Along with our Malabrigo Lace, we got a handful of bags of Malabrigo Rios in whatever colors were available. It wasn’t a big Rios shipment, but it was enough to brighten the display, and to allow us to breathe easier, knowing there were sweater quantities of a few colors, if needed.
If you’ve ever come into the shop looking for washable worsted weight wool, you’re not alone. This seems to be one of our most common requests. Wool is soft, warm, wonderfully stretchy, and has many applications, all of which are qualities that draw knitters and crocheters to wool yarns. Many of those knitters and crocheters (as well as those they knit and crochet for) are also looking for yarns that can be machine washed without fear of accidental felting. Enter superwash wool. We’ve got a lot of it, and the rich, tonally-variegated Classy, from Dream In Color, is one of the first stops on the Washable Worsted Weight Wool Tour at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. Our stock had been dwindling, but a recent order got us back up to date on many colors that had been marked with the dreaded “L,” which stands for “Last,” as in, “Last skein in stock. Sorry!” Now there is a good chance that we have a sweater’s worth of most any color one could select from the Classy basket. Dig in, you makers of hats, mitts, baby sweaters and blankets, and rest easy: there’s no accidental felting in this yarn’s future.
If you’ve noticed a leaning towards finer-gauge yarns around here, that’s astute. Marion Foale, Kauni, Malabrigo Sock, Isager… these and other thin yarns get a lot of attention on the blog as well as in the shop. Both Anne and I are often happiest working with fingering or lace weight yarns and tiny needles. Don’t let that fool you, though. The Hillsborough Yarn Shop is well-stocked in heavier weight yarns of many kinds. We are even more well stocked this week, having received two 40 pound boxes from Cascade. Some of those pounds can be attributed to the worsted weight Lana d’Oro and the aran weight Eco Duo, both of which are soft and fuzzy blends of wool and alpaca.
Most of the weight in those boxes, though, is due to these chunkier yarns: Eco + and Magnum. Each one thicker than the last. The Eco + is a bulky weight wool with a gauge of about 3.5 stitches to the inch on a size 10 needle. It comes in enormous skeins of 478 yards, making it possible to knit an adult sweater in just 3 or 4 skeins, depending on the size. Eco + comes in a wide spectrum of solid and heathered colors, a spectrum we had only barely dipped into before this last reorder. Now we have about 18 different colors to choose from.
Meanwhile, the super bulky Cascade Magnum is easily the thickest yarn we carry, at 1.5 stitches per inch on a size 15 needle. This is a yarn for serious instant gratification knitting. Want to knit a hat in an evening? Reach for this yarn.
Come by the shop to say hello to these wintry wools from Cascade, and to begin dreaming up projects for these cozy, thick yarns.
I could not possibly be more excited to introduce you all to this thrilling new yarn, an organic, hand-dyed merino from the Maine-based company Swans Island.
If you’ve been in the shop in the past two days, then you know that our excitement for this yarn has been obvious, reflected not only in our squeals of delight and our ear-to-ear grins, but also in its placement: front and center on the teacart.
Swans Island Organic Merino is spun and dyed in Maine, and comes in two weights, a worsted and a fingering. The worsted is put up in 100 gram skeins with 250 yards each, while the fingering boasts 525 yards to the skein. These details blur into the background, however, when you touch this yarn. Immediately, the yarn’s main feature is obvious: it is incredibly, amazingly soft. The secret to this softness is in the gentle, minimal processing that comes with ecologically-friendly natural dyes, which you can read more about on the Swans Island website. My new hero, Clara Parkes, author of the Knitter’s Book of Wool, wrote a characteristically in-depth review of the Swans Island Worsted on her blog, Knitter’s Review–a great resource if you’re thinking of giving this yarn a try. And if you’re thinking of giving it a try but don’t know what to knit, check out the first wave of Swans Island patterns, which can be found in a binder between the two Swans Island baskets.
Myself, I’m the lucky girl who gets to knit up a shop sample with this wondrous stuff, a hat, which I’ve just cast on for. Only four rows in, I can already tell you that this yarn is a dream. I have several Swans Island sweater daydreams floating around in my head, competing with one another. I’m so excited, I have no idea which to cast on for!
