Lang Carina

Oh, lovely Carina. This alpaca blend is so soft and fluffy, and the colors are amazing! 

We have this funny sample rectangle in the shop to show off some of the colors of the yarn. It's another slow fade kind of yarn, and the project gallery on Ravelry really demonstrates what it can do.

Pic borrowed from Rav project page.

Look at this lovely Adama Cowl using two balls of the pink/grey/brown, and this rich purple Buckshot pullover is so vibrant in the purple.

Pic borrowed from Rav project page.

If you love rich colors and fluffy alpaca, you might want to come by and check out this new yarn!

Puyu Cowl

We are trying a new yarn from a new company. This is Puyu, a silk and alpaca blend from Amano Yarns.

The structure of the yarn makes it lightweight even though it's bulky. It is fluffy and lofty and so very soft. Sally made the January Squish Cowl using just one skein, and it is like the perfect cozy turtleneck...just the thing to tuck under your jacket.

I love the poofy stitch definition of those columns. If you love the look of this, stop in the shop and try it on!

Eye Candy

I love this dusty pink shade of Herriot from Juniper Moon Farm. It's so rich and smokey and classy. This DK alpaca yarn would be so lovely for a cozy scarf or cowl.

Hearthstone

Well this pretty yarn ended up flying right under my radar, but I'm so glad we found it when I was in last week. 

The Plymouth Hearthstone is a merino and alpaca blend (80/20), so it will have just the right amount of that alpaca drape with some nice durability from the merino wool. Each skein is 436 yards of fingering weight yarn, so one or two will make an ample shawl, and you'll need to 3-5 for a sweater depending on the design and size.

I am pretty much in love with these marls and naturals, so I need to figure out what to make with these four.

Eye Candy

We currently have some crazy amazing color from Qing Fibre. How about this Melted Baby Suri? Oh my goodness, it is lusciously soft.

Eye Candy

We hope you all enjoyed the 2018 Rose City Yarn Crawl! Thank you so much for joining us and making it a success. Now here is some nice calm Joseph Galler Peruvian Tweed to enjoy as you recover from the crazy weekend.

This is some lovely worsted weight alpaca tweed, with 600 yards per skein. A few of us around the shop lobbied for its return. We hope you love it as much as we do!

Eye Candy

The Suri Alpaca Merino Glow looks like sparkles on the snow! This pretty laceweight is a Close Knit favorite.

Chalet

We have a fresh and cozy supply of Classic Elite Mountaintop Chalet in the shop. So many lovely neutrals that look so nice together. This chained bamboo/alpaca is light and lofty and so very soft. We have this gorgeous colorblocked wrap hanging out on the shop ladies for you to see for yourself.

Pretty Pink Alpaca (Other Colors, Too)

Look at this beautiful new alpaca from Plymouth! Baby Alpaca Worsted Collage is pure baby alpaca in a palette of gorgeous subtle shades. I poked around on Ravelry to try to get and idea of how it knits up, and I found this gorgeous set.

Pic from Ravelry page

Take a look at how the pink and gold knits up! I never would have picked that shade as my favorite, but I'm sort of loving it. (The one project on Ravelry really shows it off, too.) Which one is your favorite?

Alpaca Speckles!

We love a good speckled yarn, and the Baby Alpaca Hand Dyes are always just perfect. The whole range of hand dyes is really beautiful, but the speckles always get me. I'm in love with all five. The Plymouth website gives you an idea of how they will knit up when you scroll over each colorway, but it seems to me that the skeins we have in stock have more white background showing through than the swatches on the website. I did a little Ravelry search to give you a better idea of what to expect.

The photo above shows 141 (blues and brights) and 145 (pinks and purples).

These two are 142 (blues and blacks) and 144 (browns and oranges and yellows). And this one below is 143 (PINK).

Obviously, they are not going to knit up the same way between dye lots, so you might get some slight variations from what you see on Ravelry. But they are all so beautiful, you are guaranteed a lovely finished product!

Eye Candy

...neutral alpaca edition. The addition of Imperial Yarns means we get this gorgeous alpaca, too.

Our Back 40 is 200 yards of sport weight alpaca in natural alpaca-y shades. You'll want to handle this stuff yourself to fully appreciate it.

Simply Stripes Kit

We don't do a lot of kits in the shop, but this one was too lovely to pass up. This is the Simply Stripes Cowl using a cool yarn called SimpliCria from Skacel. This yarn is a gorgeous and soft chained alpaca. It is really luxurious and has such a nice halo.

The kit contains six balls of yarn and the pattern for the multi-colored striped cowl. We only have a few kits in the shop, so pop in soon and take a look!

Furry

We don't stock a lot of fur yarn, but this one is really good. Soft, luxurious, not all staticy and plastic (like so many of them were back when I was learning to knit). This is Arequipa Fur and Arequipa Worsted, a coordinating set of fur and lovely merino yarns from Plymouth. The worsted is a superwash merino and silk blend, and the fur is alpaca and merino. It's unusual to find a fur that is all natural fibers, so we had to give this one a go.

We currently have six shades of the worsted and three of the fur, and they play together very nicely. Sally used the grey to whip up a sample cowl. This fancy cowl is available in-store as a free pattern with the purchase of the yarn. I was very impressed by the stitch definition of the worsted yarn. Maybe it's the silk that adds the crispness to the ribbing.

