Tag: Brooklyn Tweed

Brooklyn Tweed’s Woolen Spun “Shelter” and “Quarry”

Brooklyn Tweed’s Quarry and Shelter yarn reviews and what to know when knitting with woolen spun yarn.

This was my first purchase of Brooklyn Tweed’s “Shelter” yarn. It’s a worsted weight with 140 yard per skein. It feels a lot like the Quarry yarn, which I have knit with before, but that one is a bulky weight.

Reviews I’ve read at Ravelry, of Shelter yarn, are also similar to Quarry, in that knitters have sometimes had trouble with the yarn pulling apart as they knit. I know what they are saying is true, because I had this problem when I first began knitting with Quarry. I almost decided to NEVER buy it again – I was so mad. I thought it was the dumbest yarn ever. Glad I got over that.

Now, I want to try knitting with the worsted weight version. Shelter yarn comes in some really beautiful earthy colors. I don’t have any specific patterns picked out yet, but these skeins will probably become hats.

Brooklyn Tweed shelter yarn skeins
Shelter yarn skeins come in a variety of pretty colors.

In Defense of Shelter and Quarry Yarn

A few years ago I bought a couple skeins of Brooklyn Tweed’s Quarry yarn. It felt very weird, and when I began knitting a hat, I couldn’t even get it joined in the round. The yarn kept breaking apart. Later I learned that because this yarn is woolen-spun it will tend to come apart easier than regular yarn. The Brooklyn Tweed site has a whole page pointing out the difference between woolen-spun and worsted-spun yarn.

The unique quality of Quarry yarn means it may pull apart easily.
The yarn will sometimes simply pull apart

If you don’t feel like reading that whole page, then here is what you need to know: If you get a skein of woolen-spun yarn that seems to be breaking easily, twist the yarn a bit before putting pressure on it, such as when joining in the round. I think maybe certain skeins may just be weaker than others, or maybe the company changed something. The dark yarn above pulled apart very easily, but when I knit with Quarry again, I didn’t have the problem of breaking.

Here is the Oxbow sweater I began knitting in Quarry yarn (color Geode). I had no trouble at all with the yarn splitting apart as I knit. I did however have lots of trouble with the pattern, so this garment has been frogged.

Knitting the Oxbow cardigan sweater
Oxbow sweater was eventually frogged!

This type of yarn does feel funny. It has a dry, lightweight feel, but not scratchy. The yarn knits up into a very lightweight garment that ends up being surprisingly warm. This makes the yarn perfect for sweaters, which could otherwise end up bulky and heavy. Any project knit with this yarn dries super fast as well.

This yarn will bloom, which means when it’s washed the fibers fill in the spaces between the stitches. That helps the knitting look more uniform and perfect.

Another plus for me is that it is completely made in the USA. In fact Brooklyn Tweed yarn is spun in Harrisville, New Hampshire – a location I am very familiar with. I often drove past signs for Harrisville on my way to Keene, and ended up visiting the Harrisville Designs Mill Store during a NH visit.

In closing, I am certainly no expert on yarn, but I’m coming to love the wools for their beautiful properties.

Oulu mitts knitting colorwork Fair Isle
Oulu Mitts in Shelter
Turtle Dove hand-knit sweater in Quarry
My new sweater poncho in Quarry – this replaced Oxbow
Krokur mittens pattern
Mittens in Shelter yarn
Wearing my Cobblestone Cardigan hand knit in gray wool
Cobblestone Cardigan in Shelter
mosaic knitting
Mosiac swatch in Shelter
Quarry Geode for Oxbow sweater
Quarry yarn in “Geode” color

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My Trip to Harrisville Designs in New Hampshire

Ever since learning that yarn I buy online is spun in a New Hampshire town near where I use to live, I’ve wanted to go back to the area and visit the shop.

I had the chance to do that while on a resent visit to New Hampshire. Harrisville Designs sells Brooklyn Tweed yarn, and a lot more, but the Brooklyn Tweed is spun at that location. See this similar view in their video.

Historic Harrisville, NH mill buildings
Driving up Main St. which leads to Harrisville Designs

Even though I did some knitting years ago when I lived in a town quite close to Harrisville, I knew nothing about types of yarn and never knit with Brooklyn Tweed. After I moved away, all I wanted to do was get back to the area and visit Harrisville Designs. The quaint town of Harrisville is known for all it’s brick mill buildings.

Building where Harrisville Designs is located
Building where Harrisville Designs is located

My daughter drove us to Harrisville on a beautiful, sunny day in March. Clumps of snow still dotted the ground and it was cold enough that I wore my Cobblestone Cardigan and Katie’s Kep.

We were still wearing face masks because of Covid, as were the women working in the store. Right away they commented on my hat, which I think stands out as a hand-knit. Then they asked about my sweater, which I said was knit with Brooklyn Tweed “Shelter” yarn. They were friendly, and we chatted a while about yarns and patterns through our masks.

