Hello, Ewe Ewe.

Once again, Clara Parkes inspired us with a recent Knitter's Review. She never fails to peak our interest. Sometimes it's a tool, sometimes a book--this time, it's yarn, from a new company called Ewe Ewe.

Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted Washable is a squishy, soft yarn which is well described by its alliterative name. With 95 yards of machine-washable merino wool in each 50 gram ball, Wooly Worsted Washable is an excellent choice for accessories and baby things.

The color palette is limited but vibrant, and the pattern support makes good use of it in stripes and colorwork.

This yarn is a pleasure to knit with, with brilliant stitch definition and a springy texture. "It knits itself," Anne has often remarked since Ewe Ewe's arrival, and she should know. This baby hat was completed in less than 24 hours, with enough yarn left over to make another with the colors inverted.

Come by the shop to pet Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted Washable, and remember it for baby- and gift-knitting. Find it on the teacart, and find Ewe Ewe patterns in our recently reorganized pattern binders.

Hello, Bluestocking.

Surprise, surprise: I have some new yarn from String Theory to share. Say hello (again) to Bluestocking, a soft, sturdy fingering weight yarn composed of 80% Bluefaced Leicester wool and 20% nylon.

If it seems like we're ordering from String Theory weekly, it's because we are. Anne and I love this yarn, and it's clear you all do, too, at the rate it's disappearing from our shelves! While Caper Sock has been ordered and reordered several times, we hadn't shown the same love to Bluestocking until this past week.

Anne started a pair of Bluestocking socks, couldn't keep her hands off them, and suddenly we were on the phone with the wonderful people at String Theory Hand Dyed Yarn, in Blue Hill, Maine. Much to Anne's dismay, I suggested we start small, to the tune of six colors. When we sold half of them on the day they arrived, it was clear that I was wrong and Anne was right: Hillsborough Yarn Shoppers have enough love for both Caper Sock and Bluestocking. We ordered more.

I've got a skein of the stuff waiting for me at home, and it is torture not to cast on immediately. Care to torture yourself in a similar fashion? Come by the shop and witness the glory of all of String Theory's yarns. See you there!

Hello, Firefly.

A new yarn from Classic Elite has just landed at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. Say hello to Firefly.

Firefly is a sport-weight yarn with a bit of a sheen to it, composed of 75% rayon and 25% linen. It has arrived just in time for spring and summer knitting and crochet, and looks to be a good choice for lightweight scarves, shawls, and garments where drape is key.

A new pattern booklet from Classic Elite, Peabody Path, features Firefly, and is a good starting place for those seeking a use for this yarn.

Find the yarn and its booklet on the teacart, and look for Firefly in action on Anne's needles; she couldn't wait to start swatching as soon as this yarn came in!

Hello, Caper Sock.

As many of you already know, String Theory yarns move quickly around here. One week, we're tearing into a box of their hand-dyed yarn, and the next, it seems, we're studying an emptying cubby of Caper Sock, wondering how we sold out of so many colors so quickly. It gives us an excuse to give them a call and request more, of course, and with each order, we are tempted by the many colorways we haven't stocked before. Our most recent order brought the biggest variety of Caper Sock we've seen yet.

What a spectrum! I find myself selecting colors I'd normally pass over. Suddenly, I like purple, and grass green.

Those of you who subscribe to our newsletter may already know that I recently self-published a pattern using Caper Sock.

North Arrow is a two-color garter stitch scarf with a short-row triangle and chevron stripes. My version is now hanging in the shop, so you can see and touch the scrumptious, soft fabric that Caper Sock creates. With our current selection of colors, choosing a pair for North Arrow makes for a fun diversion. I'd love to see a North Arrow in any of these combinations, for example:

Or you could follow Anne's lead, and knit a North Arrow in Malabrigo Sock yarn.

We have even more Malabrigo Sock to choose from than we do Caper Sock, if you'll recall, making the color-combining into a seemingly-endless game. Come to the shop and play!

And do take a look at North Arrow on Ravelry, if you're interested. I'd love to hear what you think!

Hello, Malabrigo Finito.

A few months ago, I overheard Anne having a serious-sounding phone conversation with a representative from Malabrigo Yarns. I heard her request "a bag in every color" and knew it must be something good. Then a pause. Then, "better make it two bags in every color." It must be very good indeed, I thought. How right I was!

Malabrigo has released another new yarn: Finito, a fingering weight superfine merino wool. Produced in limited quantities only once a year, Finito is made from the very finest of merino wool fiber, and beautifully hand-dyed in the usual Malabrigo fashion. The people at Malabrigo told us it was softer than their usual merino wool, which was hard to imagine, but I must say, they weren't wrong. Each 50 gram skein is 200 yards long and deliciously soft to the touch.

Of course Anne has already selected enough for a sweater. I tried to exercise some restraint and only came home with three skeins to play with. What will become of these three skeins I don't quite know, but I'm sure I will have a wonderful time finding out.

Come by the shop to see this newest Malabrigo yarn as well as the old favorites: Malabrigo Lace, Sock, Arroyo, Rios, Silky Merino, Worsted, and Twist. See you at the shop!

Hello, Plant Fiber.

Last week, we welcomed a brand new Isager yarn to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. Say hello to Isager Plant Fiber.

Plant Fiber is composed entirely of plant fibers, as you might have guessed: 70% ramie, 15% bamboo, and 15% hemp. It comes in 165-yard, 50 gram balls, has a nice shiny quality, and is available in 12 colors. As is typical for Isager yarns, the color palette is quite subdued, with a few standout colorways that pop out when combined with the others. These colors beg to be paired up.

