Down So Long!

Hello Fellow Dyers!

Sorry I have been away so long, I am in the process of moving to Washington to be with my boyfriend and it has been busy.

Many things have come through in my long drive to Washington, all my bank accounts have been finalized, my dyes have shipped, and I got some labels printed. My Mother has offered to help me ship put some of the stash I had stockpiled at her place so I will begin limited orders for just blanks. For all of you that sent me your email addresses I will be sending out an email with provisions on how to order, and while my web guys works furiously to put up a website to my liking, I will start taking some orders for blanks. I will only be shipping UPS for now. Once the website is up I will probably offer more options. The idea behind the limited orders is that will give me an idea about what the demand will be and how much yarn to order from the mills.

Meanwhile, all the yarn that I had of my colors are currently sold out. I am not dying anymore until after I move. I would rather get the store up and running so you guy can dye yarn.

I have to trailer one of my horses from Texas to Washington so if I am a little out of touch my apologies; I have many more requests than I initially anticipated (no complaints here ☺ ), so I figured since I have much of the stuff waiting to go out I would try and accommodate the people who just can’t wait ☺.

To email me for any reason: indiedyer at gmail.com (put an @ for the at and take out the spaces)

Big Move among other things.....

Hello Out There--

I know I have been quiet, I am the process of moving to Olympia, WA, and so I have been a little busy.

I ordered my colors for dyes, and decided on 1 oz containers. I am getting my license to do business in Washington mailed to my new address, and open a business account. My website is coming along great and I have a logo (as you can see above).

So I got a call from my Mom today and she said, "I sold some of your sock yarn!" and I said, "What are you talking about?" She said,"You know that yarn you dyed the other day that you sent to me to check out?" I said,"Sure, but that was for you to tell me what you thought of my colors! You sold it?" She said,"Actually no, I sold 3 more skeins of it, so you need to dye some more......" I always just dyed yarn for me when Mom wasn't using her studio, I never thought about selling it. I dyed yarns for me, Mom dyed yarn for customers.

I grew up with yarn and dye and left over dye water everywhere. I would come home and see what my Mom had dyed that day, and what colors were left over. I loved seeing what was left, because it gave me some constraints to work with to use up the left over dye. I ended up dying a lot of potlucks.

My Mom told me that she would knit me a "wonderful wallaby" if I dyed the yarn. Well that day there was a lot of red and yellow leftover, and the end result yarn was pretty orange, and I wasn't sure how much I liked it. However when it was done, I thought it was pretty cool looking. So I went to school the next day proudly wearing, and a guy I had a crush on told me I looked like a construction worker. I was mortified, I went straight home, and mixed up some violet dye and overdyed the sweater purple. My Mom just laughed. It turned out really well and I still wear my wallaby today, but it is getting pretty worn...Anyway, enough nostalgia.

I am opening my store that other people can have the same ease and freedom around dye I do. I don't agonize about colors, if I didn't like I over dyed it, started over, or gave away the yarn. Yarn and dye were easy to come by, so I didn't care if I screwed up yarn. I hope that yarn and dye will be more accessible now for you too.

Sometimes I will hear a story or see something that strikes me strongly color wise and I would try to picture how I would like it to look on yarn. What colors would I have to put to really bring out the intent of the situation or feeling.

I guess I will dye some more skeins in colors that I have done in the past for myself. I want to focus on getting my Indie Dyer Store running so I will only dye 20 skeins of each color. I am just not going to have time to do more than that right now.

Here are some of the colors that I am planning on reviving from my sketchbooks, and personal yarn stash. I will throw a couple new ones in to from some ideas that I have been toying with for a while. Well, we will see how much I like them in the real world and out of my head. I will put pictures up after I get sorted out from all of this moving.

Deep Sea - all the blues-turquoises- navy that make up the ocean
Fairy Tale - bright violet, emerald green, and sapphire to start, all the colors that make up a kings treasure chest or a the sheen on a dragon's scales
Paisley - various greens with gold flecks
Fire and Ice - icey blue and rusty streaks like a bonfire on a cold winter night

... these are just a few that have meaning to me and I personally like, so if you are interested in MY colors, please feel free to email me, I am going to ask around to see how much these sock yarns go for....

BUT if you are interested in blanks, they are on their way! I have my email list all ready to be fired up and sent out when I have the shopping cart set up. Not long now!

Say NO to Vinegar!!!

WARNING: PERSONAL OPINION BELOW! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

If I could leave on lasting impression on indie dyers it would be SAY NO TO VINEGAR! It is not a good mordant! It is for putting on salad, not dying!

The acidic compound in white distilled vinegar is acetic acid. Unfortunately, acetic acid is not the best compound for fixing dye, you have to use more dye and more water to rinse the yarn in addition to the foul odor it leaves behind. In addition the concentration of acetic acid in vinegar varies from bottle to bottle producing inconsistent results.

I prefer and use citric acid. Citric acid is a better mordant. It fixes the dye better which in turn means the yarn requires less rinsing. One tablespoon of citric acid does as much as a whole gallon of vinegar. It is much more cost effective. Frankly, it is better for the environment, safe to handle (it is the same type of acid you find in lemons/limes!), and less corrosive (better for pipes, hands etc).

