Tag Archives: wool

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!

Hello, Fibre Co. Lore.

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We’re happy to announce that our first new line of yarn for autumn has arrived, from one of our favorite purveyors – meet Lore, from the Fibre Company!

Lore is a woolen spun DK weight yarn, composed of 100% Romney lambswool. It’s somewhat robust for a DK weight, knitting up comfortably between 5 and 5.5 stitches per inch in stockinette stitch. With it’s toothy texture, Lore is not the softest fiber in our shop, but it’s sturdy and full of character, just the kind of yarn I love most.

Woolen-spun yarns are lofty and especially warm for their weight, due to the air trapped between their jumbled fibers. They have a rustic look and texture at home in hard-wearing, workaday garments, and are sturdy enough to last a lifetime when cared for. 

The design team at the Fibre Company has been hard at work on a large pattern collection for Lore called Borrowdale. It features 20 garments and accessories knit with Lore, and one crocheted cowl. These pieces were designed with everyday adventures in mind, and though they’re practical, they’re also beautiful, rich with cables and texture and color.

We have a Borrowdale lookbook here at the shop with photos and details about each design, but the patterns themselves are available on Ravelry. See them in action in the Fibre Company’s Online Trunk Show, a video narrated by company founder Daphne.

“Galleny Force” is the pullover I’ve begun swatching for with Lore, though with as many large yarn shipments as we’ve had this week, I can’t say I’m making much progress – still and all, I’m delighted to have this yarn on my needles.

Look for Fibre Company Lore in the DK weight section here at our shop!

Dream in Color Pop Up! Club: September.

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We’re happy to announce that we’re once again participating in Dream in Color’s Pop Up! Club! That means every month, we’re getting a special new colorway from Dream in Color, a Tuscon-based producer of small batch hand-dyed yarns.

September’s Pop Up! Club colorway is a rich variegated blend of violet, gold and rust, a combination that evokes Autumn.

It’s dyed on a brand new base for Dream in Color, a 50/50 blend of merino and silk. The silk content makes this yarn shimmer, and will give knitted or crocheted fabric an elegant drape.

This month, our Pop Up! Club shipment came with a few pattern recommendations from Veronica at Dream in Color:

Look for this limited edition colorway in the fingering weight section here at the shop!

Back in stock: Malabrigo Sock.

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This week brought a box full of Malabrigo Sock.

That Malabrigo Sock is a well-loved yarn here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop should come as no surprise, given the frenzy that usually occurs when we receive a shipment.

This soft, machine-washable merino wool is a light fingering weight, dyed in the vivid multicolor and semisolid colorways we’ve come to expect from Malabrigo. Sock is perfect not only for socks, but also shawls, scarves, lightweight sweaters, and baby things.

We’re always especially excited to see new colors in this now-classic yarn, and we have a few – come by the shop to see what’s new, and plan your next project!

New colors in Brooklyn Tweed Arbor.

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Brooklyn Tweed recently released four new shades in Arbor, and we’re happy to have them here at the shop!

Brooklyn Tweed Arbor is a 3-ply DK weight yarn composed of 100% Targhee wool. Like Brooklyn Tweed Vale and Peerie, it’s worsted-spun, and skein-dyed in solid colors at the organically-certified Saco River Dyehouse in Maine.

Worsted-spun yarns are more durable and dense than their woolen-spun counterparts, and have sharper stitch definition for crisp cables, lace, and texture patterns. Targhee wool spun in this manner has an abundance of one of my favorite yarn characteristics: elasticity. Garments knit with Arbor should wear well and look sharp for years to come.

I love seeing how these four shades fit seamlessly into the existing Arbor palette, and I’m looking forward to seeing them combined in multicolor projects, like Andrea Mowry’s “Tincture” or Shannon Cook’s “Atmen.” If you’re seeking a small one-color project, consider Emily Greene’s “Shear,” a textured hat designed specifically to showcase these new shades.

Come to our shop to plan your next project, and look for Brooklyn Tweed Arbor in our DK weight section!

Dream in Color Sock-It Club, part one.

