March 2020, Winter Blues

It’s still winter here in Alta, Wyoming. I’m OK with it. I’m not loving it, but I’m bound and determined to take advantage of it by getting some serious knitting and dyeing done.

Dyeing indoors in the winter is almost as cozy as knitting. Just picture it; lots of steamy dye pots warming up my house and the heady smell of wet sheep…ok, maybe you don’t love the smell of wet sheep, but for me it’s earthy and comforting. At least it’s clean, wet sheep!

I’ve been dyeing up some colorways of my new line of natural (non-superwash) merino called Au Naturale. This is gorgeous yarn, people. It’s 100% extra fine merino and because it’s not Superwash, all of the little scales that give merino yarn it’s light bouncy structure are still intact. It’s like knitting with the finest chenille on the planet, but it’s WOOL!

Natural wool is notoriously difficult when it comes to taking color, so I use a low immersion dyeing technique that takes two days to ensure the colors are saturated. The result is well worth the effort.

I’m going to put these super saturated colors up in the store for you this month and I’ll be offering them in three different skein sizes: 25g (about 100 yds.), 50g (about 210 yds.), and the regular 100g (about 437 yds.) skeins, in fingering weight as well as DK weight 25g (about 54 yards), 50g (about 108 yards), and 100g (about 217 yards). This yarn is perfect for stranded knitting (hence the small skeins!), sweaters, steeked sweaters, hats, mittens, or any project. It’s the perfect yarn.

A couple of months ago Lynette Meek released a stunning hat design, Tulipa which I decided was perfect to showcase Au Naturale, so I picked out colors and knit it up and loved every minute of it. I’m offering it as a kit in the store this month.