Harrisville Designs

A closer look at Daylights and Nightshades with Sarah Solomon, Director of Knitwear Design Since these yarns are the focus of our upcoming collection I wanted to talk a little about what makes them so unique. In our last newsletter, I described these as my “dream yarns”––so what makes them so appealing to me, both as a knitter and as a designer?  First, I love the color palette. The subtlety and restraint involved in creating such an artful color array speaks to me on many levels. Because the color concept of Daylights and Nightshades is so striking, that is probably what people first notice about these yarns. However, I’d a...

In this year of many changes we have also added a new member to our creative team. Sarah Solomon joined us earlier this year as the new Director of Knitwear Design. Sarah Solomon is a knitwear designer, writer and teacher based in New York City. She started knitting as an adult, fueled by a passion to knit sweaters. She fell in love with the physical practice of knitting, as well the idea of being able to create fabric one stitch at a time with the fiber of your choice, literally building garments from the ground up. With a background in woven construction and dressmaking, Sarah brings a love of details and fine finishing t...

    Harrisville Designs is Celebrating its 50th Year! Chick and Pat Colony founded our company in 1971, continuing a long textile tradition in the region. Yarn has been produced in the village of Harrisville since 1794 and the Colonys have been part of that industry for six generations. In a time when mills were closing all over the country and manufacturing was moving overseas, they decided to create a new wool-based business to honor this tradition and to keep jobs and production in the region. The company has grown to 40+ employees, and in addition to yarn, it now produces beautifully carded fleece, handmade floor...

We've heard from many aspiring crafters, finding themselves spending more time at home, curious to give knitting a try. Knitting patterns can seem daunting without a teacher on-hand, preventing some from ever giving it a go.  The Harrisville Slippers are a basic small pattern, accessible for absolute beginner knitters, which will teach many foundational techniques needed for more complicated projects. We think this project might appeal to the more advanced knitters out there too—so skip past the explanations and tutorials if this is you!  You may also download the pattern PDF here, if you do not need any additional tuto...

Learning how to decrease stitches in your knitting is an invaluable tool to add to your arsenal—once you master the basic decrease stitches, your knitting can move beyond basic rectangles. Single knitting decreases will reduce your total stitches by one each time they are worked. We will learn how to do four different decreases in this tutorial: SSK (slip, slip, knit), a left-leaning knit decrease, k2tog (knit two together), a right-leaning knit decrease, SSP (slip, slip, purl) a left-leaning purl decrease, and p2tog (purl two together). We recommend practicing this technique on a stockinette swatch to get the feel for how each type of decrease is worked.

Knit stitches are “live,” which run the risk of unravelling if they aren’t secured. This is why we need a bind-off. There are numerous ways to bind-off your stitches, and the knit-wise bind-off is one of the most frequently encountered types. A good knit-wise bind-of should have some stretch when pulled, and if your bind-off barely budges when stretched, you might consider binding off using a needle size up from the one used in your knitting. Download the PDF print tutorial

The crochet seam is one of the easiest seaming methods to learn, if you’ve never joined two flat pieces of fabric together. The join created by a crochet seam is stable and less flexible than other methods, such as the mattress stitch, which makes it great for any project that requires structure, such as blankets or slippers. We recommend skipping this method if you are looking to seam a garment.  

Garter stitch and stockinette are the foundational building blocks of almost all stitch patterns in knitting. Everything you can learn about knitting will build on these skills—once you have these stitches down pat in your muscle memory, the world of knitting becomes so much more accessible, and fun.

There are likely innumerable ways to make a pom pom for crafting, or to top a knit hat. In this tutorial, we’ll show how to use our Harrisville Designs’ Pom Pom Maker, or any other pronged pom pom maker you might have in your craft box. The pom poms created from this maker average 2-3” across, though the size of your pom pom may vary. This pom pom maker works best with fingering weight through worsted weight yarn. In this tutorial, we’re using our Shear: CVM yarn, which is a dk weight. Materials Needed:• Pom Pom Maker • Pair of sharp scissors • Approx 3-5g of fingering - worsted wt yarn  Download the PDF tutorial

The whip stitch is a useful seam to know. Although it does not create as strong of a seam as the mattress stitch, the whip stitch is an excellent way to secure a knit facing to the wrong side of your knitting. Materials needed: knitting or crochet to whip stitch tapestry needle matching yarn (we used a blue contrast yarn because it's easy to see)

Seaming pieces of knitting using the mattress stitch is an incredibly useful technique. Seams add stability and structure to knit garments, preventing them from sagging over time.Materials Needed:• knitting pieces to seam• yarn, matching the colorway of the knitting (for this tutorial we’re using a blue yarn so it’s easy to see) Download PDF tutorial for vertical seam Download PDF tutorial for horizontal seam

One of the most common cast-on methods is surely the long-tail cast-on. The edge is stable, without being terribly stretchy, making it perfect for anything from sweater hems, scarf edges, and mitten cuffs. Watch our video tutorial embedded below, or the PDF tutorial linked after, if you prefer to print your instructions. Materials Needed: • knitting needles • yarn (any weight)  Download the PDF print tutorial