Daruma Wool Mohair

Hello, beautiful mohair. This gorgeous bulky Wool Mohair from Daruma is so pretty.

I love the way this Raveler held it together with a light fingering yarn to create this gorgeous Column.

Pic borrowed from Rav project page.

And this cardigan with Mohair held doubled looks so cozy!

Pic borrowed from Rav pattern page.

How about a Gen?

Pic borrowed from Rav project page.

Bulky mohair has not been popular for awhile, and it's cool to see designers using it again for these big, cozy sweaters!

Ascutney Pullover

Ummmm, what is this lovely creation from Amy Christoffers? Is it a super cool pullover using short rows to create a gorgeous landscape look? I think it is.

Pic borrowed from Rav pattern page

The Ascutney Pullover is (free) pattern from Knitty (who are definitely still around and putting out really great stuff). We have two new yarns in the shop that would really be perfect for this. They are both fluffy and light for being thicker yarns.

The Aireado from Plymouth is just the perfect thing. And those colors all play so nicely together. This sweater would knit up so quickly and your final garment would be so soft and cuddly. I'm envisioning light grey pullover with touches of red, white, and black. Or the oatmeal as the main with purple, white, and black. Whatever you choose would be so cool.

We also have the Aereo from Cascade. It's a little bit closer to Aran weight than bulky, but I think you could make it work. We have a wider range of colors, including the variegated shades of Aereo Duo. Imagine the gold and green and a few grey together. Or maybe pinks and purples for a sunset kind of thing. So many possibilities!

As the designer points out, this sweater does not involve any intarsia. It's all short rows, which are fun and relatively easy to do. The sweater is knitted from the bottom up and all the parts are joined at the yoke with raglan decreases up to the neckline. If you've never tried this kind of colorwork, I think this would be a really fun place to start!

Bud

Check out this cozy organic cotton from Juniper Moon Farm.

Bud is a bulky cotton, similar to the Classic Elite Sprout we carried a few years back. 

I made a cozy sweatshirt using just five skeins of that yarn, and it's still one of my all-time favorites. I just wore it all weekend, in fact.

Pic borrowed from Purl Soho

This would also be great for the Purl Soho Chevron Baby Blanket, another of my favorite projects. 

I'm also loving this adorable bunny hat and no-ends-to-weave-in striped blanket. If you like a hard-wearing cotton yarn, you will like Bud!

Daruma Geek

Look at this gloriously weird stuff.

Daruma Geek is a light and fluffy bulky wool/poly/alpaca yarn. This stuff has a cool halo wrapped around a core of an entirely different color. Take a look at these combos...

What to make with this? Something fabulous. I just added Capo to my Ravelry favorites this morning. Only six balls to make the medium size, which looks quite generous.

Pic borrowed from Rav pattern page.

This would be light as air and so so warm. The pictures of this yarn on Ravelry look really cool, and I would love to see how this knits up in person. Has anyone worked with Geek? Anything to report?

Eye Candy

Take a look at the Big Rad Bulky from Spun Right Round. It's a super cool, almost felted sort of yarn. Come see what we have left! You'll love it.

Stout Day

I walked into the shop yesterday, and there was Stout all over the place! Sally was winding some, Emily was winding some, and it was knitted up into something lovely in the bag of a Close Knit shopper.

Once I noticed the new colorways, and knew I needed to handle some Stout, too. This stuff is rustic, folks. It has little bits of vegetative matter hiding in there, and it smells sheepy. This bulky yarn has a marled, handspun look. These two skeins of blue are from the same colorway, so you can tell that there will be some interesting variation in each skein.

I am having visions of a nice, dense vest or maybe even a cozy blanket. You could just cast on and knit, leaving the yarn to do the work of shifting colors as you work. A few Ravelers have made some epic Boneyard Shawls, including this amazing one with so much fringe!

We have a few other shades in the shop, including red, gold, and a few neutrals. I am sorely temepted by all of them.

Malabrigo Mecha

I bet you'd like a nice warm hat and mittens right about now! It is cold and snowy again here in Portland. We have a fresh batch of the silky soft and bulky Malabrigo Mecha in the shop.

The winter white and the coppery brown caught my eye this week, but there are so many gorgeous Malabrigo colors to choose from.

If I were you, I would cast on for a Cocoon hat immediately. And maybe some Pescovegetarian Mittens. You will only need one skein for each project. If you need a warm sweater, maybe an Agnes? I can promise you that Agnes is a fun, quick knit and a great sweater to own. Knit up in Mecha, it would be so cozy. If you can make it to the shop this week, we have lots of warm and wooly yarn for you!

Blue Sky Fibers Bulky

I am loving these new labels for the Blue Sky Fibers (formerly Alpacas) Bulky. The yarn is the same lovely stuff we have come to know, and we have a little stash of our favorite shades in the drawers.

