Be Sweet shawl kits.

Many a visitor to the shop has been wooed by the Be Sweet shawl kits. The sample shawl and scarf that hang by the kits are feather-light and translucent, but made of a textured mohair yarn in thick, bold stripes--qualities that seem to contradict one another, and thus, entrance. It's simplicity, too, is appealing, for after all, it's just garter stitch. 

Each kit comes with a pattern and five 25 gram balls of the lace-weight Be Sweet Extra Fine Mohair yarn, enough to make one striped shawl or two striped scarves. They're neatly tucked into a Hillsborough Yarn Shop notions pouch, making them an ideal gift for a knitter.

This past week, many missing colorways were replenished, filling the basket with tempting options, making it harder to decide which one you'll take home. Come by the shop to see them all.

Claudia Hand Painted Yarns. Again.

We first welcomed Claudia Hand Painted Yarns to the Hillsborough Yarn Shop only a few months ago, but already it's been such a hit that we decided to order more. We made up a few more kits for the Double Silk T-Shirt and Cardigan, replacing the color combinations that flew out of the shop when we first got them in stock. We also made up kits for the Warm Me Up pullover sweater, also knit with the Claudia Hand Painted Silk Lace.

For those of you who'd like to find other uses for the Silk Lace, we're also offering that yarn separately outside of the kit. Each shining skein is 1100 yards long, so one could easily get you through a sizeable lace shawl.

The most exciting part of the most recent Claudia shipment for me, however, was this:

A handful of new colors in the Fingering yarn. Anne generously let me pick out the colors from Claudia's tremendous selection, and as you might have predicted, I went with the semisolid colorways instead of the variegated. These colors are vivid, rich, and complement one another nicely, if I do say so myself. Any of them would make a stellar pair of Interrupted socks, no?

Come by to see these new beauties and the rest of the Claudia Hand Painted Yarns.

Habu.

For the past few weeks, Anne has been hard at work on a sweater, a sample for the shop knit from a Habu kit. The yarn is a fine, slubbed cotton, and the pattern is in the Japanese style, with little to no written instructions. Instead, Anne's knitting is guided by a simple diagram, a few numbers, and a post-it note with tally-marks for each knitted row. When asked what she's knitting, she holds up the diagram and says, "This is the entire pattern," which always elicits a raised brow. Japanese patterns may seem mysterious and complicated, but Anne assures us that this is not so. When the sweater is done, she promises a class on Japanese pattern reading.

Just in time for this proposed class, our selection of Habu kits has expanded.

I've written before about the Kusha Kusha scarf kit, which also features a Japanese pattern. Now, three sweaters are joining the Kusha Kusha kits.

Come by the shop to chat with Anne about Japanese patterns, and to take a closer look at our expanded Habu collection. If a class on Japanese pattern reading appeals to you, let us know, and we'll alert you when the class is scheduled. See you soon!

Hello, ArtYarns.

Perhaps you recognize this basket of soft, shiny yarns.

That's our stash of ArtYarns, some of the most indulgent skeins in the shop. The sheen of silk, the halo of mohair, and the sparkle of beads and sequins all conspire to create a glamorous yarn, a treat for the hands as well as the eyes. Although one skein is small, it's enough to create a little kerchief, just as Anne knit up in white. When you're considering treating yourself to a skein of ArtYarns Beaded Silk and Mohair, take a look at the sample to get a sense of how much fabric can come from one skein.

One of the new things Anne ordered for the shop this fall came from ArtYarns: kits with enough smooth, soft, and sparkly yarn to create a knit or crochet shawl.

You'll find them just beneath the ArtYarns basket, by the desk. Come by the shop to take a closer look.

Helen Hamann scarf kits.

The season of shop sample knitting continues unabated. As soon as the Linen Stitch Scarf sample was completed, I cast on for this next piece, a sample to show off two new things at once. The yarn is a new dk weight washable merino from Plymouth, and the pattern, Retro Scarf, is one we have both on its own and as a kit from designer Helen Hamann. Because of the scarf's interesting construction, I thought I'd better show it in progress as well as finished. As of today, I'm about halfway done, and it looks like this:

Those three long strips will one day be braided, then joined together for a stretch, then separated again at the other end of the scarf. Interesting, no? The yarn is a pleasure to work with, a springy merino with excellent stitch definition.

I'd love to see the Retro Scarf made up in Helen Hamann's alpaca yarn, for which the pattern is written--I bet that would make a lovely scarf. Check out the kits for yourself, if this project appeals, or if you'd rather substitute yarn, as I did for this sample, I'd be happy to show you a few options.

See you at the shop!

Linen Stitch All Knit Scarf.