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We’re happy to announce that we’re participating in Dream in Color’s Sock-It Club! That means that every month from July to November, we’re getting sock yarn in a special new colorway from Dream in Color, a Tuscon-based producer of small batch hand-dyed yarns.

Our July shipment did, in fact, arrive in July, but it sold right out in two days! In light of this positive response, we decided to increase the number of skeins we’ll receive through the rest of the club, and ordered some extra July skeins for good measure. So, if you saw this colorway on Instagram a couple of weeks ago and didn’t make it to the shop in time to snag a skein, here’s a second chance!

The limited edition Sock-It Club colorway is dyed on BFL Sock, a fingering weight blend of bluefaced leicester wool and nylon, with 420 yards on each 4 oz skein. BFL is naturally sturdy, but the addition of nylon makes it even more so: perfect for a special pair of socks.

Look for this limited edition colorway in the 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!

Shibui Sample of the Month: Sunstone Cowl.

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Happy to report that we’ve just received a new Shibui Sample of the Month! We usually offer a 10% discount on Shibui yarns featured in our monthly sample, but during July, everything is 15% off – even better!

This month’s Shibui sample is the “Sunstone Cowl,” knit with just one skein of Shibui Lunar. This textured cowl is long and narrow, but knit in a slinky lace weight yarn like Lunar, it’s designed to slouch down around one’s neck rather than to cling.

We’ll have the “Sunstone Cowl” on display through August 12th, but come by the shop during July to get everything in stock at 15% off!

Just a reminder – all sales are final on discounted items; there can be no exchanges or returns. Thanks!

Koigu Collector’s Club: Raku.

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UPDATE: As of 8/3/2018, we are sold out of Koigu Raku!

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We’re excited to announce that we’re participating in Koigu’s new club, the Koigu Collector’s Club! Each month, we’ll receive 21 skeins of KPPPM in a limited edition color dyed especially for 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. Each 50 gram skein has 170 yards, so 1 makes a pair of Churchmouse “Turkish Bed Socks,” 2 make an average pair of socks or “Barb’s Koigu Ruffle,” while 3 or 4 make a nice sized shawl, the likes of Martian Behm’s “Hitchhiker” or “Trillian.”

July’s limited edition colorway, Raku, was inspired by a pottery technique by the same name. It’s a colorful variegated colorway, a mix of light and dark blues with streaks of peach, lavender, sea green, and ivory. You can read more about Raku and the Koigu Collector’s Club on the Koigu blog!

Look for this limited edition colorway of Koigu KPPPM in our fingering weight section here at the shop, and remember, everything in stock is 15% off this month during our Annual Inventory Sale. See you there!

Just a reminder–all sales are final on discounted items; there can be no exchanges, returns, or special orders. Thanks!

Back in stock: Classy mini-skeins.

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Dream in Color Classy mini-skeins are back in stock, and how!

Dream in Color only occasionally produces these 50-yard mini-skeins of their worsted weight superwash wool, Classy, and the color selection is different every time. This order of mini-skeins is our biggest yet, boasting an astonishing 63 colors!

Melon & lime.

Some are highly variegated, some are semi-solid, some are speckled, and some are hybrids, but all are hand-dyed, so there’s some color variation in each skein.

Variegates & speckles.

Cherries & pastry.

I had a lot of fun arranging them in 8-skein combinations for “Technicolor Cowls.”

Denim & chambray.

Jewels & gems.

Nancy Leuer’s “Technicolor Cowl” is a simple but entertaining project with a focus on color.

It’s knit in the round, with stripes of stockinette and reverse stockinette that make a squishy, textured fabric from this springy superwash merino yarn. The pattern is free when you purchase eight Dream in Color Classy mini-skeins for the project.

Eggplant & pepper.

Moss & bark.

We’ve created kits in each of the colorways shown here, so if you’re struck by any of these combinations, it’s easy to pick up all the materials you need for the project.

A bundle of colorful mini-skeins and an easy pattern are the makings of a lovely gift, too!

Look for Dream in Color Classy mini-skeins in the worsted weight section, and have fun picking colors for a “Technicolor Cowl” of your own!