yard mini skein for coordinating heels and toes.

Dyer Veronica was inspired by shimmering red and teal Betta fish when she developed August’s colorway.

Smooshy is a tightly-plied fingering weight yarn that’s ideal for sock knitting, composed of 85% superwash merino and 15% nylon for strength.

There are so many wonderful sock patterns out there, but sometimes something simple is best, especially with such a highly variegated colorway – Madeline Gannon’s “Afterthought Heel Socks” are just the ticket.

We still have a handful of last year’s Sock-It Club skein sets on hand, all at $36 each – order online for local pickup or shipping!

Koigu Collector’s Club: Glass Art.

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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.

Our most recent shipment from Koigu is Glass Art, another playful variegated colorway. These special skeins are predominantly silver gray, streaked and spotted with whimsical pops of purple, aqua, pink, and blue. It looks a lot like last month’s Barn Art colorway, which sold out in record time!

What to make with these pretty skeins? For a small project, try Laura Chau’s “Serviceberry Mitts,” knit with just one or two skeins of Koigu KPPPM, depending on the size. Want to play with more than one color? Check out Fatimah Hinds’ “Pigdale,” a striped hat with a bit of texture. We still have some Koigu KPPPM Ballet in stock, which pairs well with Glass Art.

Glass Art also pops against a true solid, like these three in Brooklyn Tweed Peerie.

For a larger project, check out Rebecca McKenzie’s new “Francy Shawl,” or pair Glass Art with a semisolid hand-dyed yarn for Tamy Gore’s “Kymani” shawl. Here are a few color ideas with Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply!

  • Koigu KPPPM: $15.50 each
  • Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply: $24.20 each
  • Brooklyn Tweed Peerie: $15.25 each

Get in touch if you’d like to place an order – we can ship these directly to you or hold your purchase here for pickup while our storefront is temporarily closed!

Dream in Color Pop Up! Club: March.

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Dream in Color’s Pop Up! Club is back! Every month, we’re getting a special new colorway from Dream in Color, a Tucson-based producer of small batch hand-dyed yarns. March’s new limited edition colorway is here while supplies last!

This month, dyer Veronica was inspired by a photograph of colorful pottery at a little shop in Hatch, New Mexico, and she painted some of those vibrant shades on Dream in Color’s aptly-named Smooshy with Cashmere.

Smooshy with Cashmere is a super soft blend of superwash merino wool, cashmere, and nylon – perfect for a special shawl or pair of socks. A skein like this would make a great “Starshower,” “Pebble Beach Shawl,” “Sockhead Slouch Hat” or “Sockhead Cowl,” all patterns that do well with variegated yarn. Look for more pattern ideas on our “Fingering weight” board over on Pinterest.

You’ll find this limited edition colorway in the fingering weight section here at our shop, along with other special skeins from Dream in Color. See you there!

Koigu Collector’s Club: Refuge.

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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.

January’s colorway is a little late, but still so welcome – a variegated bouquet of pastel shades with streaks of turquoise, pink, and ivory. This whimsical colorway is dyed on Koigu’s classic KPPPM, a fingering weight superwash merino.

We have an abundance of special Koigu colors right now.

Pick three to make Churchmouse’s “Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf” pattern, which blends disparate variegated shades into a harmonious fabric that almost looks woven.

Look for Koigu KPPPM in our fingering weight section here at the shop!

Hello, Malabrigo Caprino.

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This week, we welcome a brand new yarn from Malabrigo – meet Caprino!

Caprino is a DK weight blend of 80% merino wool and 20% cashmere, and just as you’d expect from those fibers, it’s soft as can be. Each 50 gram skein has 159 yards, enough for a pair of mitts or small hat; 2 skeins makes a larger hat or cowl.

Like many Malabrigo yarns, Caprino comes in a familiar selection of semi-solid, variegated, and speckled colorways.

We think of them as old friends, these colorways – it’s always nice to see the purplish gray of “Plomo,” or the deep navy of “Paris Night,” but equally nice to meet newer shades, like the spotty “Galaxy.” All three of those wound up in my latest project, Andrea Mowry’s “Nightshift” shawl.

I’m having such fun with this simple slip stitch pattern, watching the colors come together, the background shade seeming to shift as the contrast colors change.

