Hawthorne is my newest yarn crush with the lovely color palette, local yarn names (so much fun to pick!) and the wonderfully durable fiber blend it’s perfect for so many different projects. Alison has been making baby sweaters, I’ve seen a few lovely shawls and I’ve personally made almost four pairs of socks since we got the samples in the office. We also reknit the Gradual Rib Hat from the Geometric Pattern Collection in Rose City and Irvington, I like the new colors even BETTER than the original Stroll colorway!
The addition of Hawthorne gives this project a wonderful bouncy quality and makes it even stretchier than the original knit. Aren’t the blues in Irvington stunning!?
Hawthorne only gets better after the first wash too. I knit two pairs of socks using our free Two at Once, Toe-Up Magic Loop Socks pattern and have washed both pairs several time and worn them almost every day since I finished weaving in my ends. The fabric has softened and bloomed to make an incredibly comfortable sock fabric. I’ve been hand washing my socks with Eucalan Woolwash on the weekend and air drying them, but I know that Alison has been using her new washing machine to do her Hawthorne baby sweaters with equally great results so I’m not worried if one pair accidentally sneaks into my machine one of these days.
This blue pair is in Goose Hollow and while some colorways have some color differences between the first half of hank and the second (see Alison’s blogpost for a good example of this), but I didn’t notice it with this particular skein at all.
I used Rose City for my favorite pair of socks. This hot pinky red is incredible. I grabbed a skein before the box was even opened completely and I loved every second spent working on these.
Zing! Again, I didn’t notice any definite color variation within the skein or remarkable pooling because this colorway is more tonal than some of the others.
Each pair of socks only used one hank, I wear a size 9.5 shoe and wound up with a perfectly long cuff. I’ve heard some concern online about the hanks not having enough yardage to make a proper sock, but I’ve had absolutely no problem so far. I just wrapped up a third pair of socks in the super popular Vancouver colorway, but they’ll be a surprise gift next month so no pictures until then! I’m also mid-foot into a fourth pair of socks in Mt. Tabor, I can’t wait to share pictures of both soon!
Have you ordered any Hawthorne yet? What projects are you making, or what projects are you dreaming about making?