Brooklyn Tweed yarn display Harrisville Designs store
Display of Brooklyn Tweed yarn

Because we visited Harrisville Designs on a weekend day, and it was a beautiful day, there were no other customers in the store. Most likely people were outside hiking and enjoying the sunshine. But, that gave my daughter and I the whole place to ourselves! What a wonderful place for a fiber crafter to visit.

Inside Harrisville Designs
Inside the store – look at those floors!

We dug through buttons which were displayed in cute little trays. We admired the hand knits displayed all over the store. My daughter always chose the most difficult-looking sweater patterns when picking out her favorites. She is not a knitter and laughed at the fact that I kept saying, “That looks difficult and over my head”.

I noticed a display of Sincycle yarn which I am familiar with. I have two skeins at home in Florida which I bought online. Because I have to fly back home at some point, I had to curtail my buying, but couldn’t resist purchasing a little skein of orange Spincycle.

Spincycle yarn for sale
Spincycle yarn for sale at Harrisville Designs

A loom was set up in the back of the store with sample weaving projects. Weaving needs were all displayed in this section. I’m not a weaver, but it gave me a chance to tell my daughter about my grandmother’s loom and how I remember seeing it in her tiny house, and then it was eventually moved to the barn. Her loom may have come from this store.

Weaving loom at Harrisville Designs
Weaving Loom

Harrisville Designs famous potholder kits were on display in the weaving section. (This is an affiliate link to Amazon, I may make a small percentage from a clickthrough)

Inside Harrisville Designs where a weaving loom is for sale
More looms and cones of yarn

When we were finished shopping, we took a walk over a path that gives a good view of the Mill buildings, both upstream and down. See the upstream photo at the beginning of this post and in the slideshow at the end. The place is quite picturesque, even in the usually dreary month of March.

Mill area downstream in Harrisville center
Downstream, more of the mill yard

After crossing the footpath we crossed Main Street to visit the historic Harrisville General Store. Apparently this is the oldest, continuous general store and has been in operation since 1838.

Inside was a counter with prepared food, some empty tables, shelves with food items, and a cooler section. No one greeted us and we were generally unimpressed. BUT, it is Covid times, so things may be different when it’s not.

Harrisville, New Hampshire general store
Harrisville general store

I could have gone nuts buying yarn and patterns in Harrisville Designs, but as I mentioned, I have to pack and fly in a few weeks. I yearn to be living in New Hampshire once again and places like this make me homesick. It was a lovely day spent with my daughter, and a good memory to hold onto.

More Harrisville Photos

  • Town of Harrisville, New Hampshire
    Brick mill buildings
  • Brick mill building of Harrisville Designs
  • Center of town, Harrisville New Hampshire
  • Historic Harrisville area with Harrisville Designs building
    Upstream, Harrisville Designs building and smaller building
  • Cozy nook inside Harrisville Designs
    Cozy nook inside

Video About Fabric and Crafts Which are Handmade at the Harrisville Mill

Notes on Knitting The Cobblestone Cardigan

On January 24th I began knitting the Cobblestone Cardigan pattern by Jarod Flood. It is rated at two stars out of five for difficulty, so should be an easy knitting project.

The yarn I used was Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in “Narwhal” color which is a marl of two colors twisted together. I bought 10 skeins and my size calls for 11 skeins, but I did squeak by with 10 – just barely. I prefer knitting with a lighter color yarn because my eyesight is not that great. Knitting in the evening is especially difficult. My knitting wish is that designers would print up their patterns in bolder, larger print.

A highlighter comes in handy to remind me of the pattern’s important information.

Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in Narwhal for a sweater
10 Skeins of Narwhal yarn

I read through the pattern and will have to learn the new increase mentioned when the time comes. I love to try new things and I think this pattern will be just challenging enough in places to keep me happy. Also, lots of the knitting is simply round and round (sleeves) and back and forth, which I can do at night. I need this sweater for my trip to New Hampshire in March and I should have it done well ahead of that (*Nope- 3/1 I finished knitting – still needs buttons). Note: This is an easy pattern and would make a good first sweater. End project is large, will go down a sweater size next time.

End Results, Or Continue Down the Page

Please read on to see the notes I recorded while knitting this project. But, before the page got long, I wanted to comment on my finished garment. The Cobblestone Cardigan knitting is finished and the cardigan is very big. The neck had to be tightened up as it was very droopy. Doing that was a big improvement. Note: ***Don’t do a loose cast on! Also the sleeves are big around and droopy in the armpits. My gauge was right on, and I did go up a size, but it was a mistake. Now I am wondering if I should attempt to shrink it, or simply wear it around the house to be cozy. EXCEPT I live in Florida where I put a sweater on about five times a year. I’ve ordered some buttons from Etsy and will get more photos once I add them.

