Handspun + hand-dyed yarns

Have you seen hand-dyed or handspun yarn??? *Heart eyes emoji* Hand-dyed yarn is a stunning combination of colors by professional independent yarn dyers. These are luxury yarns so they’re more conducive to personal projects than items for EB Knits, but wow, are there tons of stunning yarns out there! I’ve only purchased a few skeins of hand-dyed yarn as of June 2020, but I can’t wait to support other yarn dyers as I grow in my knitting journey and find more time for personal projects!

A lot of knitter acquire a ton of gorgeous yarns to create a “yarn stash.“ And I’m envious of some with shelves and shelves of yarn because it’s like their own personal yarn store! When I first started knitting I bought yarn constantly, granted it was definitely not fancy hand-dyed yarn, but then it came to the point I didn’t like all of it anymore and returned a bunch of it since I had purchased it at a big box store. Now I’ve promised myself that I’ll buy yarn in more manageable quantities and only for the next couple upcoming projects, rather than purchasing and purchasing yarn. One other concern for me when it comes to building a yarn stash, is that, especially with hand-dyed yarn, it’s an investment (one I’m definitely happy to take on, these dyers are so deserving), but purchasing one-off skeins here and there won't make up a whole project. So instead of just buying yarn I think is pretty all of the time, I try to purchase project by project because for me that is more manageable and less overwhelming. I will say, however, that since December I’ve challenged myself to only work with the stash that I do have for all of my personal projects and it’s been a really fun challenge modifying patterns to fit my yarn weight and fiber and work with different color combinations I may not normally choose. And I love the way my projects are coming out. In that regard, working with a bunch of single skein hand-dyed beauties would be fun to achieve a one-of-kind, unique look!

Anyway, that was a tangent! All that to say some knitters are yarn stash knitters and some aren’t. I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. When it comes to hand-dyed yarn though, I so admire these people that create dye recipes and play with color to create incredible combinations that you can work with for your own project. Some are one-person businesses, others have a few employees and some are larger and they all have their own unique color palette and styles they’re known for. Some simply dye yarn off of an inspiration picture, say or a t.v. show character and it’s the coolest thing! When it comes to hand-dyed yarn, there are totals/semi-solids (basically solid colors with a little variation), speckles, self-striping and variegated color ways by indie-dyers. My personal favorites are the speckles or variegateds because they are so unique!

I’ve rambled about hand-dyed yarns and haven’t even mentioned handspun yarn yet! Handspun yarn is yarn spun by hand and what makes it so special and my favorite part about it, is that fun extra’s can be spun into it like lace, daisies or extra sparkle, etc. All of these extra elements make it absolutely stunning!

As I mentioned in this post, I’ve only purchased yarn from a couple of independent yarn dyers at this point, but I follow quite a few of them on Instagram and I drool over their color ways every time they post or when I watch a yarn podcast and they show such amazing color ways! So I’ve curated a list of the yarn dyers and spinners that I’ve purchased from and some that are high on my list. There are so many more, the list could be endless and all yarn dyers are incredible, but these are just a few that I can’t wait to get my hands on!

Hand-dyed and handspun yarns I’ve worked with

Explorer Knits + Fibers

• My first hand-dyed yarn purchase was from Ali of Explorer Knits and Fibers- the Great Barrier Reef National Park color way. I grabbed it as my birthday present to myself! I love following Ali on social media and all her color ways are gorgeous! She finds a lot of her inspiration from nature. Recently she’s picked up her National Park Yarn Club again, every month she designs a color way based on pictures from one National Park and they are stunning! Also, this month she released her Italy collection based on travels from her honeymoon.

Sewrella Yarn (formally Handmade Home Fiber)

• Purchased the shaved ice color way in 100% super wash merino wool and made it into the Rosewood Scarf by Knifty Knittings for Grandma. I included two pictures of the scarf and one of the color way above! For this scarf, to make the two skeins enough for a scarf, I also incorporated a solid yellow skein into it and I think it turned out gorgeous!

• Hand-dyed yarn by Ashleigh of Sewrella, she creates a new collection of color ways every month based off one theme. Recently, there’s been collections inspired and named after Gilmore Girls and Frozen!

Knit Collage

• Wow. Just, wow. I was excited to try out the Daisy Chain yarn (it has actual daisies weaved in!) and when I decided to join the fall 2019 knit-a-long, I was astounded at the yarn I received. The packaging was gorgeous and superseded all of my expectations! Totally worth the price tag and I LOVE my finished Knit-A-Long piece, the Kaleidoscope Cardi (pictured). I chose to knit this cardigan because the kit included two mini sampler packs and I wanted to try as many of their yarns as I could! And they were all so amazing: Spun Cloud yarn is a solid with sparkle, Daisy Chain as I mentioned has daisies and lace spun into it. Surprisingly to me, the Dreamland I think turned out to be my favorite and it’s spun with lace, sparkle, sequins, ribbons and flower trims.

• Knit Collage is an incredible woman-owned business based in Boston and she employs 13 women who handspin all of the yarn in India. I love supporting businesses like Knit Collage with such an amazing initiative!

Hand-dyed and handspun yarn dream shopping list

If you click on the picture for the yarn you like, it will take you directly to each dyer’s website! These are by no means all of the awesome hand dyers out there. There are so many more! These are just some of my current favorites that work with color in awe-inspiring ways.

All of the pictures in the above slideshow are property of the dyers and are not my own. Sources are in each caption for more information.