Since I first wrote about Cascade 220 Superwash Sport back in February, it has become one of our best-selling yarns, in spite of the fact that we had no pattern support for it. It’s been a go-to for both knit and crocheted baby things, due to its stellar washability, and used for colorwork of all kinds, due to its wide spectrum of colors. Those who are comfortable designing their own sweaters, socks, and hats have used Cascade 220 Superwash Sport, and those who like to work from patterns have found that it makes a good substitute for yarns of all kinds, between a sport and a dk gauge. There have been many excuses to work with this yarn, and this week, we received a new book which promises 60 more.
Hats, mittens and scarves of many kinds, all made from Cascade 220 Sport, the hand-wash-only fraternal twin to Cascade 220 Superwash Sport. We actually don’t carry the 220 Sport, but as is so often the case, the 220 Superwash Sport makes an excellent substitute. The 220 Sport has slightly more yardage, so you’ll want to do a little math when you’re choosing 220 Superwash Sport yarn for these projects, but that’s the only caveat. Knit with Superwash Sport and your mittens wont felt onto your hands, and neither will your hats when they are accidentally thrown in the washing machine.
Here’s a peek inside the book:
And that’s only a tenth of it. Find it on the teacart, which is just brimming with fall knit and crochet inspiration.
Here is a yarn with a fanbase.
Malabrigo Silky Merino and Malabrigo Rios are back in stock! It’s been a long wait, and as we waited, our Malabrigo stash dwindled into a sad little stack of mismatching skeins. “Is the Malabrigo here yet?” became a common inquiry, always met with a sad shake of the head. Now that the full range of colors are back together, those sad skeins are looking much happier.
Above, you’ll see a slice of the Rios spectrum, a washable worsted weight wool. Below: Silky Merino, a dk weight single ply blend of, as the name suggests, silk and merino wool.
Come by the shop to take a look!
There’s been a lot of talk about cotton around here lately. Now, for something less seasonally appropriate, but equally if not more appealing: 100% alpaca, from Aslan Trends. We’ve carried this yarn for some time now, but recently received three new colors.
The combination of chocolate brown, golden yellow, and bubble-gum pink is purely accidental, but I think the three look quite happy together. Though they also look quite at home with the rest of the Royal Alpaca family, there at the top of the alpaca tree in the front room.
Those of you who love alpaca enough to knit with it in even the warmest months are encouraged to give this particular yarn a try. It’s smooth, with a bit of a halo, and absolutely, incredibly soft. Royal Alpaca would shine in a garment worn close to the skin–a squishy scarf or cowl, fingerless mitts, or a warm hat. The yarn is lovely enough to stick with solid colors, but to me, they beg to be combined in stripes or stranded colorwork. Brown, yellow, and pink, perhaps?
We’ve been waiting quite a while for a box from Schaefer Yarns. We’d long ago sold out of their textured worsted weight wool, Nancy, whose colorways are named for memorable women throughout history, the likes of Julia Child, Clara Barton, Renata Tebaldi, and Clare Booth Luce, among many others. On Thursday, the box from Schaefer came at last, so the Hillsborough Yarn Shop is home to Nancy once more.
There’s a limited amount of Andrea in stock, so if silk and lace are your weakness, don’t hesitate. See you at the shop!
A 48 pound box of yarn arrived from Plymouth this week, with three kinds in many different colors. Plymouth Select Worsted Merino Superwash is not a new yarn to us, but its easy care and bright color palette have made it popular at the shop, so we were in need of refilling. Composed of soft, springy merino, this yarn also boasts excellent stitch definition. There are many reasons to recommend it, but I’m particularly likely to point it out to someone knitting for babies or children, as it can be thrown in the washer and dryer with no problem.
We also received the new Kettle Dyed version of the same yarn, which is tonally variegated. There’s only one color in each colorway, but that color is darker in some spots and brighter in others, giving it some texture. While the solid Worsted Merino Superwash yarn comes in 218 yard skeins, its Kettle Dyed cousin offers a whopping 436 yards per skein.
We also replenished our supply of Plymouth’s Trabajos Del Peru, an aran weight single ply yarn which comes in semi-solid and multi-color variegated colorways. It’s made to be hand-washed rather than machine-washed, but don’t let that intimidate you if soft, fuzzy, slightly thick-and-thin yarn is right up your alley.