For the past month or two, Anne and I have been working on shop samples at an accelerated rate. As new yarns and kits arrive for fall, new ideas for showing them off are coming to us faster than we can knit them up. Eventually, though, we do finish them, and then proudly display them with the yarn, offering a tangible example of that yarn's potential. Here is one such project, the Linen Stitch All Knit Scarf, which Anne and I passed back and forth, each knitting a few rows here and there until it was completed.

The Linen Stitch All Knit Scarf is available as a kit from Schaefer Yarn, and includes the pattern and three 2oz skeins of Schaefer Heather, a fingering weight blend of superwash merino, silk, and nylon. Worked in linen stitch in the round, this scarf has a woven look to it and a simple but unusual construction.

Around and around you go, never having to purl, and then at the end a small portion of your knitting is unraveled and braided to create fringe.

As I've mentioned here before, Schaefer Yarn names their variegated colorways after memorable women, from Elizabeth Zimmermann to Gloria Steinem to Jane Addams. Not only does each skein honor a memorable woman, each of the six color combinations honors a memorable female fiber artist: Sheila Hicks, Anni Albers, Diane Itter, Lenore Tawney, Magdalena Abakanowicz, and Claire Zeisler.

Come by the shop to try on the scarf and see these beautiful colors in person, and don't resist the urge to get lost on google image search, exploring the work of the incredible artists these kits are named for.

Claudia Hand Painted Yarns.

With August comes the new Fall yarns, and here is one of our most exciting acquisitions of the season: Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, out of Harrisonburg, VA. Anne fell in love with a silk sweater she saw at TNNA in June, and the rest is history, which is to say, the makings of that silk sweater are now in the shop. We've put kits together with 2 skeins of the Claudia Hand Painted Silk Lace in different but complimentary colorways, which are held together throughout the knitting of either a cardigan or a t-shirt. The kits include the yarn, the pattern, and a Hillsborough Yarn Shop project bag.

Obsessive sock knitter that I am, though, the real excitement for me is the Claudia Hand Painted Fingering yarn. Made of 100% extra fine merino, hand painted in bright variegated colorways, this yarn is squishy and soft but tightly plied, which should make for luxurious but long-wearing socks.

I've already knit a sample sock for the shop with this yarn, so you can get a feel for how it knits up. The pattern for said sample sock is forthcoming--a pattern of my own design, which I'm excited to release into the world as soon as I'm done editing it. Til then, you'll be delighted to know that there are many wonderful free patterns for Claudia Hand Painted Fingering yarn. If you're looking for a way to use this yarn, try Skew, Herringbone Rib Socks, or Roll Top Socks, ankle socks which actually take only one 50 gram skein. The Claudia Hand Painted Fingering yarn is about equivalent to Koigu in weight and yardage, so it's a perfect substitute if any patterns for Koigu should happen to catch your eye.

Come by the shop to see Claudia Hand Painted yarns in person, to squeeze some skeins and admire the vivid colors!

Needle felting.

This week, we got some beautiful new needle felting kits from Fiber Trends.

The kit comes with everything you need to start needle felting: instructions, needles, a foam mat to work on, and twelve colorful puffs of roving. If you're interested in needle felting, check out one of the Ravelry groups devoted to the craft: Needle Me This. There, you'll find many pictures that answer the question, what can you make with needle felting? From embellishments for knitted or felted items to sculptural representations of creatures real and imaginary, there is a lot you can do with this technique, particularly if garments are not your thing. I'm not a needle-felter myself, but my good friend Andrea (who regular blog readers may recognize as a gifted sock-knitter) has done some particularly interesting work with needle felting and stop-motion animation. (Check it out, if you would, and don't be too shy to leave a comment!) Anne just ordered some new books on needle felting for the shop, so we can look forward to those, as well, for further information and inspiration on the topic.

Here's to the forever-expanding possibilities for creating with fiber. See you at the shop!

Kusha Kusha.

The Kusha Kusha scarf gets a lot of attention at the shop. This is in part because of its unusual, organic-looking shape, almost like a strand of kelp. Another reason to take note of this scarf is its fiber content. Kusha Kusha is knit with two strands of lace weight yarn held together, one of which is 100% merino wool, the other of which is stainless steel wrapped in silk. The stainless steel gives memory to the yarn and the resulting fabric, so that you can crinkle it up or stretch it out and it holds its shape.

The Kusha Kusha scarf comes as a kit from Habu Textiles, complete with the pattern and a cone of each yarn. We've carried these kits at the shop for some time, but our supply was getting low. When we reordered this past week, we got many more colors than we'd ever had before, a spectrum of elegant pairings.

Make sure to take a look at this unusual scarf the next time you're in the shop. If you're curious to see what others have done with this kit and pattern, check out the Kushua Kusha Love group on Ravelry. See you at the shop!