Tag Archives: wool

Hello, Brooklyn Tweed Arbor.

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Brooklyn Tweed yarns are now available at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop! We’re starting with Shelter, Loft, and Arbor, and introducing each one on the blog this week. Today, meet Arbor.

Brooklyn Tweed Arbor is a 3-ply DK weight yarn composed of 100% Targhee wool. It’s Brooklyn Tweed’s newest yarn, and their biggest departure from what has so far been a line of woolen-spun heathers – Arbor is worsted-spun, and skein-dyed in solid colors at the organically-certified Saco River Dyehouse in Maine.

All 30 of these subtle, intriguingly-named colors are now on our shelves.

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.

Brooklyn Tweed’s first round of patterns for Arbor are perfect examples of how well this yarn behaves in cables and texture patterns. Here are a few that caught my eye:

All of these Brooklyn Tweed patterns (and so many more!) are available as Ravelry In-Store Pattern Sales, where you purchase the pattern here at the shop and a digital copy is saved in your email and/or Ravelry pattern library. We’ll print a copy for you, too, so you can head right home and cast on.

Look for more ideas on our DK weight Pinterest board, and look for Brooklyn Tweed Arbor in the DK weight section here at the shop. See you there!

Hello, Brooklyn Tweed Loft.

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Brooklyn Tweed yarns are now available at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop! We’re starting with Shelter, Loft, and Arbor, and introducing each one on the blog this week. Today, meet Loft.

Brooklyn Tweed Loft is a fingering weight, woolen-spun Targhee-Columbia wool. Loft is named for one of its best qualities, and like Shelter, it’s somewhat delicate, but especially warm for its weight.

We have all 37 colors of Loft in stock, a playground for the eyes. Like Shelter, these shades are created by dyeing the fiber in 16 vibrant solids, then blending them, two or three at a time, into intricate heathers.

Ever since Clara Parkes reviewed Loft back in 2011 and described it as “pretty much perfect,” I’ve been anxious to get my hands on it. Now that it’s here at the shop, I’ve been combing through years of my favorites on Ravelry, considering which Loft pattern I’d most like to start with. Here are some of the many:

You can tell from this selection that I have a special fondness for stranded colorwork, and while Loft is especially well-suited to that technique, it’s just as happy to render lace or texture patterns, along with simple stockinette. Case in point: Anne has her eye on “Hellebore,” by Michele Wang, a pullover with stockinette body and cabled sleeves. In fact, she has already eagerly knit a swatch, and all that’s left is to choose a color – a fun, hard decision with so many beautiful shades at our fingertips.

All of these Brooklyn Tweed patterns (and so many more!) are available as Ravelry In-Store Pattern Sales, where you purchase the pattern here at the shop and a digital copy is saved in your email and/or Ravelry pattern library. We’ll print a copy for you, too, so you can head right home and cast on. Look for more Loft pattern inspiration on our Fingering weight Pinterest board!

Look for Brooklyn Tweed Loft in the fingering weight section here at the shop. See you there!

Hello, Brooklyn Tweed Shelter.

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Brooklyn Tweed yarns are now available at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop! We’re starting with Shelter, Loft, and Arbor, and introducing each one on the blog this week. Today, meet Shelter.

Brooklyn Tweed Shelter is a worsted weight, woolen-spun Targhee-Columbia wool, sourced, dyed, and spun entirely in the USA. Woolen-spun yarns are lofty and somewhat delicate, and because of the air trapped between their jumbled fibers, they are also especially warm for their weight. Clara Parkes has written at length about this, in her Knitter’s Book of Wool as well as in her glowing review of Shelter.

We have all 40 colors of Shelter in stock, an outstanding palette of 37 heathers and 3 marls. These shades are created by dyeing the fiber in 16 vibrant solids, then blending them, two or three at a time, into intricate heathers.

In the marled colorways, each ply is a different shade.

Shelter is amenable to a range of gauges, in part because it’s woolen-spun, and is happy to expand or contract based on the needle size used. Give your finished piece a soapy bath, and you’ll find that the yarn blooms into a cohesive, somewhat fuzzy fabric.

The Brooklyn Tweed archives are bursting with tempting patterns for Shelter, the first yarn they developed, and a browse through those patterns show that the yarn is well suited to all manner of techniques, from cables and texture to lace and colorwork. Here are some of the Shelter patterns I’ve admired over the years, that I can’t wait to take another look at now that this exciting yarn is easily within reach:

All of these Brooklyn Tweed patterns (and so many more!) are available as Ravelry In-Store Pattern Sales, where you purchase the pattern here at the shop and a digital copy is saved in your email and/or Ravelry pattern library. We’ll print a copy for you, too, so you can head right home and cast on. Check out our Worsted weight Pinterest board for a few more pattern ideas!

