A peek into my dye kitchen

Spoiler alert: it's outside!

We all love a beautifully-finished handmade project. And we all delight in using or wearing the thing we made.

But, deep down, I think we’re also all something of process makers. The doing of the thing is usually as pleasurable as the having of the thing we’ve made.

Dyeing yarn is like this for me.

I used to think I didn’t want to dye yarn. It can be messy, sweaty, physical work. It can be frustrating trying to make the color on the yarn match the color in my head. And the learning curve is definitely bell-shaped. It’s easy to apply color to yarn, but getting just the color I want or just the fabric effect I want—that’s where the learning curve starts to get steep. There’s been this long gap between my taste in yarn and my ability to make that taste come alive in my actual dye pots.

Watch this video by Daniel Sax. It illustrates Ira Glass’s (from This American Life) amazingly on-point words about the gap between your creative taste and creative abilities. It’s only 2 minutes long and I promise you’ll love it.

It took me years to learn how to make the kind of yarn I want to make. I’m sure I made some beautiful things along the way, but it’s only recently that I feel like I’m beginning to hit my stride.

My dream yarn is this:

• It’s a base fiber that’s off-the-beaten path. I love the hunt for the perfect materials. The twist that makes my heart sing, the fiber content that takes the dye just so, the perfect balance of a product that’s gentle on the earth and makes a long-lasting garment.

• The color makes a fabric that looks semi-solid from a distance. I prefer solid colors over patterns, classic over fashion-forward, simple over complicated. The bright and variegated and exuberant yarns call out to me when I’m shopping in a large festival hall, but the ones I reach for, over and over, and end up loving the fabric they make? Those are the simple ones, so that’s what I aim to dye.

• There’s something unexpected. I love finding surprise around the corner, looking down and seeing small flowers blooming. Looking up to see an amazing sunset, when everyone else is just rushing by. I want my yarn to have this feeling. A small pop of unexpected color. Complexity within a “simple” color.

What kind of yarn do you like?

I love seeing all the ways different makers bring their insides to life! After all, isn’t this what making things is all about? Taking a precious piece of our inside self—our tenderness, or vulnerability, or boldness, or outrage, all of it beautiful and tender and fierce—and giving it physical form.

If you’re curious to know more about how I dye yarn and why I dye in an outdoor dye kitchen, here’s a little bonus piece.

Every year around this time, ