Kay's Korner - A Knitters Notes

Since ancient times, people have used dyes to adorn fiber and to this day, men and women enjoy color in their clothing. But when it comes to knitters, we not only love colors in our projects, we are willing to go to effort and expense to cast on with lovely and interesting hand dyed yarns. Every season, new hand dyeds hit the shelves of local yarn shops to meet the demand for these artsy yarns. Knowing how to knit these unique skeins to show off their best advantage is key to successful projects using hand dyed yarns.

The road to hand dyed yarns is paved with years of innovation. Originally, colorwork in knitting was attained by simply using two or more solid yarns. Stripes from two tone to a series of seven Fibonacci bands were accomplished by knitting with separate skeins, leaving many ends to weave in at finishing. In 1963, H. W. Wilkinson, Jr. was issued a patent for a dyeing machine to produce variegated yarns, allowing mills to use multiple colors in a single skein, in a fixed amount and progression. The variegated yarns produced using this process were immediately very popular and continue to be to this day. Colorful knitting became easy and the finished projects were bright and cheerful. In the early 1980's, Eisaku Noro of Japan developed a line of yarns with long repeating stripes of elegant colors, a technique he still uses today to produce some of the worlds most popular yarns. Other companies got on the self striping band wagon, producing yarns of every weight and color, so knitters could enjoy effortless color work in their knitting, using but a single strand.

When hand dyed yarns hit the yarn shops, knitters were delighted and this category of yarns continues to enjoy widespread popularity. Rather than a machine dyeing the fiber or yarn, color was applied to hanks by hand with new and fabulous results. Even amateur fiber artists were able to attain unique, repeating color patterns using this technique and hence the indie dyers came on the needle arts scene. Some of these talented indie dyers went on to take their talents to stellar status, starting yarn companies featuring their custom colorways. Twisted Sisters and Aruacania Yarns are examples of women who have made their hand dyed yarns common features in local yarn shops nationwide.

I can still remember my first exposure to true hand dyed yarn. The owner of my local yarn shop suggested a wrap knit in two Colinette yarns, a mohair and a cotton chenille, both hand dyed in soft undulating pinks. Two weeks later I was back for more, knitting a sweater in a Colinette rayon blend, this time with more colors and interest. It seems that hand dyed yarns can be addicting! Even today, I have several works in progress that feature these fascinating yarns. I love the surprise of varying lengths of color and how each skein holds mystery. Where with machine dyed yarns, our finished projects were near identical to the pattern photos, now every project is unique. My Peony scarf from Twisted Sisters will be different than any other knit in the same colorway. The art in our craft has attained a whole new level.

Even with all its beauty and marvel, working with these yarns has its eccentricities. Where in my first Colinette pattern book, there was a designer note in the preface instructing to alternate skeins every two rows (if you went straight to the patterns, you missed this info), most of todays hand dyed yarns and patterns seem to assume that tidbit as prior knowledge. One of my favorite students was very disappointed when her first sock striped, but the second sock had pools of color. Those knitters who seek strict order in their knitting, may find hand dyed yarns a bit frustrating. For years, I worked very hard to line up the stripes on sleeves and to make my socks a matching pair. My relief from hand dyed frustration came when cover shot after cover shot in major knitting magazines featured sweaters with obvious color pooling. A sample knit had passed the scrutiny of a sample knitter, a photographer, a feature editor and a chief editor. Who was I to say that pooling is knitting gone wrong?

To experience and fully appreciate a hand dyed hank, it must be knit. When the hanks have not been reskeined to blend the colors, all you see is bands of color on the yarn.

Once reskeined, it is easy to see the distribution of the various colors. But the piece de la resistance comes when the strand is cast on and worked into a pattern. Even in simple garter, the lengths of color come alive, bumping into each other, sidling along, occurring and recurring. Sometimes, a simple striping appears, yet in a different project, even a different part of the same project, the colors may come together in a totally new way. The color patterns in a back and front and/or the left and right fronts will not be identical, but similar. I have come to love the differences in the sections of my projects. The surprise and mystery of hand dyed skeins are part of the art. That someone put dyes to fiber individually, becomes an individual opportunity.

The more staid knitter might prefer a space dyed, dependable, self striping yarn, but there is ever so much more fun in knitting with a unique hank. Learn to go with it, if you can, and experience the creative flow. If you must have more order in your knitting, alternate hanks every two rows and line up the repeats in the different sections of your project, for example beginning both sleeves at the same part of the color repeat.

Today's designers are savvy when it comes to which yarn they choose for a project, so if a hand dyed yarn is recommended, trust the guidance. Iris Schreier developed an entire line of yarn and patterns around hand dyeing techniques, as have other popular modern design divas. Both the talented Twisted Sisters and the mother/daughter team who began Araucania Yarns offer fabulous pattern support for their luxury yarn lines, as do Farmhouse Yarns, Colinette Yarns, Art Yarns and many others. The list of designer hand dyed producers keeps growing as does our love for these wonderful yarns. When you choose one of these artful hanks, you welcome aboard a collaborator and I promise you, the enlivened results will have you coming back for more.

Happy knitting!

Kay Mather

Copyright March 2010