Look for Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in the worsted weight section here at the shop. See you there!

Hello, Brooklyn Tweed.

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If you’ve read our newsletter and blog carefully over the past couple of weeks, you know we’ve had something big in the works. Our excitement and anticipation are so great that it’s been near impossible to keep the surprise under our hats, but the surprise has now arrived, in eight huge boxes.

I’m delighted to announce that we now carry Brooklyn Tweed yarns here at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop!

Founded by designer and photographer Jared Flood in 2010, Brooklyn Tweed is a yarn company devoted to supporting the domestic textile industry, and one known as much for their exquisite knitting patterns as for their thoughtfully-produced yarns. We’ve followed them all these years, often admiring and occasionally knitting their patterns, hoping to become a stockist when the time was right. I’m so happy the time has come!

We’re starting with Brooklyn Tweed’s first two yarns, Shelter and Loft, along with their very latest, Arbor.

Brooklyn Tweed’s dedication to producing wool conscientiously here in the US is a major part of their appeal. One of the other things we love about Brooklyn Tweed yarns is that they are breed-specific, so you can get to know and appreciate the subtle differences in wool, as they do vary from sheep breed to sheep breed. Their colors are special, too – intricate heathers made by dyeing, then blending, then spinning the wool, in the case of Shelter and Loft, or by skein-dyeing at the organically-certified Saco River Dyehouse in Maine, in the case of Arbor.

Each of these three Brooklyn Tweed yarns will get a proper introduction here on the blog, but in the meantime, they’ve found a happy home on our shelves, so come by the shop to see them in person!

Shibui Sample of the Month: Mix No. 23.

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

This month’s featured sample is one of our own, a “Mix No. 23” cowl that Amy knit. This reversible double-knit cowl was designed by Lidia Tsymbal, and knit with Shibui Cima held double throughout.

I knit a “Mix No. 23” for myself a couple of years ago, and it served as my introduction to Shibui and to double knitting. It’s by far my favorite handknit accessory, I wear it every day of the winter and most of the fall and spring. Knitters often ask me if it’s difficult to do, and though “difficult” is in the eye of the beholder, I’d consider this a bit of a challenge, but a rewarding one. The double-knit chart took a bit of getting used to, and it was a few long rows before I realized how I was making two pieces of fabric at once. Since both colors are in use on every row, I found it really useful to hold one color in my right hand and one in my left as I worked.

We’re offering a 10% discount on Cima purchased for this project til the end of the month, so come by the shop to start a “Mix No. 23” of your own before January 31st!

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

New from MJ Yarns, part 2.

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I’ll continue this virtual unpacking of our recent MJ Yarns shipment with the newest yarn at the shop: say hello to the Simple Sock mini-skeins.

These 50 yard mini-skeins are semi-solid colors hand-dyed on a fingering weight blend of Corriedale wool and nylon, machine-washable and sturdy enough for socks.

They’re perfect for small, decorative projects, like Churchmouse’s “Jolly Wee Elf,” Kate Gagnon Osborn’s “Holiday Cheer Ornaments,” Tanis Lavalee’s “Love You Forever” hearts, or Anna Hrachovec’s “Tiny Fox” and “Tiny Owl.”

Any of you out there working on “Beekeeper’s Quilts” with your fingering weight leftovers? A handful of Simple Sock mini-skeins could augment your collection, provide a little pop of color. The smallest toddler size of Kathryn Folkerth’s “Badlands Mitts” calls for just 50 yards, too!

Mini-skeins like these are also well-suited to striped or fair-isle socks or mitts, many-colored shawls, hats, or cowls. Consider Melanie Berg’s “Solaris,” Martina Behm’s “Leftie,” and Joji Locatelli’s “Fine Tune.”  Here are a couple of combinations I dreamed up with no particular pattern in mind, just an impulse to play with the colors at hand.

Look for a basket full of MJ Yarns Simple Sock mini-skeins in the fingering weight section here at the shop, and create color combinations all your own! See you there.

New from MJ Yarns, part 1.

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A couple of weeks ago, we got a big box from MJ Yarns in Lafayette, Colorado. It was stuffed with colorful hand-dyed yarns, half of them new shades in a familiar base and the other half a new yarn altogether. For today, we’ll look at that first half: new colors in Opulent Fingering.

