Worsted Yarn
Old Masters and Natural Colors
Cochineal and an Indigo over Cochineal
Natural colors are derived from natural substances; the pink Cochineal is from an insect and the blue Indigo that produces a mauve when dyed over the Cochineal is from the leaf of a plant.
Le déjeuner sur l'herbe Édouard Manet 1863
What can be noticed in the color schemes of old master paintings done before the advent of modern colors (1865) is a glorious color harmony exclusive to nature. With natural colors what you see is more than the colors themselves, what you see you are their relations with one another.
In the farmstand at Union Square or online, when browsing the worsted yarn colors dyed with natural extracts, one sees the same purlieu of hues, the harmony, that one sees in this Manet as the same extracts were used then and now.
Our Saxon Merino wool is custom spun into a worsted weight singles yarn at the Green Mountain Spinnery; the yarn is uniquely hand-dyed at the farm in small, limited-edition dye lots.
Hand-dyed yarn usually has color variation, yet the yarn you select will be from the same dye lot.
2 oz (50 g), 140 yd, 5 stitches per inch on US 8
Click yarn photos to enlarge
This blue was the result of 2 long dips (3 minutes each) in a strong natural Indigo vat. More... This is the way dyers dyed blue in the 19th Century before synthetics; the warp yarn of the denim fabric from which Levi's are made was originally dyed with natural indigo. More...
This color was dyed in a limited edition of 16 skeins.
I was mistaken. I thought that this was to be a baby pink and look Dick, look Jane, look Spot; it's a purple, a twilight color of New York. See Spot run, that guy can go! More...
Dyed in a limited edition of 48 skeins.
This is pure Cutch with a 2% Iron afterbath.
Dyed in a limited edition of 16 skeins,
A gray or a black that is not what it is. A masculine color. More...
Dyed in a limited edition of 16 skeins
This color starts with Deep Fuchsia #8 and becomes as beautiful as it is after an Fe afterbath. More...
Dyed in a limited edition of 16 skeins.
This is a straight cochineal at 2% WOF, easy to dye but dear too. More...
Dyed in a limited edition of 16 skeins.
Always slightly different, always rich and beautiful always. More...
Dyed in a limited edition of 32 skeins.
Mostly a Hunter Green, but the yellow..., but the blue... One of the many color variations possible with Indigo. More...
Dyed in a limited edition of 24 skeins.
This is a true brown, an antimated brown, a still brown; one that takes you to Waiting for Godot and Susan Sontag in Sarajevo. More...
Dyed in a limited edition of 8 skeins.
At last it's back for its distinct yellow self and for a base for indigo overdyes that make such lovely and different greens. More...
Dyed in a limited edition of 16 skeins.
"Whereof one cannot speak, one must pass over in silence," Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1921.
Dyed in a limited edition of 16 skeins.
I dye for others but once in awhile I come upon a color that has an affinity for me and this is one of them. Because cochineal is so expensive we try to use it twice: the 1st dyebath dyes a deep hue and the 2nd, of course, dyes a lighter one. 6% WOF madder was added to the remaining cochineal in the 2nd dyebath for this color. More...
This color was dyed in a limited edition of 16 skeins.
I'm amazed. This Cochineal! So deep, so vibrant, so fetching! More...
This color was dyed (al/trtr @ 1.75% WOF) in a limited editions of 32 skeins.
This was a long dip in the Indigo pot (~4 minutes) and the indigo concentration was strong too. I really like dark colors. More... BTW this is a sport weight with a length of 175 yd. per 2 oz. skein.
This color was dyed in a limited editions of 16 skeins.
Incredible! The color was supposed to be a straight forward green from Indigo blue over the yellow of Osage. Hey, this is unexected and I'm proud of this color. A 2oz. skein, 140yd. in length. More...
This color was dyed in a limited editions of 24 skeins. Much color variation too.
This is a pure Cutch. It is a delicate color to dye; you must not boil it or the color flattens out and if you want it darker, leave it overnight to cool in the dye pot.
This color was dyed in a limited editions of 16 skeins.
This is a "what if" color; what if we dye a light Indigo over a light Weld and we liked the new color we got.
This color was dyed in a limited editions of 16 skeins.
As with most natural indigo overdyed colors Navy Teal has a depth to it, it has the energy of one color over another, the mixing is optical rather than chemical, and that charges the color with energy. More...
This color was dyed in a limited editions of 12 skeins.
Nothing is always, never is sometimes and when we get a color we don't like or one we already have we put Indigo over the top of it to make something new.
This color was dyed in a limited editions of 24 skeins.
Last night I heard coyotes singing on the farm; I wanted to dye a color like their song. If I never get that color I'll always have a color to dye or one to listen for. More...
Dyed in a limited edition of 24 skeins.
The 2nd color from a Cochineal dye bath after the addition of Madder and Quebracho Red. More...
Dyed in a limited edition of 16 skeins>
This is what happens when you add Iron to a Cutch pot and let it steep for 15 minutes; it changes the butterscotch Cutch into a mellow brown.
This color was dyed in a limited editions of 16 skeins.
The blue teals play like nymphs on the river greens. Indigo over weld in a limited edition of 16 (2oz.) skeins
"Men look good in pink," she said. The color comes from a second dyeing of yarn in a diluted madder bath that first dyed the intense Madison Avenue Madder #9. Pink Man #2 comes in 2 oz. skeins, 125 yd. in length and the color is limited to 24.
This madder root orange is not an orange, it's more because it's less. What else can you call a mesmirizing color but a fascinating rhythm. A 2 oz. skein of 140 yd. in length.
The color edition was limited to 12.
The first time I've ever dyed a namesake orange using Osage & not a yellow as usual. If I tell you what this color makes me think of you won't buy it or you'll buy two...who, who are you. A 2 oz. skein of 140 yd. in length.
Dyed in an edition of 16. See the blog entry for more on this color.
My first color dyed! When I look at it I smell Robert P Anderson's split pea soup and imagine myself at Ocean Beach in San Francisco with the fog coming in listening to the seals bark on the unseen rocks just off shore. A 2 oz. skein of 140 yd. in length. More...
This color was dyed in a small lot of only 16 skeins.
A lighter version, one of the many nuances possible, of dipping cochineal dyed yarn into an indigo vat. A 2 oz. skein of 140 yd. in length More...
Dyed in a limited edition of 32 skeins.
Holy Moly! A lovely unexpected chartreuse green, very even too. A 2 oz. skein of 140 yd. in length. More...
Dyed in a limited edition of 32 skeins.
I love dyeing Myrobalan because the dyebath smells like cookies in the oven. The sense of smell is time travel and it brings me back to childhood, to 4th grade, to Olivia and Pamela, my first loves, like Gilberte was for Marcel in À la Recherche du Temps Perdu. A 2 oz. skein of 140 yd. in length.
Dyed in a limited edition of 16 skeins.
The classic guy gray; and a good mistake: I added too much Logwood to Osage and instead of the green that I wanted I got a near perfect gray. A 2 oz. skein of 140 yd. in length. More...
This color was dyed in a limited edition of 32 skeins.
The red is as true as one can get with madder alone; in the 18th Century it was called Turkey Red as the near east was a good source of madder root. Madder is a natural color dyed in a limited editon of 24 skeins.
The indigo blue softens the madder's bright blush. This indigo overdye of a true madder red is a natural color dyed in a limited edition of 16 skeins.
A dark weld
Indigo over weld.
A light madder
Medium indigo
Indigo over Myrobalan
Wattle
Indigo over wattle
A dark cochineal
A light weld