Heather Yarn

Gray Heather is different from other yarn; it is a dyed-in-the-wool black and an undyed natural white  wool that are mixed together in the card before spinning.  They are mixed to not-be-mixed-well so there is a variation of blacks and whites and grays in color visible along the fiber after it is spun.

If the wool were worked in the card longer it would be a more uniform gray. 

The spinnery has a sequence; they spin natural whites together as a group spending a month or longer on those, then they do natural colored (blacks and browns) wools taking a couple of weeks spinning those; then they spin dye-colored wools, which was when the Gray Heather was spun, before they go back to natural whites.  Between each group they must clean the card so one wool does not contaminate the color of another.

About 3 weeks ago I dyed 25 pounds of wool black then shipped it to the spinnery to be carded with the natural white. Yesterday the Gray Heather arrived, today we washed the spinning oil off 4 pounds and will take that with us Saturday.  It always feels good to have something new at market.  Next week we will overdye the heather giving us tints of blue, red and green all the while maintaining the visibility of the dark and light variation underneath.  The heathered yarns are popular and we will do well with them.

Each worsted skein weighs 2 ounces (50 grams) and it is 140 yards in length; the wool comes from our superfine Saxon Merino sheep. Expect 5-6.5 stitches per inch using US 5-8/3.75-5.25 mm needles.

Available from the Heather Department of the Yarn Store.

Gray heather yarn is back! Green Mountain has spun 30 pounds of  heather from our Saxon wool which they blend in the card: 25% of a dyed-in-the-wool black (farm dyed) with 75% of  natural white (farm raised); it's lovely—the spinnery did well—I'm pleased and it's for sale at the stand in Union Square, or you can order from the Heather Worsted department of the Yarn Store.

(Photos of gray yarn go better with onions, or any colored item.)

Right now, it's about 9 PM; I am leaving  soon for the evening lamb check; when the lambs slow down (13 lambs born so far today, about 100 newborns since 3/11) perhaps we can overdye some heather.

Kombu