Just because I can use watercolors to paint my house, doesn't mean I should. I use what professionals use, house paint. It just pains me so to see people constantly asking questions about how to use vinegar and when to use vinegar and using vinegar to rinse. Vinegar is NOT A CURE-ALL. This is just one of many reasons I am opening this store, to make this simple compound available to you, along with the directions about how to get the results you want.

For those of you that LOVE your vinegar and couldn't IMAGINE doing it any other way, okay, but there are better tools out there, begging you to use them. I am sure the other people in your studio will not complain of the lack of stench either.

Update on the store: Hoping to get my website design approved so I can get the site up. I am testing several payment methods, and trying to figure out if people really do hate paypal. I like it, but someone recently told me that "people" do not like paypal. If you have a paypal opinion would you be as so kind as to vote on the sidebar? ((Thanks))

Content

Hello Again

I had a yarnie ask me to post the content of the yarns I am offering.
All the yarns are fingering weight, the Cherry Tree Hill and the Louet Gems are both 100% superwash merino, the Kramer Yarn is 80% Superwash Merino / 20% Nylon.

I have received quite a few requests to carry other yarns, or asking if I will carry other yarns. Currently, this is all I have to offer, however, once I get the site up and running I am sure I will be able to provide more yarns.

The important thing about the blanks I am selling is that they are already wound off, and tied loosely, so the only prep you have to do is dye related. These are intended to be dyed directly.

I am really excited about my website, I talked with my designer today. We discussed having a page to talk about dye news of sorts, tips and techniques. I know many indie dyers have their own kitchens and methods, but I hope that for people who are searching so some clear answers about why their yarn doesn't look the way they think it should, we provide some good resources.

I would like also to thank everyone who has shown such tremendous support and know that what you want to put in your dye pot is on the way!

NOW! Back to work to get this thing running!

Yardages

So I talked to some of my suppliers, and found I can offer these blanks for way lower then I thought originally, so here we go.

Obviously all sock yarns to start out:

Kraemer yarn is 450 yds/ 100 gms for $7

Louet Gems is 185 yds/ 50 gms for $4

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock for $8 this is 420 yds/ 4 oz

I hope to get a call back on the dyes this afternoon. I am hoping to be up and running within the next couple of weeks, so wish me luck.

UPDATE!

Hey

I didn't expect to get such a tremendous response so quickly. I am going to offer all my blanks for LESS then $10 dollars each, probably around $7 to $8 each, with no minimum purchases.

I am going to be selling skeins that are wound off, and tied loosely, but are grey goods. Leaving them as grey goods serves two purposes. The first is that it is faster and allows me to offer the blanks to you cheaper. The second is that it allows the individual dyer to wash the blanks as much or as little as they want prior to dying. This is important as too much washing can strip the wool of its lanolin and loft it too much. So rather then sending you the yarn pre-stripped, I will sell it unwashed.

I am also going to be offering fixatives (like Citric Acid, which better for the environment then vinegar and smells better too ;) ) and wetting agents in smaller quantities for indie dyers. I will be offering a line of professional dyes that are environmentally friendly and contain no metals, or harsh chemicals (no acetic acid, no ureic acid, no tin, no aluminum, etc,).

Another thing that I think there is a demand for is instruction. I am going to have some instructional DVDs made that emphasize the different dye processes for different fibers, and also the various uses for supplementals such as citric acid, soda ash, etc.

Tomorrow I will figure out exactly which blanks I can offer for what price.

Well that is all she wrote. Have a nice evening!

Getting the Word OUT!

Hello Everyone!

I just talked to my web master and I am really going to push to get the site up. I was wondering if you guys were interested in helping me pick a logo? I have designed several myself and gotten some help, but I really want want a good feel for the website. I guess it is easy to get hung up on the more "creative" part of the website.

What will really draw people to the website is being able to get everything they need and want to dye. I will have dyes in 2 oz jars (enough for 3 lbs of yarn) in 10 base colors, plus all the additives needed for dying.
As far as blanks I will offer many sock yarns in 4 oz balls:
Superwash Sock Yarn DK
Superwash Sock Yarn Fingering
Superwash Sock Yarn with Nylon Enforcement
Wool Sock Yarn (Hand Wash Only)
Alpaca Sock Yarn

If there is anything in particular you would like to see as a blank, please let me know. If I get enough demand I will try and find a supplier.

Last, but not least, I am looking into getting some instructional dying DVDs made, and guest articles on the site.

That's all I can post for now, but I am hoping to get some feedback and when I have a couple of logo ideas, I will post them and you can vote. :)

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Experience is the right word.....

Well I just signed up for Ravelry and I am just amazed at all the people out there dying their own yarn! AND the things they are doing to their yarn to get it dyed.... I mean I didn't know you could do that to yarn.

So anyways I thought I would share some of my projects and thoughts and crazy things I have done over the years and share my experience. I hope to open a shop where people can cheaply buy the supplies to dye their own yarn.

So this will be a great experiment! Hope you are along for the ride!