Hi everyone!
I’m so thrilled to announce that my partner, Matt, and I are working together this year to add a brand new stream to Knits ‘N Knots, and that’s a new yarn line!
Dyeing yarn has always been in the long-term plan and, while my goal is not to become a full-time yarn dyer and abandon my pattern-writing, I am so excited to add this new element to my business. For the last few years, I’ve spent my time writing patterns and collaborating with yarn companies (and that won’t change), but since I’m already promoting yarn by writing patterns with it, why not create new designs with my yarn line and promote my own products in this unique way? Surprisingly, Matt is the actually one who has been pushing for us to do this for a few years now. He has been talking about it for so long and thought it would be a really fun thing to do together. He was right, and I love that he’s so into it, too! We get to work from home and create things together. What’s better than that?
My Plan
I see this aspect of my business playing out a little differently than I’ve seen other dyers operate. Here’s my plan:
- Collections – There will be a few collections, probably around 1 per year. Each collection will have multiple colourways and accompanying patterns (both knit and crochet) written in sizes XS-5X.
- Our first FULL collection will be released in the spring of 2022 and it is called THE BLOOM COLLECTION (available now!)
- Individual Colourways – I think it would be really fun to release yarns on an individual basis.
- I envision themed releases, maybe a holiday colourway, a Valentine’s colourway, a women’s day colourway, a Pride colourway, things like that!
- I also see individual patterns releasing (maybe the Rosebud Raglan Lite?) with 3 or 4 colour options and then I can offer the yarn for that specific pattern (maybe as a kit)!
- I have a lot of fun ideas that incorporate my own yarn and patterns that I can’t wait to experiment with and see what you all like best!
We actually had a “soft launch”, with a few random colourways that we dyed up as we were learning and experimenting. Most of these were individual skeins, 2 of a kind, or 3 of a kind. I know that it’s hard to buy yarn when there are such limited quantities, which is why I am so excited to release our first true collection. I really hope that it will blow your socks off because we are going BIG with this one! There are 12 colourways and 3 brand new patterns that will be released with this yarn – 1 knit pattern and 2 crochet patterns. I’ve got a few knit and crocheted samples worked up to show off some of the colourways, and my photographer Stephanie get some really amazing shots of each colourway and all of the new designs! We went to a flower farm to get these shots and they turned out so gorgeous.
Our First Collection: The Bloom Collection
This is the first official Knits ‘N Knots hand-dyed yarn collection, BLOOM, inspired by the soft colours of various garden flowers.
This floral-inspired collection contains 10 meticulously dyed colourways intended to mix and match with one another, plus 3 brand new patterns (2 crochet, 1 knit), and 2 kits!
There are 2 weights to choose from: Fingering (sock) and DK weight for each colourway!
A Learning Process
Okay so dyeing yarn is no joke! It took some serious practice to learn the ropes and there was definitely a learning curve for us! We (mostly me) made so many mistakes, some careless (me), and some that just took some practice to figure out! We were sooo frustrated in the beginning because we tried to replicate our colourways and even though we followed the same recipes, there were some other factors that created off-colours. One time I experimented with this brown dye, and I honestly dyed up at least a dozen skeins – one at a time – to try and replicate it. I kid you not – not one of them looked identical. Every single one looked different. I was so confused! I eventually discovered that the problems were the age of the dye stock and the lack of heat applied, which I finallllly learned, after WAY too much experimentation haha!
Some of the mistakes we made:
- Not using fresh dye stock – most dye stocks only last a week or 2 max before the dye pigments start to separate and they totally change the colours! We were SO baffled when we used the same dye solution 3 or 4 weeks later and it was producing a totally different colour. We missed the part where the solutions need to be used up quickly! LOL. I will never forget my frustration after dyeing 10+ experimental hanks with the exact same recipe and they all turned out completely different.
- Not enough heat – In the beginning, we tried dyeing up some tonals in our dye pot on our stove instead of our elements in the basement. One of the reasons our colours turned out completely different when using the same recipe was because our heat wasn’t high enough! The dye adheres to the yarn when it’s exposed to acid and heat – and we didn’t have the appropriate amount of heat to make this happen. Now we set the elements to the exact temperatures we need!
- Not taking meticulous notes – this one needs no explanation!
- Cross contamination – Using the same gloves to make dye stock and then immediately handle finished product.. I transferred dye to all our freshly dyed and dried yarn! I kept these for my own samples haha – I was so mad at myself!
There are so many lessons we have learned and we had to make some rookie mistakes in order to really figure this thing out!! But after so much trial and error, I finally feel equipped to DO THIS THANG and give you guys some really awesome yarn.
Working With Your Partner
Working with your partner may sound unappealing to some (haha) but to be totally honest, we really love spending time together. When the two of us get to dye yarn, it is super fun and feels like a treat. Luckily, he lets me take the lead on all things creative and he’s just happy to be along for the ride.
For the most part, Matt really surprised me, in the best way. He’s actually got a really great eye for colour and has been the one to create most of my favourite recipes so far! It is so annoying how good he is. Every time he makes a really good one, I roll my eyes and say “of course yours is better than mine!” because it always seems to be! On this summer BLOOM collection, I needed a few variegated colourways to match my tonals and I put the dyes in front of him with a fresh hank and said “WORK YOUR MAGIC”, and boy did he ever. He created my favourite colourway in the entire collection, a speckled one called Garden Party.
Studio Space
In June of 2020, I bought a house. On New Years Eve in 2020, we wrote out some resolutions and planned out our year for 2021. On January 1st, we ordered some dyes, some basic dye equipment, and started to demo our basement. We are in a small house from 1960 that has approx. 82376 little rooms so we knocked out some walls to open up one half of the basement and create a good-sized dye studio. After taking out some walls, we painted, built some cabinetry, installed a countertop, plumbed in a sink, and we’ve now got a little basement dye studio! I feel so inspired every time we are down there. It’s so fun to just blast some music and play around with different dyes together and see what we can come up with! I still can’t believe we have a house of our own, and when I think about having a little studio too, it feels like a total dream come true. We built the base cabinets together to fit some of our pots and pans, and some shelving for the powder dyes to get them off the countertop. We built the cabinets to extend wall-to-wall and placed the countertop on these cabinets for a nice, long work table. We put up some faux brick walls from Lowe’s to add a little character and picked a cheap, faux wood-grain IKEA countertop that is easy to clean. It looks pretty awesome for a basement studio!
We will share pictures soon 🙂
Thank you so much for supporting my business over the years to allow me to truly live out my dream life. I am so grateful to you and I can’t wait to bring you some pretty yarn!
Check out our BLOOM COLLECTION, out now!
PS – if you haven’t heard, I wrote a book! It’s called Modern Crochet Sweaters: 20 Chic Designs for Everyday Wear. You can order it on Amazon here!
x
Janine
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