The astute among you will see the continuation of the theme of furry alpaca yarns in natural shades. We know what we like.

Debbie Bliss Lara

Say hello to Debbie Bliss Lara! Which we have in lots of pretty neutrals, sticking with our unofficial fall theme.

Lara is an almost-boucle, superchunky alpaca/wool blend. The solids are subtle and heathered, and the variegated shades produce a mottled, almost tweedy fabric. 

You can see it paired with a solid black in the Long Line Waistcoat shown up top. Many designs in the Lara pattern book are really lovely, in fact. I liked the Tank Top, knit with only four balls.

The Sleeveless Top is cool, too. Dramatic and cozy.

I can imagine quite a few teenagers loving the Hooded Scarf (with mitts/pockets).

If none of these patterns are your thing, how about the fastest and easiest scarf ever? Sally dedicated two balls of Lara and one whole evening to this lovely scarf.

If you have a friend who is begging to learn how to knit or a young person who needs a little knitting kit for the holidays, this would be a great introduction. The yarn is gorgeous and soft. (Never start with yucky yarn...it takes the joy out of it.) Aside from the cast on and bind off, it's all knitting. The thick yarn makes for nearly-instant gratification, too. A winner all around. Here's the free pattern for you.

Come down and check out this great new yarn while we still have a nice range of natural shades available!

Berroco North Star

We have gone all in with the fluffy natural yarns this season. I think you all are going to like what we have. 

We received Berroco's North Star last week, and we are already selling out of some colors. Mostly because of this sample.

Burrow has caused more than one knitter to lose all self control in an attempt to fondle its fluffy goodness. The herringbone pattern adds just the right amount of interest, but it doesn't take away from the gorgeous texture of the yarn.

North Star is almost a like a braided boucle...really unusual. It's mostly alpaca, with just enough nylon to hold it together. Knitting up at 3.75 stitches per inch on a US10.5, anything you knit with this yarn is going to fly off the needles. 

The pattern book has almost sold out, but I think most of these are available online if you can't wait for us to restock. There are several lovely pieces in the booklet, including Haven, Cocoon, and Snug. The hat on the cover is cute, too.

 

 

This is just the beginning of our natural color palette for fall, and it's a winner for sure. I'll keep you posted as more neutral beauties roll into the shop.

Mere Isager

We started carrying a few of the Isager yarns a couple of years ago, and I'm so glad we brought them into the shop. The sophisticated colors, the luxurious fibers, and the pattern support. Oh my. The Amimono collections are stunning. (Go take a look.)

As you all have shown increased interest in these stunning yarns and books, Sally is expanding our selection of Isager yarns. We have been carrying Alpaca 2 and Spinni, and we have just brought Alpaca 1 into the shop.

Part of what makes the Amimono and Tutto a mano designs so unusual is that many use two or more strands of Isager yarn held together. This can make substituting yarns challenging, so I am thrilled to have more options to offer.

The doubling of the yarn adds a lot of rich texture and interest to the finished product, and you have so much creative freedom to create the look you want by using yarns that coordinate or yarns that contrast a bit for a marled look. So much fun!

We have a nice full supply of all three of our Isager yarns and plenty of these stunning books in stock. All You Knit is Love is one of my favorites, but I like to look through all of the books for inspiration when I'm in a slump.

 

I've been working on a baby cardigan using Dream in Color Jilly. I love how it's turning out, but I might need to make another now that we have the perfectly coordinating Isager yarns...

Stumptown Slouch

We received this gorgeous Best of Nature Worsted from Misti Alpaca right before the yarn crawl, so it went slightly unnoticed for some time. Luckily, Sally was motivated to knit up a lovely little garter stitch slouchy hat using just one skein.

This beautiful yarn is dyed using natural vegetable and mineral dyes, and the yarn itself is produced organically. The colors are rich and subtley tonal. Misti warns that the dyes will likely vary significantly from year to year, as some of the colors are based on the crops. I am not often lured in by pure alpaca, but this yarn is sure something. There's not a lot of that fuzzy halo that you often see with pure baby alpaca, and this yarn is cashmere-soft.

Sally used the lovely Rockies colorway, a lovely grey...no surprise. This yarn is beautiful, the hat is cute, and the pattern is free! What's not to love?

Stumptown Slouch

by Sally Palin

Yarn: 1 skein Misti Alpaca Best of Nature Worsted
Needles: US6 and US7 16" circular, US7 double-pointed needles
Instructions:

Cast on 88 stitches using smaller needle, join in the round (don't twist), and place marker.
Work 2.75" of K3, P1 ribbing.

Switch to larger needle and work 5 rounds of garter stitch in the round: purl one round, knit one round, purl one round, knit one round, purl one round.

Work increase round: *Knit 11, m1* around (96 stitches).
Purl one round.
Work increase round again: *Knit 12, m1* around (104 stitches).

Continue with garter stitch in the round until hat measures approximately 9" from the cast on edge.

Work decrease round: *Knit 7, k2tog* around.
Purl one round.
*Knit 6, k2tog* around.
Purl one round.
*Knit 5, k2tog* around.
Purl one round.

Continue decreasing in this way until the last round, which will be K2tog around. Do not purl a round after this. Cut your yarn and pull in through the remaining stitches, pulling the opening closed. Weave in your ends and enjoy!