Tag: shelter

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

Keep Reading the Blog

Fair Isle Warm Ears Wool Hat Knitting

This is my third time knitting the Triple Patterned Watchcap hat pattern from the “Hat’s On” book (link to book below). This Fair Isle hat has a brim which is knit in such a way that it will be doubled and therefore keeps the ears nice and warm.

me wearing the watchcap hat
My new hat

The pattern begins with a Latvian Braid which is called a Twined Herringbone Edge in the pattern. For some reason I always have to review notes on how to create the braid and usually I begin doing it incorrectly! But once I realize my mistake, I can do the braid without a problem.

The braid will be at the top part of the cuff once it’s flipped up. This pattern is in chart form only, and you have to own the book to get the pattern. Hat’s On! is available at Amazon here. (This is an affiliate link and I could earn money if you follow the link and buy the book.) It contains patterns from simple / beginner to difficult / experienced and I’ve had my book for years trying to work up to knitting that pretty hat on the front!

Knitting the Cuff or Hat Band – Colorwork Pattern #1

I like to place markers to help me keep the pattern straight. On the cuff that means every ten stitches.

hat, knitting, triple-patterned watchcap, hats on book,
Using markers for pattern

Once the first pattern of the triple-patterned hat is complete the remainder of the knitting is done with the cuff turned inside out. My needles are very crowded while knitting the XL size.

In the photo below, I have flipped the finished brim inside out and begun knitting in the opposite direction for the top of the hat. The remainder of the hat will be knit this way, so the cuff looks inside out. It will turn up when the hat is completed.
hat knitting, triple-patterned watchcap, colorwork, fair isle,
Brim is finished, turned to begin hat top

Knitting Pattern #2 of the Triple Pattern Design

I am following this pattern exactly and the second colorwork pattern is a bunch of circles. It’s for fun only because when the hat is complete the cuff will be turned up to cover this section of knitting. But, Fair Isle is much more fun to knit than simple stockinette. This section could actually contain anything, or nothing at all. When I knit this hat in green and gold, I put a heart pattern in this second section.

I will say that this knit made my hands ache. I did knit at long periods of time, but the wool is quite stiff to work with. The last two hats I made like this were knit with Brooklyn Tweed’s Arbor yarn, which I would have used again, but had no more good colors left. This hat will have a different look because of the yarn, but that’s okay because I also love this type of wool.

Colorwork pattern #2 will be covered by the cuff when the hat is finished.

Pattern #3 Completes the Crown of the Hat

As I began pattern number three, I was running low on the brown yarn. I was sure the red would be sufficient, but the brown ball was pretty small. I had used the Teak yarn to knit a pair of boot cuffs for my daughter, so I didn’t begin this knit with a full skein. I do have another brown yarn – BT’s Meteorite – which I am keeping close by, just in case.

It turned out that I had just barely enough brown yarn to finish up the crown – see my image below, far right…! One little strand was leftover. It’s what knitter’s call playing “yarn chicken”.

  • balls of wool yarn
    Harrisville Highland Wool, Teak and Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, Amaranth
  • Triple Patterned Watchcap knit in brown and red wool crown of hat
    Crown
  • Yarn Chicken!
  • Triple Patterned Watchcap knit in brown and red wool

The Wool Yarn

In keeping with my plan to use up the yarn I already have, I found two worsted weight, pure wool yarns that I like together. The yarn I am using for this hat project is Brooklyn Tweed’s “Shelter” in colorway Amaranth (shades of red) and Harrisville Highland Wool in colorway Teak (brown). Wool is wonderful for colorwork and will help to make this hat extra warm on cold days.

The Size and Needles Used

I am using a size 6 needle (16 inch circular and DPN’s) and knitting the size XL hat. Both hats I knit previously came out with head circumference measurements exactly matching the pattern. Because this hat is done in stranded knitting around the brim, it won’t have a lot of stretch. The XL should measure 22 inches when finished and that should fit my head nicely. Yes, it does!

The finished hat, after washing and drying, measures approximately 22 inches around. There isn’t much stretch to this pattern and it fits snug, but not tight to my head. I rinsed it twice in wool wash as there was a lot of color coming out. Yarn tends to be pretty dirty by the time a project is knit, so washing is essential.

  • me wearing the watchcap hat
  • Extra large watchcap size Fair Isle hat
  • washing the watchcap

I Now Have Three Triple-Patterned Watchcaps in Three Sizes

Two hats, the size Large and Small, were knit using Brooklyn Tweed’s “Arbor” which is a very nice yarn. I enjoyed knitting with it more than the wool, but I love the outcome of this wool hat.

  • Triple Patterned Watchcap hats in three colors
    Knit in sizes, XL (red), L (green) and S (pink)
  • Triple Patterned Watchcap in three sizes and various colors
  • Triple Patterned Watchcap three hats same pattern
knitting divider

Latest Blog Posts

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

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.