This is The Yarnist. The daily newsletter that makes you love knitting the same way Americans love root beer.
Here's what we've got for you today...
Knitspiration: Why you should give undyed yarn a chance
Stitchionary: A clever way to add a new color
Pattern Pick: These knockers are completely knitted
PLUS: Nudist knitting, knitting a nudist, and more
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Knitspiration
๐ The Naked Truth About Undyed Yarn
It's summer time, and for me that means a lot of grilling.
I love to make up a nice marinade of chili powder, garlic, lime, and cumin for some carne asada.
Heck I'll even throw in some Coke and coffee grinds to bump up the complexity.
I make up some pineapple habanero salsa, a red pepper infused flour tortilla, and cilantro lime crema for a taco that punches you in the face with flavor.
But sometimes all you want is a pure cut of skirt steak with some sea salt and a nice char on the grill.
If you're a vegetarian, maybe its some roasted eggplant or summer squash. A splash of olive oil and you can enjoy those simple, fresh flavors all on their own.
Yarn can be the same way.
It's fun to knit with a hand dyed yarn that's an explosion of color.
And sometimes it's nice to let those underlying fibers express their natural beauty.
Today we're going to discuss those natural colors and the incredible diversity in undyed yarns.
Natural colors of wool top for spinning
What is Undyed Yarn?
This is a pretty obvious answer, by undyed yarn is yarn that has no added colors.
Most dyed yarn comes from fibers that are traditionally white, like wool, cotton, linen, and silk.
Even acrylic fibers have a neutral color, but today we're focusing on yarns that are not man made.
Many traditional color work patterns were originally knit with natural white and black yarns, such as the Selbu designs of Norway.
But there's a surprising amount of diversity within the colors of natural fibers.
While they are all in the neutral spectrum of the color wheel, their variety offers plenty of options to knit with.
Let's take a look at three fibers which are (relatively) easy to find in their natural state.
Sheep's Wool
There are at least 200 breeds of sheep around the world, although some organizations put that number at more than 1,000.
However, only a few dozen of those produce wool fine enough for use in hand knitting.
Many are raised for meat and milk production, or have wool that is used in other industrial applications.
Some sheep's wool can have as many as 11 different shades of color, going from white to grey to brown to black, and many in between.
For decades it was nearly impossible to sell anything but white wool fleeces at market. Colored fleeces were mostly discarded.
Nowadays the natural color of wool is more appreciated, so more colors have become available.
Alpaca Wool
There are only two primary breeds of Alpaca, Suri and Huacaya, although hybrids of the two do exist.
You would think this should restrict the diversity of these animals, but there are A TON of natural alpaca colors.
The Alpaca Owners Association recognizes 16 different fleece colors, as well as 8 additional classifications (which are mostly used to group together animal for shows).
Many alpacas do not have fleeces which are only one color.
Some have tips which are a different color, spots, or even get sun bleached.
This makes creating consistent colors from natural alpaca wool a bit challenging. It also means you can get some truly unique yarns from small alpaca farms.
Colored Cotton
This is not a fiber most people associate with natural colors.
And for good reason.
White cotton is significantly easier to grow and harvest.
But there are many types of colored cottons, including pinks and greens.
The shorter staple length of these cotton fibers makes them unusable for commercial application.
Luckily they can be spun up into beautiful yarns for hand knitting, although they can be hard to find.
Benefits of Undyed Yarn
If you want to experience yarn in its most natural state, undyed is where its at.
But there are many advantages to using undyed yarns beyond their natural beauty.
Here are a few:
No added chemicalsโ They yarns are usually not processed using additional solvents or softeners. This makes them much better for the environment.
Natural Wool is GREAT for Feltingโ Both sheep and alpaca fibers can felt, and the less processed the fibers, the more easily they do. This can be a plus or a minus, but if your goal is felting, the more natural the fiber the better.
They FEEL Differentโ This is a little hard to quantify, but many people think that undyed yarns just feel better in the hand. The stitches slide across each other more easily, and it's a more pleasant knitting experience overall.
That being said, it isn't all sunshine and cotton boules for undyed yarns.
Drawbacks of Undyed Yarn
Of course there is a dark side to undyed yarn, and no I don't mean black sheep.
Here's a few of the disadvantages that come with undyed yarn:
Raw Wool Can Be Rusticโ There's a lot of natural yarns that just aren't as soft. Many yarns use softeners that make them feel nicer against your skin.
Natural Oils Can Be Irritatingโ While alpaca is a hypoallergenic fiber, natural sheep's wool often has lanolin. This gives it that distinct "farm" smell and can be irritating to sensitive skin.
Limited Color Paletteโ If you don't mind being apart of the "sad beige color club" knitting with neutrals might be your thing. And while you can get beyond the four main colors (brown, white, grey, and black) you're not going to get too far from them.
These are things to keep in mind when sourcing natural undyed yarns.
But in spite of these drawbacks, we think they're still worth checking out.
๐ Undyed Yarns We Love
There's a lot of undyed yarns out there, and sometimes it can be hard to parse through them all.
So to save you some time, hereโs a few of our favorite completely natural fiber yarns you might want to add to your stash:
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Fishermen's Wool by Lion Brand Yarn โ Buy It Hereโโ
Lion Brand's classic Fishermen's Woolยฎ is made of pure virgin wool with natural lanolin oil. Soft, warm, and naturally water resistant, it's ideal for ski-wear and fisherman sweaters, hats, scarves, and more. Fishermen's Woolยฎ also felts beautifully for dense slippers, strong bags, and textural home decor projects. Plus its generous size and natural shades make it perfect for dyeing!
You'd have to be an alpaca to get a more natural fiber, this is all of the compelling, next-to-skin softness of alpaca for the sustainably minded. The natural warmth of alpaca fiber creates a wonderful yarn for luxuriously cozy garments and accessories that knit up in a trice. โ No dyes or bleach are used to process the yarn; a full spectrum of natural shades is created by meticulously sorting the fiber. As colors are naturally occurring, some variation from skein to skein is normal.
My friends at Bare Naked Wool carry these beautiful natural cotton yarns. Each has been cultivated in different neutral shades, including rich browns and even green.
These cotton yarns are quite rare and you won't find anything like them available in the states anywhere else.
Create your own shade of luxurious silk with Bare Luminance, a lace-weight, ultra-luxurious 100% silk yarn. Luminance has superior sheen, and excellent drape, making it the perfect yarn for the finest shawls and flowing scarves. Prepare to swoon at the silky-smooth feel and fall in love with the radiant shine that shows off lace details like no other. Your eyes will light up when you see - and touch - Luminance!
Stone soup is a unique blend of rambouillet, columbia, lincoln, navajo-churro, alpaca, silk, bamboo, tencel, bison, and llama, which offers exotic color, tweedy texture, and crisp stitch definition.
This fiber blend is 95% produced and entirely spun in America.
Conclusion
So there you have it.
A few of our natural, undyed yarns
But what do you think?
Have you knit with an undyed yarn before?
What was your experience?
Hit reply and share your experience with us!
We'd love to hear your feedback. ๐
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Announcements
THE SUMMER OF COLOR YARN CRATE
As part of our Season 2 Summer of Color, we're putting together a special YarnCrate.
Not only does it have 3 exclusive skeins of hand dyed yarn, and a bunch of other goodies, but you'll also get a front row seat during the yarn creation process.
We've only got a few kits left at $30 off, so grab one before they're all gone!
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