Ewe Ewe Trunk Show!

Posted by Julia on September 17, 2015

Our walls are newly decorated with garments made in Ewe Ewe yarns! To celebrate, we’re offering a special 10% trunk show discount on Ewe Ewe yarns during the show.

Ewe Ewe makes some of the softest, springiest, superwash merino yarns around. Ewe So Sporty is a sport weight, and Wooly Worsted is a worsted weight.

This collection features a variety of accessories and children’s things in both yarns, using a variety of knitting and crochet techniques.

Come by the shop before September 27th to see the Ewe Ewe Trunk Show, and get Ewe Ewe yarns at 10% off during the show!

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

Hello, Baa Ram Ewe Dovestone DK.

Posted by Julia on September 8, 2015

Baa Ram Ewe’s new yarn has arrived! Meet Dovestone DK.

Dovestone DK is a dk weight blend of 50% bluefaced leicester, 25% masham, and 25% wensleydale wools, all sourced and spun in the UK. It’s a nice big 100 gram hank with 252 yards, plenty for a hat, pair of mitts, or small cowl.

The masham is naturally dark brown, and just as in Fibre Company Cumbria and Swans Island All American Worsted, the light and dark fibers combine to create a gray base over which all the other colorways are dyed. It complicates the colors in a pleasing way, adding depth and a slight heathered quality.

Baa Ram Ewe has released some simple accessory patterns for Dovestone DK, showing how nicely it behaves in stripes and stranded colorwork, along with lace and crochet.

They also enlisted the help of designer Carol Feller, whose new booklet Dovestone Hills is named for the yarn used within.

Myself, I’ve been anxious to use Dovestone DK for an “Epistrophy” cardigan, from Kate Davies’ Yokes. We saw one hanging in the Baa Ram Ewe booth at market and I’ve been smitten ever since.

Check out our “DK weight” board on Pinterest for more pattern ideas, and come by the shop to see Dovestone DK for yourself!

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 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!

Back in stock: Malabrigo Rios.

Posted by Julia on August 17, 2015

The July sale put a big dent in our inventory of Malabrigo Rios. It’s no surprise so many knitters took the opportunity to stock up at a discount; Rios is beautifully hand-dyed in rich, memorable colors, soft and springy in the hand, and machine-washable, no less. We’re delighted to have bunches more of the stuff on our shelves after a big reorder.

A superwash worsted weight wool is a versatile kind of yarn, good for garments and accessories alike. We’ve noticed that Rios is particularly beloved for baby blankets, and it was Purl Soho’s generous collection of free baby blanket patterns that came to mind as I unpacked this shipment.

The Purl Soho “Super Easy Crib Blanket” calls for seven colors, and I had fun putting a few colorways together in Rios. There’s a “Crochet Super Easy Baby Blanket,” too!

The classic colors in their “Hudson Bay Inspired Crib Blanket” pattern are easy to approximate in Rios.

I also like the “Shadow Stripe Baby Blanket,” which looks like a good, easy project for learning intarsia. It’s shown in three colors, a white background with two-tone stripes.

Also consider the Purl Soho “Flying Geese Knit Baby Blanket,” “Mosaic Blanket,” and “Forever Baby Blanket,” all of which would look great in Malabrigo Rios.

We also replenished our supply of Malabrigo Sock, for those that prefer a smaller gauge yarn. Come by the shop to plan your next project, and remember Rios next time a baby blanket appears on your to-do list!

Back in stock: Swans Island Natural Colors Merino Fingering.

Posted by Julia on August 15, 2015

Swans Island Natural Colors Merino Fingering has been a favorite yarn from the moment it first arrived at the shop, back in 2011. It’s been so well-loved, in fact, that our basket of the stuff began to empty once again last month, leaving us with a paltry palette of just eight-or-so colors. Our recent Swans Island shipment remedied that, and how.

We added eleven colors on this order, filling the basket quite nicely, indeed.

The Natural Colors collection is so-named because its yarns are hand-dyed with plant-, mineral-, and insect-based natural dyes. One of those is indigo, used to create vivid blues, purples, and grays.