I’ve seen lots of knitters make “Nightshift” and “The Shift” cowl, sometimes more than once, and now I totally understand the appeal of the project. We’re pleased to have print copies of these patterns in stock now!

Come by the shop to see and touch Caprino for yourself! You’ll find it in our DK weight section.

Hello, Malabrigo Rite.

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We recently celebrated our 13th year in business here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop, a milestone we could not have reached without your support. In Jewish communities, 13 years marks a coming of age, a bar or bat mitzvah. For our own bat mitzvah year, we did something extra special, something so exciting, we’ve had a hard time keeping it under wraps!

We asked our friends at Malabrigo to create a special colorway for our 13th anniversary, and here it is, after months of planning: meet Rite.

Since March, we’ve emailed back and forth with Antonio at Malabrigo, dreaming up color combinations and anxiously awaiting his photos of trial skeins and swatches. The final colorway is a variegated mix of grey and blue, two of Anne’s favorite colors, and mine, too. It’s flecked with dashes of teal, Antonio’s brilliant contribution, and one that makes our colorway unique.

We have Rite in both Rios and Sock, our best-loved Malabrigo yarns. Both are super soft, superwash merino, plied for durability and stitch definition. It was positively flying off the shelves over our Anniversary weekend, but we still have plenty in stock! You’ll find Rios in the worsted weight section and Sock in the fingering weight section, and plenty of project ideas on our Pinterest boards. Naturally, we’ve been knitting with Rite ourselves – more on that soon!

See you at the shop!

Koigu Collector’s Club: Wild Garden.

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A new month has begun, and with it comes the next installment of the Koigu Collector’s Club! 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.

September’s limited edition colorway is called Wild Garden, and it’s a streaky, spotty mix of navy and denim blues, cream, purple, and pink. There’s a dash of seafoam green in there, too, if you look closely – Koigu’s variegated colors are rich and many-layered, which is part of what makes them so appealing!

Look for this limited edition colorway of Koigu KPPPM in our fingering weight section here at the shop!

Koigu Collector’s Club: Culture.

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A new month has begun, and with it comes the next installment of the Koigu Collector’s Club! 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.

August’s limited edition colorway, Culture, was inspired by the many uses of color in crafts around the world. As they write on the Koigu blog, “Colours across different cultures around the world are perceived very differently… we at Koigu find this very interesting and inspiring!”

Culture is a variegated colorway, a mix of wheat and golden yellow, with streaks and speckles of cobalt, rusty orange, and burgundy.

Look for this limited edition colorway of Koigu KPPPM in our fingering weight section here at the shop!

Vintage and Bargello knits: more new books.

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Two more new books have arrived at the shop since last I rounded them up.

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Vintage Design Workshop, by Geraldine Warner, teaches how to update vintage knitting patterns as well as how to customize contemporary patterns to create a vintage look. It’s not a collection of retro patterns, but rather a series of tutorials on how to substitute yarns, make alterations to size and shape, and otherwise adapt existing patterns, old and new.

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I was especially intrigued by the section on particular elements of garments–differently shaped sleeves, collars, cuffs, edgings, and pockets–which can be switched out to give any basic sweater a more purposeful, tailored look.

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This book deserves attention not only from those who knit from vintage patterns, but anyone interested in modifying or designing knit garments.

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Bargello Knits, by Patty Nance, bills itself as “the revolutionary new way to tame the unpredictable beauty of variegated yarns,” and indeed, the techniques within are completely new to me. As many of us know from experience, multi-colored yarns can be surprising, creating stripes or pools of color that vary dramatically depending upon how many stitches are cast on.

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To gain control over these capricious yarns, Nance uses a technique similar to intarsia, dividing up variegated yarns into smaller bobbins and knitting small sections of the piece from each bobbin. This has the effect of concentrating short color repeats into blocks that can be several rows high, where the same yarn knit in plain stockinette or garter stitch would make horizontal streaks of color.

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Along with carefully explained Bargello knitting techniques, the book is full of patterns. If you’re a lover of variegated yarns but have been disappointed by color pooling in the past, flip through Bargello Knits for interesting new ways to make use of the stuff.

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Come by the shop to take a closer look at these and our many other books on knitting and crochet. See you there!