We haven't yet worked up a Plant Fiber swatch or sample, but I'll be sure to post here when we do. I'm so curious to see how it knits up! Marianne Isager has designed two summer tops that use Plant Fiber, the patterns for which are tucked in with the yarn on the teacart.

Take a look, and consider Isager Plant Fiber for your warm-weather knitting projects.

Hello, Rialto Lace.

When the Spring/Summer issue of Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine arrived last month, we noticed that several of the patterns called for a brand new Debbie Bliss yarn: Rialto Lace. Debbie Bliss's Rialto line of yarns are all composed of springy 100% superwash merino wool, and we've had great luck at the shop with three weights: Rialto Aran, Rialto DK, and Rialto 4-ply, which I've used for many pairs of socks and one crazy sweater. The Rialto yarns are soft to the touch, wear well, wash easily, and have beautiful stitch definition. The mere existence of a lace-weight Rialto yarn meant that we had to have it at the shop, and so, of course, Anne ordered it.

This week, Debbie Bliss Rialto Lace arrived, and with it, a Rialto Lace booklet, which shows the yarn made up in sweaters as well as shawls. 

Take a peek at this new yarn and browse through the book for inspiration. You can find them both on the teacart.

Hello, Araucania Ruca.

This drop stitch scarf, lent to us by Amy, has been getting a lot of attention since we put it up at the shop a few weeks ago. Like Nancy's Kauni shawl, it wont be at the shop forever, so I thought I'd document it here on the blog.

The yarn is Araucania Ruca, a dk-weight yarn made of 100% sugarcane fiber, and it's a particularly good match for the pattern. Plant fibers like sugarcane, bamboo, and cotton all lack elasticity, giving them a tendency to stretch out of shape. For some projects, that would be a disadvantage to account for by changing needle size or even adding an elastic thread, but for a drop stitch scarf, it's a perfect fit. The elongated stitches of the seafoam stitch pattern drape beautifully in a plant fiber.

Amy's scarf has gotten a lot of knitters interested in the Ruca yarn, so we ordered a few new colors to give aspiring drop stitch scarf makers more options. We were disappointed to discover that Araucania no longer produces the same colorway that Amy used, but we got two similar colorways for those that want the same look. 

Take a look at the Ruca when you're seeking a smooth, shiny plant fiber, and if you'd like to make a drop stitch scarf of your own, you can download the pattern for free on Ravelry. See you at the shop!

Hello, String Theory Selku.

On Tuesday, we got a box from String Theory, which is always cause for excitement. This box in particular was full of Selku, a 3-ply sport-weight blend of silk and merino wool. Selku is a yarn that I've written about before, which we've only stocked in a small handful of colors up until this week. This shipment brought five new colors of Selku, rounding out our collection in a truly lovely way.

Though I haven't had a chance to work with Selku yet, I have stalked it enough on Ravelry to know that it's a perfect choice for a special scarf or shawl. The weight and shine of the silk paired with the elasticity of merino should make for beautiful stitch definition and an elegant drape. Anne wants to use Selku to make the cover sweater from Connie Chang Chinchio's Textured Stitches. Yes, our minds are buzzing, but we've yet to cast on. What would you make from this stunning stuff?

Come by the shop to ooh and ahh, to pet the yarn and consider the possibilities. See you soon!

Hello, Alpaca 1.

When Anne returned from her trip to Denmark in August, she came back with many stories and many knitting ideas. The first one that she realized was simple: a triangular garter stitch shawl in Isager Alpaca 1, a 2-ply lace-weight yarn that at the time, we had just recently ordered in a pretty little spectrum of colors. Anne had seen one like it in Marianne Isager's shop, and was determined to recreate it as a shop sample here. It may be a simple shawl, a "nothing pattern," as Anne often describes it, but it has been a huge hit.

The particular combination of this yarn at this gauge makes simple garter stitch look new and somehow complicated. I've seen seasoned knitters puzzle over the shawl, asking about the stitch pattern. The texture is truly unusual, stretchy and fuzzy and light. Sometimes I wrap it around my neck like a scarf while I'm rearranging the Alpaca 1 basket, and I must say, it tempts one.

Having nearly run out of Isager Alpaca 1 due to the beguiling nature of the garter stitch shawl, it was time for a reorder at the start of the new year. As I put out the new colors, I felt content seeing them all together again, and daydreamed a bit about which color I'd choose if I were making one myself. What would you choose?

The next time you're in the market for a mindless knit with exquisite yarn, consider the Alpaca 1 shawl. Try it on next time you're in the shop and see if you're not tempted.

Hello, Malabrigo Arroyo.

I've written before about the popularity of Malabrigo yarns. Known for their softness and many other fine qualities, Malabrigo yarns are always welcomed with great excitement. This week, in the midst of the busiest shopping days we've seen all year, we were treated to something really special: the arrival of a new Malabrigo yarn.

Arroyo, a sport-weight washable merino, has been on order for the better part of the past year, so Anne and I were nothing short of thrilled to finally see it in person. We weren't alone in our excitement, either. There are those among us who memorize Malabrigo colorways, can identify Archangel, Arco Iris, or Indiecita from only a cursory glance. Arroyo comes in those memorable colors and 17 others, many of which have never before been seen at the Hillsborough Yarn Shop. Here are a few of them, ready to be newly memorized.

Immediately, of course, I began thinking of socks. Could I make socks with Arroyo, and could I do it in one 335 yard skein alone? What size needle would make a strong enough fabric for socks, and what stitch pattern would ensure that it remained stretchy? You won't be surprised to know that I took a skein home on Saturday afternoon, the better to answer such questions in the future. All projects have been set aside in order to experiment with Arroyo. I'll be sure to let you know what I come up with. Happy holidays, everyone, I'll see you at the shop!