Tag Archives: woolen-spun

Sale of the Week: Brooklyn Tweed Ranch 02!

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Though we have to keep our doors closed during April, we’re still virtually open for mail orders, and we want to offer something fun during this uncertain time. Throughout April, we’ll have a special sale each week – 15% off a featured yarn, our Sale of the Week!

Our next Sale of the Week is 15% off Brooklyn Tweed Ranch 02, from April 8 – 14!

Ranch 02 is a worsted weight, woolen-spun, limited edition, ranch-specific Rambouillet yarn, which means every fiber in these skeins was sourced from a single flock of sheep living on Forbes Ranch in Kaycee, Wyoming. From there, the wool was scoured at Bollman Industries in Texas, spun at Crescent Woolen Mill in Wisconsin, and dyed at Caledonian Dye Works in Pennsylvania.

The 10-color palette is inspired by the landscape of northern Wyoming, and the sheep that roam the land. This 3 ply yarn is nice and round, and shows texture beautifully. That and its bouncy elasticity make it great fun to knit with, springy and light in the hand, making a soft, cohesive fabric.

Each 50 gram skein of Ranch 02 has 102 yards, and usually costs $16. For this week, it’s 15% off, which comes to $13.60 per skein. 2 skeins makes a hat, 7 skeins makes a shawl, and 10-19 makes a sweater.

Get in touch with us by April 14 to get 15% off BT Ranch 02 – thanks so much for continuing to support our small business!

 

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

Show and tell: Brooklyn Tweed Loft.

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Time for another round of show and tell! We love to see what you all are making with yarn from our shop, and when I’m able, I take pictures so that I can share those projects here on the blog. Looking over my current collection of show and tell photos, I spotted a handful in Brooklyn Tweed Loft, which has been featured in our BT Sample of the Month throughout March. With its heathered colors and rustic texture, Loft is worth celebrating – here are a few great ways to use it!

Kathryn designed and knit this “Bradshaw” cardigan for her son using Brooklyn Tweed Loft. This lightweight, woolen spun yarn beautifully shows the cables and gives this sweater a classic look. The pattern comes in a wide range of sizes, covering 0-6 months up to 10 years.

Above is Sidney’s “Perch,” designed by Gudrun Johnston, a triangular half hap featuring “old shale,” a classic lace pattern. I’m always pleased by the flecks of color that pop out of Loft when its knit up – in this case, they’re bright and festive against the overall dark brown color of the yarn.

Nancy knit Bristol Ivy’s “Bayard” hat with two shades of Loft, a high contrast color combination that blurs and blends a bit in one-row stripes and slipped stitches.

Thanks to Kathryn, Sidney, and Nancy for sharing their work with us, and thanks to everyone who starts their projects with a trip to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop! We can’t wait to see what comes off your needles next.

Hello, Brooklyn Tweed Ranch 02.

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

Meet Ranch 02, the second in Brooklyn Tweed’s series of ranch-specific, small-batch yarns.

Ranch 02 is a worsted weight, woolen-spun, limited edition, ranch-specific Rambouillet yarn, which means every fiber in these skeins was sourced from a single flock of sheep living on Forbes Ranch in Kaycee, Wyoming.

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 learn more about Forbes Ranch from a lovely video produced by BT – it gives a good sense of the people who made this yarn possible.

After the wool was sourced at Forbes Ranch in Wyoming, scoured at Bollman Industries in Texas, and spun at Crescent Woolen Mill in Wisconsin, it traveled to Pennsylvania to be dyed at Caledonian Dye Works. The 10-color palette is inspired by the landscape of northern Wyoming, and the sheep that roam the land.

What to knit with Ranch 02? Anything that calls for Shelter, Ranch 01, or worsted weight yarn of any kind. Here are a few ideas from the BT archive, all available to purchase from Ravelry and many available in print here at the shop:

Looking beyond Brooklyn Tweed designs, here are a few other patterns that would be great for Ranch 02:

Jared Flood has also designed two new patterns especially for Ranch 02, a textured yoke pullover and a cabled hat. As a special treat, you can get a coupon for a free download of Flood’s “Tillage Hat” with any purchase of Ranch 02 here at our shop!

