Wool2Dye4

Wool2Dye4, Lynchburg, VA, http://www.wool2dye4.com: Another wonderful online shopping experience was had when I ordered from this company. My interest and desire to dye yarn has piqued since I ordered Austin Peacock from See Jayne Knit Yarns, so I’ve been doing some heavy research into dyeing yarn, and looking into the prices of bare yarn and acid dyes.

I already know that KnitPicks has a wonderful selection of bare yarns and even an acid dyeing starter kit, but when I found Wool2Dye4, I was rather impressed with their selection, and also that they’re an emerging business that specializes in quality undyed yarn and accessories. Since that’s exactly what I have been searching for, I placed my order, and four days later, I received it! Even though I ordered it and knew what was coming, that didn’t stop me from being as excited as my youngest son on his birthday!

The yarn on the bottom is an 8 oz. skein of 100% Merino Superwash sock yarn, and the yarn on top is an 8 oz. skein of 100% Kona Merino Superwash. For my first attempts and experiments in dyeing yarn, I’ll be using this:

Oh yeah!!! Because I’ve never tried dyeing anything (that excludes a tie-dyed tshirt experiment in the early ’90s), I’m going to use food-safe Kool-Aid in an assortment of flavors/colors. The colors are orange, pink lemonade (pink), cherry (red), black cherry (deeper red), grape (purple), ice blue raspberry lemonade (blue) and lemon-lime (lime green). (These were not part of my order.)

Also included in the package was a Royal New Wool Winder and a book: Dyeing to Knit: How to Use and Create your Own Beautiful Hand-Dyed Yarns by Elaine Eskesen. Along with a nice handwritten note on the invoice from the shop’s owner, Sheila Mahone, she included a sample of Eucalan no rinse wool wash, and of course, her business card. In summation, this online shopping experience was very satisfying!

After I set up the new toy wool winder on the edge of my desk, the boys and I immediately put it to work! We grabbed two hanks of wool that I couldn’t yet use because they were in hanks (if I tried knitting with a hank, it would quickly turn into a rat’s nest) and taking turns, the boys and I made two lovely center-pull wool cakes that are now ready for action!

The results of our playtime! On the left is a 250-yard cake of Blue Heron Yarns beaded metallic wool in the colorway grass that I had purchased at the Fibre Cafe in Cambridge, MD. On the right is that 280-yard hank of Merino, in the colorway Wood Violet, that I got from the only vendor at the 4th Annual FiberFest, Dragonfly Fiber Designs. Cool, huh?