Tag Archives: wool

Lucerne.

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Our shop is abuzz with excitement over Brooklyn Tweed’s new yarn, Peerie. The folks at BT were kind enough to send a couple of sample skeins our way in advance of the release, giving Anne just enough time to knit “Lucerne.”

Jared Flood’s “Lucerne” is a colorwork hat in two, three, or four shades of Brooklyn Tweed Peerie. It’s a perfect starting place for those new to stranded colorwork, and Peerie’s 45 shades are an absolute playground for knitters of all experience levels.

Anne’s “Lucerne” is in two shades, the dark green Nori and pale gray/green Gale. In this sample, the darker shade is the main color, but their positions could easily be swapped for an equally attractive, but very different look. Here are a few more two-color combinations to consider.

I couldn’t stop here, of course – in fact, I spent the better part of Wednesday afternoon creating and photographing color combinations for this project! Next up are three-color combinations. I began with one that Flood suggests in his pattern.

The formula here is straightforward: three colors, all from the same family – one light, one medium, and one dark. I had fun creating a few more in this vein.

The possibilities for four-color combinations are even more varied, of course. There are no rules, but it’s wise to have a range of values, so the individual colors can be distinguished from one another in the context of the pattern. Here’s one from Jared Flood.

Here are a few I came up with, just the beginning of what’s possible.

Until June 30th, the pattern is free when you buy Peerie here at our shop. Look for the yarn in the fingering weight section. We can’t wait to see what color combinations you come up with for “Lucerne” hats of your own!

Hello, Peerie.

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We are bursting with excitement because Brooklyn Tweed’s new yarn is here! Meet Peerie.

Peerie is a fingering weight, worsted spun, 100% merino wool yarn made entirely in the US. The sheep graze in Utah and Nevada, their fleece is spun in Springvale, Maine, and the resulting yarn is dyed in Saco, Maine.

Brooklyn Tweed is devoted to supporting the domestic textile industry, and works only with producers and processors who share their commitment to environmentally sustainable practices. Founder and designer Jared Flood and his team are also interested in breed-specific yarns, allowing knitters and crocheters to appreciate the unique qualities that each kind of wool possesses. Merino is one we’re used to seeing and working with, but American merino is less common; head to the BT blog for more information on that.

In Shetland vernacular, “peerie” means small, and is the name for the littlest, simplest fair isle motifs, a good sign that this yarn was designed with colorwork in mind. It comes in 45 shades, and we have each and every one on our shelves here at the shop.

Because of its round, smooth structure, Peerie is equally well-suited to texture, lace, and cable patterns.

The BT team reworked patterns in each of those veins: Heidi Kirrmaier’s “Boardwalk,” Irina Dmitrieva’s “Loden,” and Jared Flood’s “Afton.” For colorwork, consider Julie Hoover’s “Ashland” and Flood’s new “Lucerne.”

Any pattern that calls for fingering weight yarn should work well with Peerie – what are you itching to make with this exciting new yarn?

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

New colors in Malabrigo Mechita.

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This week brought us a big box of Malabrigo Mechita in nine brand new speckled colorways!

Mechita is a single ply superwash merino in a fingering weight, with a generous 420 yards on each 100 gram skein.

Suitable for sweaters, shawls, scarves, cowls, mitts, baby things and lightweight hats, Mechita has great potential.

In fact, it’s become a bit of a staple in our Fingering weight department, one we reorder again and again.

Look for Mechita in the fingering weight section here at the shop, and peruse our “Fingering weight” board on Pinterest for pattern ideas. We hope you find inspiration there, as well as among these colorful skeins of yarn!

Shibui Sample of the Month: Dynamic Trio.

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May is here, and with it, a new Shibui Sample of the Month! We offer a 10% discount on Shibui yarn purchased for our featured sample til the end of the month.

This month’s sample is “Dynamic Trio,” by Joji Locatelli, an asymmetric triangular shawl in three colors, decorated with chevrons and garter stitch stripes.

This “Dynamic Trio” was knit with Shibui Lunar held double throughout. Lunar is a lace weight blend of merino and silk, soft and lustrous for an elegant fabric.

Come by the shop to before May 31st to see “Dynamic Trio” and get Shibui Lunar at 10% off to make one of your own!

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

Back in stock: Vivacious 4ply.

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Last week brought an enormous shipment from Fyberspates, bursting with bags and bags of Vivacious 4ply.

Vivacious 4ply is a high twist, superwash merino wool in fingering weight. Each 100 gram skein has 399 yards, enough for a pair of socks or mitts, a hat, scarf, or shawlette.

We restocked all the colors we’ve ever had and added a few new ones, too.

Tom recently knit this “Wuthering Heights MKAL” shawl with two skeins of Vivacious 4ply in a beautiful high-contrast color combination.

Lately we’re seeing many knitters reach for this yarn to knit larger shawls and wraps. The robust and ever-growing palette of colors lends itself particularly to gradient-making, or fades – think Andrea Mowry’s “Find Your Fade,” or Joji Locatelli’s recent “Fading Point.” Here are a few color combinations with the latter pattern in mind.

Colors shown, left to right: 602, 617, 615, 626, 625.

Colors shown, left to right: 609, 607, 608, 606, 626.

Colors shown, left to right: 624, 610, 628, 609, 607.

Colors shown, left to right: 611, 618, 600, 620, 628.

Check our “Fingering weight” board on Pinterest for more pattern ideas, and look for Vivacious 4ply here at the shop!

Back in stock: Tukuwool Fingering.