Opulent Fingering is a tightly-plied blend of 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, and 10% nylon, with 416 yards on each 100 gram skein. It’s perfect for a special pair of socks, a cowl, shawl, or pair of mitts.

MJ Yarns specializes in variegated and semi-solid colorways, some of which have short color runs to minimize pooling. Others, like the shades in the new Weird Sisters line, are dyed specifically with pooling in mind, and create a unique spiral stripe throughout socks, mitts, or other small circumference knits.

The Weird Sisters’ color names are as colorful as the skeins, inspired by the witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. For more information about how to manipulate the colors in these unique skeins, along with a free sock pattern, head to the MJ Yarns website. I also spotted the “Weird Sisters Hat” on Ravelry, a simple stockinette number designed to show off these very colorways.

Look for Opulent Fingering in the fingering weight section here at the shop, and keep your eye on the blog to see what else was in our box from MJ Yarns! See you at the shop.

Hello, Swans Island Firefly.

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A special new yarn arrived at the shop a few weeks ago: meet Firefly, from the Swans Island Ikat Collection.

These unique skeins are hand-dyed using an Indonesian dyeing technique called Ikat. Hanks of undyed merino wool are tied tightly in a few places with cord, and the portions of the skeins that are wrapped resist the dye, creating little white flecks on a semi-solid background.

The yarn looks quite different in knitted fabric than it does in the skein; a wound ball of Firefly offers a little preview of how the color plays out.

Each 100 gram skein of this yarn boasts 525 yards, plenty for a pair of mitts, a hat, cowl, or shawl. Stacy McCrea Warner designed “Aurora,” a set of mitts, hat, and cowl for Firefly using a trio of colors.

Patterns with simple stitch patterns will allow this speckled yarn to shine; think “Hitchhiker,” “Stonington Hat,” or “Still Waters Cowl.” Look for Firefly in the fingering weight section here at the shop – see you there!

Hello, Baa Baa Bulky.

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I’m delighted to announce that the latest yarn from Ewe Ewe is now on our shelves! Meet Baa Baa Bulky.

Like Wooly Worsted and Ewe So Sporty, Baa Baa Bulky is a superwash merino, soft and easy to care for.

We’ve been short on washable yarns in bulky weight these past few years, so we’re particularly excited to welcome Baa Baa Bulky to the fold. For frequently-worn accessories, baby and children’s garments, superwash wool is just the thing, and this one is a pleasure to work with.

I’ve developed an extremely simple baby blanket pattern to show off Baa Baa Bulky, a small piece designed for a car seat or stroller.

It’s nothing but good old garter stitch, squishy, stretchy, and warm. I picked a trio of gender neutral colors, though I find the combination of white, gray, and a pop of color quite appealing, regardless of the pop color.

The pattern is free when you purchase the yarn from us. Look for Baa Baa Bulky in the bulky weight section here at the shop, and come by to pick three shades to make a “Baa Baa Blanket” all your own!

See you at the shop.

Hello, Malabrigo Caracol.

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Back at TNNA in June, we stopped by the Malabrigo booth, eager to see their newest yarn for the first time. Caracol is not only new, but also an unusual yarn, for Malabrigo and the Hillsborough Yarn Shop alike. We were genuinely surprised when we saw it, and I’m happy to report that it’s now on our shelves! Meet Caracol.

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Caracol is a super bulky weight yarn with a thick and thin texture, a style we haven’t brought into the shop for a few years now, as preferences for smoother yarns grew. What really sets this yarn apart, though, is that it’s criss-crossed by a thinner yarn before being kettle-dyed in Malabrigo’s signature super-saturated colorways, creating a unique look and texture we’ve just never seen before.

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Some skeins are criss-crossed with a black binder thread, giving a stained glass effect, and others with white, for more subtle variation.

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We went home from TNNA with a sample skein of Caracol that was handed over to me for sample-knitting. A yarn with this much personality doesn’t need a complicated pattern to show it off, so I knit up a very quick hat and topped it with a very big pom-pom. The pattern is “The Big Hat,” a free download from Ravelry, also suitable for Malabrigo Rasta if smoother yarns are more your speed.

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Those who know me know this is not usually my kind of yarn, but I have to say, this was a really fun change of pace! Caracol is squishy, soft as can be, and provides near-instant gratification. Look for it in the super bulky section here at the shop, and remember it when the need for a handmade gift sneaks up at the last minute!

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