Cobblestone cardigan

Beginning the Project: Cast On and Markers

I’m knitting the fourth size in the pattern although I expect it to be a little large (*Yes, this was a mistake!). I’d rather that than too tight. I cast on using the German Twisted / Old Norwegian cast-on (*Also a mistake – Do a regular cast-on, or the pattern recommendation, or the neck will be too loose!).

I placed a marker to remind me of the right side of the project. Whenever that blue marker is on my right when beginning a row, I am on the right side. I also placed a marker to show the first buttonhole.

Note: Count the stitches whenever the stitch count for the row is given!

Cast on and placing markers for the beginning of the Cobblestone Cardigan
Beginning the sweater

Placing The Buttonholes

I wanted the buttonholes on the right side front (when wearing) and making that pattern change was easy – there is a note in the pattern for making the change. Without a yarn shop / button seller nearby, I’m forced to search online for my buttons and it’s hard to find them online in the right size but I did find some to order from Etsy.

marking buttonholes for Cobblestone Cardigan
Marking my buttonholes

Every time I knit a the hole for a button, I place a marker so it can be seen easily. Then I am knitting 12 ridges between buttonholes.

Moods Fabric has a chart that shows button sizes in inches / mm and ligne.

Learning a New (and Easy) Increase

The Raised Right Increase (RRI) in the Cobblestone pattern was something I had not done before. I found it to be a very easy increase to knit. I’ve done the yarn over increase, knit front and back increase, and the right / left lifted increases.

The RRI reminds me of knitting in the round with colors or stripes and creating the jogless knit stitch at the beginning of the round, except the stitches are not knit together. This is an increase stitch so it is creating an extra stitch by lifting a stitch from the previous row. The pattern provides detailed directions for doing this stitch. Note: Remember that the RRI includes a knit stitch so when the pattern says, “RRI and knit 2” you will be knitting 3 stitches total.…!

In case you want to know some variations on making a knit stitch increase, the Interweave site has a list of Six Essential Increases Every Knitter Should Know. I admit that I do not know them all!

Knitting the Body of the Sweater

It is February 6th and there is not much to say here except to watch for buttonhole placement as I knit. (*I ended up not really liking the long garter stitch area of this sweater. I think I would shorten that up if I ever knit this again. It makes the shoulders / top of arms look bulky.)

Somehow cats know just when to show up and get into the photo, don’t they?

knitting the Cobblestone Cardigan
Knitting the body

End of February and On To Knitting The Sleeves

Because I am one skein short of the recommended amount of yarn, I will begin the first sleeve with a new skein of yarn. Once I see how far I get, I will use up the remaining 1/2 of the ball leftover from the body of the sweater.

Stitches on hold were put onto a 16 inch circular needle. Using a wooden DPN, I began picking up stitches from the underarm and divided all stitches for the sleeve to fit four DPNs (19-20 stitches on each needle). After the stitches were picked up, I used the 16 inch circular needle to knit down the sleeve until close to the end when I changed to DPNs at the cuff – the sleeves are WIDE. *I reduced the number of rows before each decrease row. For my size I was to decrease on every 8th row, and I did it on row 7. After the decreases, the sleeves were about long enough, so I stopped knitting and did the cuff – change to the smaller needle.

  • picking up stitches to begin knitting the sweater sleeve
    Picking up new stitches for the sleeve
  • picked up stitches for sleeve knitting
    Changed to DPNs while picking up underarm stitches
  • knitting Cobblestone sleeve
    This is the part I don’t like – bulky shoulder, wide sleeve

Don’t forget to change to size B (6) needles to do the garter stitch cuff! I forgot on this first sleeve so I ripped the first cuff out and re-knit using the smaller, size 6 needles. I had enough gray yarn to finish up both sleeves correctly.

The underarm seam on my first sleeve looks really good! Because the stitches are picked up in the center of the underarm, leave a longer than usual tail to close up any holes at the edges. I did pick up a few extra stitches and then decreased back to the normal count.

Underarm sweater seam looking good
I’m very happy with the look of the first sleeve underarm

The knitting is finished. I squeaked by with my ten skeins of yarn, but I would suggest buying the eleven skeins suggested. I shortened up the body a little and also the sleeves. If you need extra sleeve and body length, you will definitely need 11 skeins! The sweater, before washing, seems very large – and stayed large. The neck is loose, so I hope that blocking will help tighten it all up. *I had to pick up stitches around the neck to tighten it up and did a regular, rather tight bind-off with the smaller size needle.

