Supersized Wool for Cozy (and Speedy) Weaving

Harborside Aran, from Brown Sheep Company, is a medium to fine blend of Columbia and Rambouillet resulting in a lovely soft, bouncy yarn. Because it’s spun using the worsted system (which adds to the strength of the yarn), it works well for both warp and weft. We asked Peggy Hart to spend some time with it, and to report back on what she learned. Here’s what she had to say.—Handwoven editors

Weaving with Harborside Aran

In the past, I’ve enjoyed weaving with Brown Sheep’s Nature Spun (plied) and Lanaloft (singles) yarns, and so the heavier Harborside Aran intrigued me. It comes in 20 colors, with both the yarn and its palette inspired by sweaters of the Aran Islands off the coast of Ireland. The colors work well together, as they are variations of naturally colored wool plus heathery blues, greens, and reds along with a handful of brighter options.

Although Harborside Aran was primarily designed as a knitting yarn, when woven, it makes a thicker fabric perfect for projects such as blankets and throws. Even better, sett at just 6 or 7 ends per inch (epi), it weaves up very quickly!

While working with this four-ply yarn, I found that it has a supple hand. As an added advantage, because it is worsted-spun, it isn’t sticky in the warp, nor does it abrade. For the samples shown here, I warped front to back and wove with a loose sett and a light beat. I used a small rug shuttle to hold the weft, because the thick yarn didn’t fit well on standard weaving bobbins.

After weaving, I lightly wet-finished and air-dried the samples, fearing that heavier finishing would result in too much fulling and overly stiff fabrics. The samples did shrink quite a bit, but they filled in nicely and still had good drape.

The Samples

Yarn details: 740 yd/lb; 4-ply wool; 162 yd/3.5 oz skein
Colors tested: Irish Cream, Beachwood, Ship’s Rudder, Fisherman Green, Celtic Sea

The samples below demonstrate Harborside Aran in action in six different structures. Clockwise from top left, the samples are plain weave, windowpane, houndstooth, point twill, herringbone twill, and shadow weave. Click any image to view more details.

Sample 1: Plain weave on a striped warp. A light beat and balanced weave resulted in substantial shrinkage on wet-finishing. The hand of the final fabric is supple, and it would work well for household textiles. Sample 2: 4-shaft windowpane. What if the windowpanes were woven in Brown Sheep’s Lanalot singles yarn surrounded by single Harborside Aran warp end weft ends? Would that combination lead to differential shrinkage? Sample 3: 4-shaft shadow weave. This sample combines Harborside Aran light ends with Nature Spun fingering-weight dark ends. The shadow weave patterning holds up even after wet-finishing. Sample 4: 4-shaft houndstooth. This warp was sett a bit tighter, and the classic jagged houndstooth patterning remains clear after finishing. More aggressive finishing might make for rounded corners. Sample 5: 8-shaft herringbone twill. This sample was also sett for twill, and the asymmetrical patterning remains clear and distinct after finishing. Sample 6: 4-shaft point twill. This sample includes 3-end floats in and around the diamond shapes, which led to more shrinkage. Advancing twills with short floats are an area for further sampling.

Click on a picture to learn more, and use the arrow keys to scroll. Photos by Matt Graves

Other Details

I’m an unapologetic wool fan. High-quality wool that is spun this well compels me to make something that celebrates its softness. As a blanket weaver, I think it would make an especially nice throw—and with the size of this yarn, you could weave one in a single weekend!

Because of its size, Harborside Aran works best with weave structures that generally have floats no longer than 2 ends. (At 6 epi, 3-end floats will be 1/2 inch long before wet-finishing.) And I recommend confirming that your heddle eyes are large enough to accommodate it.

At 162 yards per skein, the put-ups are fairly short in weaving terms, but I didn’t find that to be an annoyance. If you’re weaving blankets using a yarn of this size, dealing with knots is the main issue that would slow you down. Having said that, I didn’t run into knots in the skeins I worked with.

Ideas Worth Exploring

While I personally would use Harborside Aran to weave throws or blankets, it would also work for other household textiles such as pillows or table runners (where a thick wool fabric is a positive), for a carefully chosen wearable, or even for art pieces.

Just be aware that the yarn is quite heavy—a 40-by-60-inch throw will weigh about 2¾ pounds.

For that reason, I’d avoid structures such as doubleweave (because they’d make for an even heavier fabric) or float weaves (such as overshot, monk’s belt, or waffle weave). Honeycomb might work, perhaps with Harborside Aran outlining cells woven with Lanaloft. And I’m curious about that same thick and thin yarn pairing in plain weave or twill (2/1 or 2/2) warps, where the Harborside Aran wouldn’t have room to shift.

You can read all the details about each sample, including setts, shrinkage, and my weaving notes in the Fall 2025 issue of Handwoven.