There are a few considerations to bear in mind when knitting or crocheting with hand-dyed yarns. The properties that make these yarns so unique and special bring with them a few challenges.

For one thing, the yarn cannot be knitted straight from the hank, first you need to wind it into a ball. This can be achieved by hand or with the help of a swift and ball winder.

For another, hand-dyed yarns are randomly dyed and no two skeins will be the exactly same. For smaller projects, requiring less than one skein of yarn this presents no great problem. But for projects that take more than one skein, you may find that you have a visible line where you change to a new skein. So we recommend that you alternate 2 balls of yarn for large projects, i.e. work 2 rows or 1 round with one ball, followed by 2 rows / 1 round with the other ball. In this way, you can achieve an even effect over the whole sweater or cardigan.

But then again, you don’t have to knit a whole project with the hand-dyed yarn. Combined with a solid-coloured yarn, in stripes or Fair-Isle colourwork for example, a yarn that you have dyed yourself really comes into its own.

Our insider tip: try knitting white merino yarn together with a hand-dyed mohair to create an absolute one-off (for a hat, maybe).

Further posts on the subject of dyeing:

• Dyeing yarn with acid dyes – the basics
• Dyeing with acid dyes – immersion dyeing
• Dyeing with acid dyes – hand-painting yarn & speckles

You can find more information about our RAW yarns here.