Tweed, Glorious Tweed

I love tweed. I love that I can knit with a deep blue yarn and still get glimpses of orange and green. I love the way tweed just feels like wool. Tweed is the perfect winter yarn.

At the shop, we have several beautiful tweed yarns in a range of gauges and colors. Rowan Felted Tweed is a wildly popular, reasonably priced yarn with 25% alpaca for drape.

Rowan Scottish Tweed DK is pure wool in a range of vibrant shades.

We carry Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed in chunky and aran weights. These yarns are 15% angora, adding softness and giving them a little halo.

The Kathmandu Aran from Queensland Collection comes in a gorgeous range of colors and has a bit of silk and cashmere.

Royal Tweed from Lana Grossa is a lofty, lightweight tweed, knitting up at about 3.5 stitches per inch. I made a large wrap sweater with this and the final project was still a manageable weight, even though it was knit with bulky yarn.

I also used Tahki Donegal Tweed to make Laura Irwin’s Formal Boot Bag from the cover of Bag Style. It felted up beautifully, and it was a joy to knit. The tweedy flecks in this yarn are particularly lovely.

We began carrying Portland Tweed from Classic Elite this fall. The colors are rich and the yarn is soft and smooth.

Leslie from A Friend to Knit With designed the Libby Sweater for her daughter, using Portland Tweed. It’s an easy, swingy cardigan - perfect for a growing girl. Leslie has generously made it available for free, so check out her blog and her other free patterns.

Photo courtesy of Leslie Friend

The rain and the cold have returned to Portland, and tweed feels so cozy when the streets are wet and the sky is gray. So, pull on your boots, grab a coffee or tea and stop by Close Knit to check out our selection of warm, wooly, and yes - wintry tweeds.