Cobblestone Cardigan knitting project on the mats and drying
Washed and drying my Cobblestone
  • Wearing my Cobblestone Cardigan hand knit in gray wool
    Holding the cat for a back view of the sweater
  • modeling the Cobblestone Cardigan
    Wearing my sweater
  • Cobblestone Cardigan knit in Brooklyn Tweed yarn
    Buttons needed

Knitting the Cobblestone Cardigan was fun, except that I put a time limit on myself due to my travel plans. The pattern is perfect for any beginner sweater knitter. Overall, I love the body and trim, with garter down the sides. I’m not as thrilled with the puffy shoulder area and big, wide sleeves. The neck was too wide and droopy, but mainly because of my cast-on choice – I think. A tighter neckline pulls the sweater up more and looks better.

Buttons came from TrimGem at Etsy. I ordered some black and gray and chose the gray which I think work nicely.

My Cobblestone Cardigan hand knit sweater is done with buttons added.

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Knitting the Cobblestone Cardigan, Getting Gauge and Buying Yarn

I’m always on the lookout for future sweaters to knit. They must be fairly simple (I am not super experienced at sweater knitting) and I prefer a cardigan to a pullover, so I was excited to see the Cobblestone Cardigan pattern by Jarod Flood of Brooklyn Tweed.

I had just finished knitting a pair of mitts (Oulu) using the same Shelter yarn called for in the cardigan. I bought the sweater pattern and then I used my leftover Shelter yarn to knit up a swatch to find my gauge for the sweater. Suggested needle size is 8 US, and gauge should be 18 stitches (across) and 36 rows (vertical count). I used color “Camper” for the swatch.

Measuring gauge on swatch

How I Knit My Gauge Swatch

Using the size 8 needle, I cast on the 18 stitches plus an extra six. Then I knit for 36 rows, plus six more. In this case the gauge is counted on garter ridges, so the piece was simply knit back and forth. How easy is that? The piece needed to be slightly larger than (what I hoped) my gauge would be so I could easily count the stitches and rows.

I was knitting other projects and this little swatch took me a few days to complete. By the time I finished, and washed and dried the swatch, I couldn’t remember what the actual gauge should be. I got my gauge ruler and began counting, then looked up the pattern again to compare my numbers to the pattern. Well, I was exactly on gauge! This was very exciting! I want to begin knitting this sweater very soon.

You May Think You Hate Shelter, But Don’t Give Up!

If you knit at all and have come across comments on Shelter and Quarry yarn (both are BT brands) you may be very confused because this yarn gets both very high and very low marks. Knitters either love it and use it all the time, or they hate it for pulling apart easily. Some people also complain about the grass bits stuck in it. Personally, this does not bother me.

In fact, I avoided both of these yarns for a long time because of the trouble I had right after buying some Quarry yarn to knit a hat. Quarry is a bulky weight Brooklyn Tweed yarn and as soon as I cast on and tried to join in the round, the yarn pulled right apart! I kept trying and it kept separating… I was very irritated and decided that I hated it and would never buy this type of yarn again! It scared me away from Shelter as well. I moved on and knit with other yarns. I was convinced that this yarn was horrible.

yarn splitting problem Quarry
My “bad” skein of Quarry

I now believe that I was unlucky enough to have received a “bad” skein, but more than likely I was simply not used to knitting with this type of yarn. I used it later to complete a hat and had no problems. When it has to be pulled, twist the yarn to make it stronger before doing so. I ended up using Quarry yarn once again to knit a big sweater, and I had absolutely NO trouble at all with it splitting or pulling apart. This is why I think that occasionally knitters get a “bad” skein, or are simply not used to knitting carefully.

Then I bought Jarod Flood’s “Skiff” cable hat pattern and it called for Shelter yarn. I knit the hat, but wouldn’t dare use Shelter yarn. I was so afraid that doing cables would be a problem with this type of yarn.

Then, one day Shelter was on sale, and I can barely resist a sale! Another reason I wanted to buy this yarn is that it is spun in a mill in Harrisville, New Hampshire which is very near where I had once lived. I would pass signs for Harrisville on my way to Keene, from Antrim, and never knew there was a mill spinning popular yarn nearby! So to me it’s a “local” yarn, and I knew I had to finally try it. I bought a bunch of skeins without a plan… can you believe it?

Brooklyn Tweed Shelter yarn in colors Old World, Amaranth, and Caraway
Brown: Caraway, Red: Amaranth, Blue: Old World

Now I have knit two pair of mitts (Maine Morning Mitts and Oulu Mitts) using this yarn and now I’m planning to knit the Cobblestone Cardigan. I’ve come to love this yarn! The yarn colors are so beautiful that it took me quite a while to decide on a sweater color. I almost went with Meteorite (brown) which is beautiful, but decided I wanted a lighter color.

My final decision was to go with gray, to match my hair, so Narwhal it is! The yarn has arrived and I will cast on any minute! More to come about knitting the Cobblestone!

Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in Narwhal for a sweater
10 Skeins of “Narwhal” yarn

Read more about the Brooklyn Tweed yarns at their page on Ravelry, or visit their website.