Look for Ranch 02 in the worsted weight section here at our shop while supplies last, and check out our full selection of Brooklyn Tweed yarns and patterns while you’re here. See you at the shop!

Brooklyn Tweed Sample of the Month: Guernsey Wrap.

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Our Brooklyn Tweed Sample of the Month for October is here! Come by this month to see the “Guernsey Wrap.”

Jared Flood’s “Guernsey Wrap” has become Brooklyn Tweed’s best-selling pattern of all time, a now-classic rectangular shawl decorated with bands knit and purl texture patterns.

This version is knit with Shelter, Brooklyn Tweed’s signature worsted weight, woolen-spun yarn. It comes in 45 colors and we’re delighted to report that we have them all in stock. Even better, we’re offering them at 10% off during October!

Come by this month to see it for yourself, and pick a color for a “Guernsey Wrap” of your very own!

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

New colors in Brooklyn Tweed Shelter and Loft.

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Brooklyn Tweed recently released three new shades in Shelter and Loft, and we’re delighted to have them here at the shop!

Iceberg is a pale, chilly blue; there’s truly nothing like it in the Shelter and Loft palette! It plays well with the existing blues, while also expanding the options for color combinations. In the photo below, Iceberg is on the left, with Faded Quilt in the middle and Flannel on the right.

Shelter and Loft are rich in neutral colors, but Pumice rounds out the spectrum, a new medium gray.

Below, Pumice is shown between Snowbound and Sweatshirt, for a gray gradient.

Yellowstone is the third new shade, a rusty blend of umber and dark gold.

In the photo above, it sits between Sap and Fauna, making a mossy, autumnal trio.

Look for Shelter in our worsted weight section and Loft in the fingering weight section here at our 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!

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, Swans Island All American Worsted.

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We’re delighted to announce that Swans Island’s newest yarn has arrived at the shop: meet All American Worsted!

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All American Worsted is a 2-ply woolen-spun blend of 75% Rambouillet wool and 25% alpaca. There are 210 yards on each 80 gram skein, every bit of which was grown, processed, spun, and dyed in the USA.

DSCN3525All the colors begin with this shade of gray, the natural color of the Rambouillet and alpaca blend. The gray skeins are then dyed with low impact acid dyes, giving each hue a rich heathered quality.

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“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.

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Woolen-spun yarns like All American Worsted are also quite lofty, making them more versatile in terms of gauge. Swans Island suggests a gauge of 4.25 stitches per inch, which we’d consider aran weight, but All American Worsted is happy at a range of gauges. After washing, the fibers bloom to fill whatever space your needles have given them. The bottom section of the little swatch below was knit at 4.5 stitches per inch on a US #8; from there, I switched to a US #9, and the gauge is about 4 stitches per inch.

DSCN3530 I knit Stephen West’s “Dustland Hat” at 5 stitches per inch on a US #7, and the fabric is sturdy but supple. All American Worsted renders these knit/purl texture patterns beautifully, and I don’t doubt that it will perform just as well in cables, lace, and colorwork.

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For pattern ideas, check the Swans Island binder here at the shop. Their Organic Merino Worsted is comparable, so patterns that call for that yarn will do just as well in All American Worsted. Also, check your Ravelry queue for any patterns calling for Brooklyn Tweed Shelter–I know I am! Of all the yarns we ordered at TNNA this year, this is the one I’ve been perseverating on the most. Any of the Brooklyn Tweed patterns would be stunning in Swans Island All American Worsted, but for myself, I’ve boiled it down to three favorites: “Bray,” “Wheaten,” and “Little Wave.”

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Come by the shop to meet this gorgeous yarn in person, and plan your next project! Look for Swans Island All American Worsted in the aran weight section, near the Swans Island Organic Merino Worsted. See you there!