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We recently restocked a relatively new-to-us yarn, Tukuwool Fingering, which has quickly become a favorite. Anne and I were so excited when this enormous box arrived from Canada, especially because it held three brand new colors!

Tukuwool Fingering is a woolen-spun, fingering weight blend of Finnsheep and Finnsheep-Texel wool, sourced and produced entirely in Finland. It’s a little toothy, but soft enough for next-to-skin wear, depending upon one’s preferences; a springy and resilient yarn.

I knit two “Bousta Beanies” with this yarn and fell in love with it along the way. Its texture and color palette make it particularly well-suited to colorwork, I think, a quality that shines in local designer Kerry Bullock-Ozkan’s “Rionnag Cowl.”

Perhaps you saw this cowl on display during our recent HYS Colorwork Trunk Show – it’s home with Kerry again, but still on my mind. We have print copies of the pattern here at the shop, but it’s also available on Ravelry.

Unpacking that big box of Tukuwool, I contemplated quartets of color with this cowl in mind; here are a few I came up with.

Since I first wrote about Tukuwool Fingering back in September, a number of new designs have been published for this special yarn:

Look for Tukuwool Fingering here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop – come by to see and touch it for yourself, and plan your next project!

Hello, Brooklyn Tweed Ranch 01.

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We are delighted to announce that Brooklyn Tweed’s newest yarn has arrived!

Ranch 01 is a worsted weight, limited edition, ranch-specific Rambouillet yarn, which means every fiber in these skeins was sourced from a single flock of sheep living on Bare Ranch in Surprise Valley, CA.

Brooklyn Tweed has always sought to highlight single breed wools and support US ranchers with sustainable environmental practices. This project allows them to shine a spotlight on the people and practices behind their yarns, one ranch at a time. You can read more about Bare Ranch on the BT blog and get a good sense of the people who made this yarn possible.

After the wool was sourced at Bare Ranch, scoured in South Carolina, and spun in Maine, it traveled to Pennsylvania to be hand-dyed with natural pigments at Green Matters Natural Dye Company. Ranch 01 colors are created with plant-, mineral-, and insect-based natural dyes, pigments that need to be cared for differently than conventional dyes.

With this in mind, Brooklyn Tweed has created a tip sheet to go with Ranch 01, with information about naturally dyed yarn and how to care for it – we’ll include one with each purchase of Ranch 01 here at our shop.

What to knit with Ranch 01? At 220 yards per hank, you can get a hat or pair of mitts out of one skein, and a scarf or cowl out of two or three skeins. Look for a binder of Ranch 01 patterns here at the shop for ideas!

The yarn arrived today, but already it’s selling quickly – come by and see it while supplies last! The small-batch nature of this yarn means we can’t reorder it, and when it’s gone, it’s gone.

See you at the shop!

Hello, Kelbourne Woolens Scout.

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It’s been only a couple of months since Kelbourne Woolens debuted their very first yarn, Andorra, and already we’re welcoming their second! Meet Scout.

Scout is a DK weight 2ply wool in heathered colorways, with a generous 274 yards on each 100 gram skein.

It knits up at a gauge of 20-22 stitches over 4″ using US 5-7 needles, so it may be suitable for patterns calling for light worsted weight yarn as well as DK.

The Kelbourne Woolens design team has concocted a batch of patterns for Scout that show it off in a variety of contexts: cables, knit/purl texture patterns, lace, and colorwork, looking modern and traditional all at once – a Kelbourne Woolens trademark.

As ever, my interest is particularly piqued by the colorwork designs, Kate Gagnon Osborn’s “Ballard” hat and “Ranier” pullover. Those patterns had me looking for two-color pairs in Scout; three of my favorite combinations are pictured above.

Look for Scout in the DK weight section here at the shop!

Hello, Semilla.

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Earlier in the month, we welcomed BC Garn to the fold here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. We now stock two yarns from this Danish company; Loch Lomond got a proper introduction on the blog, and now it’s time to meet Semilla.

Semilla is a 100% organic wool. This means it’s been certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), so we can be confident that it’s produced safely and responsibly, from the fiber to the dye.

Each 50 gram ball has 175 yards, and the suggested gauge is 5.5 stitches per inch on a US 6, which is why it’s found a home in our DK weight section here at the shop. It’s very round and smooth for a 2ply yarn, in part because of its tight twist. These qualities give Semilla nice stitch definition for texture patterns, cables, and lace.

One ball of Semilla would make a nice pair of mitts, like Churchmouse’s evergreen “Welted Fingerless Gloves.” While we’re thinking Churchmouse, consider also their “Easy Folded Poncho” and “Welted Cowl & Infinity Loop,” either of which is a good fit for Semilla.

Though it’s hand-wash only, this soft organic wool is a nice choice for baby things, too – think tincanknits’ “Dog Star,” “Peanut,” and “Clayoquot Toque.”

Look to our “DK weight” Pinterest board for more pattern ideas, and come by the shop to see Semilla for yourself!

Marie Wallin’s Shetland.

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Happy to report that Marie Wallin’s Shetland is back in stock!

This exquisite book is full of intricate fair isle designs in a kaleidoscopic array of colors, all knit with the quintessential Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift.

Wallin is a British designer known for her rich colorwork designs, inspired by traditional fair isle knitting, but applied to modern, wearable shapes and styles.

We’ve actually sold out of this book twice now – each batch we’ve ordered has disappeared before I have a chance to snap a photo or write about it here on the blog. Our third batch is half gone as I write this, but fear not – another is on the way!

Look for Shetland on the teacart here at the shop, amidst piles of new books and magazines, full of inspiration for new projects. See you there!