Cobblestone is a fingering weight base which channels a 70's retro vibe which we are excited to introduce to the Louie & Lola Yarns line up.
It reminds us of my childhood ponchos, early hand spun yarns and 70's disco music with it's fun crinkly texture and fun pops of slub.
Everything old is new again, right?
This yarn has been quite popular with hand dyers overseas in recent years, particularly when paired with mohair silk laceweight yarns, thanks to a number of free hat and shawl patterns featuring both yarns held double.
Our favourite free Cobblestone patterns include the Chelsea In Paris and College Bound hats, the Midtown Cowl & Hat Set and the Tassels in the Sky shawl (click on title links for Ravelry pattern pages).
Cobblestone has also been successfully used in a number of garment projects which have benefited from the textural interest created by the slubs in the yarn.
Pic above: Chelsea in Paris
Pic above: Midtown Cowl
Pic above: College Bound
Pic above: Tassels in the Sky
Based on our swatching of Cobblestone, when using a 3.5mm needle we achieved a gauge of 24 stitches / 34 rows per 10cm, resulting in a lovely drapey fabric. We can see the yarn being suited to a wide range of needle sizes (eg. 2.75mm and 4mm), depending on the desired gauge and fabric for your project. The yarn has a meterage of 400m per 100 gram skein.
When swatching 'double' with both Louie & Lola Cobblestone and Mohair Silk Lace on a 4mm needle, we achieved a gauge of 22 stitches / 30 rows per 10cm. Again, we think this would be considered a 'middle of the road' gauge for this fabric and subject to your pattern's recommend gauge and your desired fabric, we think you could easily go down or up in needle size to create either a denser or looser knit fabric with success.
We swatched Cobblestone and Mohair Silk Lace in our new 'Cherry Pie' colourway, as below. The mohair yarn lent it's usual blending effect and added the lovely 'halo' for which it is so adored.
To celebrate it's launch at Louie & Lola, we will initially be making it available as a 'Duo', which pairs a full skein of Cobblestone with a full skein of Mohair Silk Lace in the same colourway.
The two colourways we have created especially for our Cobblestone launch are 'Cherry Pie' and 'Sugar & Spice'.
We hope you will enjoy this fun, new yarn as much as we do and look forward to seeing your Cobblestone projects come to fruition.
Happy Making,
Karina
We've teamed up with some of favourite Canadians - Sam and Olga from Thread & Maple and designer Tracie Millar from the talented Grocery Girls duo, to GO PINK in support of the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
We are giving away a very special Limited Edition Thread & Maple 'Go Pink' Notions Clutch Bundle, including a Limited Edition Louie & Lola 'Go Pink or Go Home' Sock Set + Tracie Millar's 'Coffee Talk' Sock Pattern, to one lucky winner.
This week's Shop Update will be a very special one, featuring our 'Joy' colourway on our Merino Nylon Sock base.
We were thrilled to collaborate with Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade for the colourway for her final sock pattern of The Handmade Sock Society, Season 4.
We are introducing Merino Possum Fingering to Louie & Lola this weekend. Why, you may ask? Well...that comes back to a few things - a desire to introduce more locally produced yarn bases, in particular, non superwash woollen spun yarns suitable for colourwork projects and also a love for possum!