I was poking around the new Blue Sky Fibers website a bit, and I found this awesome free hat pattern using two skeins of Bulky. If you love the three-color pom, you can find a great little tutorial on their blog as well. You'll just need a little bit of the contrasting colors for the pom. Find a friend and trade scraps, perhaps?

Photo borrowed from BSF site.

The new blog is really lovely and well worth a look. The Strand represents the joining of the forces behind Blue Sky and Spud & Chloe. They include tutorials, free patterns, and knit-a-longs, as well as interesting articles on organic fibers, sheepy travels, and design inspiration. If you love fiber and yarn, I highly recommend taking a look!

Eye Candy

Bulky cotton edition. 
Come and see the pretties.

Harrisville Yarns: Welcome Turbine

We have been carrying yarns from Harrisville Designs for years now, and they never disappoint. The story of the town, the mill, and the company is an interesting one, too. The mill dates back to 1794, and the village of Harrisville, New Hampshire is a National Historic Landmark, recognized as the "only 18th century textile village in America that survives in its original form." Many good folks worked hard to keep the mill and the town functioning, and I am so happy that we are able to offer their yarns in our shop.

I just began an epic sweater project with their fingering weight yarn, Shetland. I have also been itching to break into the several skeins of Highland that are patiently waiting to become a Tea with Jam and Bread pullover for me.

The Watershed and Flywheel yarns have found a very happy audience with those of you who love tweeds and heathers. A few of our knitters recently held a mini-knit-a-long for the Bucheron Mitts using Watershed in a slew of colors. I'll see if I can procure a photo for you all. They are very cute and warm.

All of this leads me to the newest yarn from Harrisville, Turbine. It is a bulky one, my friends, knitting up at a range of gauges on needles US10.5 and larger.

We have several patterns for Turbine, and they will all work up in a jiffy. You can check out our sample of the Purl Dot Mittens in the shop. The patterns for the Corrugated Rib Hat, the Brick Cowl Wrap, and the Waving Rib Scarf are all in the shop, as well. (Photos below borrowed from the Harrisville site.)

 

We have loved every yarn from this historic company, and I know we are going to love Turbine as well. Especially as that last-minute-gift-knitting bug catches you all in the next few weeks!

Naturalia

With this glorious change in weather, we are seeing more and more big yarn in the shop! This gorgeous organic wool is particularly sheepy.

Naturalia is some seriously chunky yarn, similar in gauge to Cascade Magnum but with a much different texture. It's very loosely spun, but a thin binding thread helps hold it all together. The thread all but disappears into the knitting, but it provides some nice stability and prevents the single ply yarn from pulling apart.

The fabulous Ellison whipped up a really easy and classy cowl using one skein of Naturalia. She has pattern notes on her Ravelry page.

We have several lovely natural shades in the shop right now. I love the fact that this corner smells like sheep thanks to this new arrival.

Several folks on Ravelry used the Naturalia to make garter stitch blankets, ribbed blankets, and oversized scarves. At only $20 for 131 yards of organic bulky yarn, this is a great deal for big statement projects like these. I'm so glad to see this cool weather and these big ol' chunky yarns in the shop. It is time!

Just a Reflektor

Believe it or not, we are stocking reflective yarn at Close Knit.  This is Schachenmayr Lumio.

It's a nice bulky yarn in some rather loud colors.  No big deal.  Until...BAM!

Shine a light at this stuff and it shows off the reflective thread running through the strand.  There is nothing natural about this yarn, but that hasn't dissuaded our knitters!

It would make a great hat or mittens for a cyclist commuting in the dark or the kiddos walking home from school in the dark at 4:30PM.  We had someone take a few balls home to make a dog sweater, too.  There are a few free patterns for that sort of thing, if your furry friends need sweaters, too.

The ball band (well, most of them, we discovered) have a free pattern for this basic Lumio Hat, which requires just one ball of Lumio.  It's also available on the website for free.

Vampire-ish photo borrowed from Schachenmayer site.

Our friend Jami from The Knitting Bee designed the Big Brio Slouch, which also requires  just one ball of Lumio.  Another free pattern!

Photo borrowed from The Knitting Bee.

Obviously, you could make a scarf or a cowl out of Lumio.  But what about a Smitten?  This smart lady made hers with just one skein of the pretty bright red.  Seems like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, doesn't it?

Some cozy legwarmers would be fun, too.  These are a nice basic choice.

Photo borrowed from Knit on the Net.

These are less basic, but still pretty cool.

Photo borrowed from Knit Freedom.

Some boot toppers would be nice, too.  Especially with all of this chilly, wet weather we have been seeing.  Those rain boots could use a little sprucing up, right?  Whatever your reflective yarn needs, we have you covered!