Indigo has a tendency to rub off with the abrasion of knitting or crocheting, and will turn your fingers blue as you work with it. It washes off with soap and water, and shouldn’t continue to rub off once the finished piece is washed and rinsed til the water runs clear. I wrote a blog post awhile back about what to expect from indigo-dyed yarns, and Swans Island marks their indigo-based colors with a little tag, explaining the same.

Over the years, we’ve seen glorious shawls and stunning sweaters made from this special yarn. It’s happy in stitch patterns from simple garter stitch to elegant lace, and one 525 yard skein goes a long way. For pattern inspiration, check out our Pinterest page online, or come to the shop to flip through the Swans Island pattern binder.

Look for Swans Island Natural Colors Merino Fingering in the fingering weight section of the shop. See you there!

Back in stock: Swans Island Organic Washable DK.

Posted by Julia on August 13, 2015

Our recent Swans Island shipment that brought the new All American Sport brought a few other goodies, too. We’ve restocked two of our favorite Swans Island yarns with new colors! Let’s begin with Organic Washable DK.

Organic Washable DK is no ordinary superwash wool. Swans Island have made this dk weight yarn machine-washable using a process called Ecowash®, which coats the yarn with an organic compound rather than stripping the scales from the fiber. This helps to prevent felting and gives the Swans Island Organic Washable a softer hand than many other superwash wools.

I recently knit a cowl with this soft, springy yarn, using a pattern of my own design, the “Welting Fantastic Cowl.”

It’s a pleasing texture pattern, both in the process and the finished product, and this yarn is a perfect choice to show it off. I alternated skeins to minimize any pooling, working two rows from one skein, then two from the other, back and forth as if knitting stripes. I was glad I did, too; though I carefully selected three skeins from the same dyelot that looked harmonious, one turned out noticeably darker than the rest once I began knitting. Alternating skeins helped to create a consistent-looking fabric.

Come by the shop to see our newly expanded palette of Swans Island Organic Washable DK, and try on my “Welting Fantastic Cowl” for size. If it strikes your fancy, note that I also wrote a pattern for matching fingerless mitts! Keep your eyes on the blog for more from Swans Island soon.

Hello, Swans Island All American Sport.

Posted by Julia on August 8, 2015

The newest yarn from Swans Island has arrived at the shop! Meet All American Sport.

All American Sport is a 2-ply woolen-spun yarn composed of 100% Rambouillet wool, a little cousin of sorts to Swans Island All American Worsted. There are 185 yards on each 40 gram skein, every bit of which was grown, processed, spun, and dyed in the USA. This yarn is a unique combination of next-to-skin soft and holds-its-shape sturdy, and was created with stranded colorwork in mind. That’s why it comes in this huge selection of colors.

For a newly released yarn from a small, thoughtful company, this is one outrageous color palette! There’s something for everyone and every project here, whether you favor brights, neutrals, pastels, or jewel tones.

“Woolen-spun” means that the yarn is spun from fiber that has been carded, but not combed. The carding process organizes the fibers to some degree, but they are not as smoothly aligned as combed fibers, giving woolen-spun yarns a rustic look.

Woolen-spun yarns like All American Sport are also quite lofty, making them versatile in terms of gauge. Swans Island suggests a gauge of 6 stitches per inch, but All American Sport is happy at a range of gauges. After washing, the fibers bloom to fill whatever space your needles have given them. The swatch above illustrates this, as I knit it using needles from US #3 – 6.

Does it come as any surprise that I am utterly enamored of this yarn? I took so many pictures of it that there just isn’t room in one blog post, so you can look forward to a second installment soon, covering the glorious pattern collection that accompanies this special yarn. In the meantime, come by the shop to ooh and ahh over Swans Island All American Sport!

Back in stock: Jitterbug.

Posted by Julia on August 4, 2015

Colinette Jitterbug is a longtime favorite here at the shop, a bouncy superwash merino wool in a fingering weight.

We were so delighted yesterday to fill the somewhat empty Jitterbug cubby with an armful of new colors, some semi-solid, some wildly variegated.

Jitterbug is great for socks, but over the years, we’ve seen it put to many other uses, like blankets and baby things, sweaters and shawls. Check out the “Fingering weight” board on the HYS Pinterest page for pattern ideas.

Look for Jitterbug in the fingering weight section at the shop! See you there.

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!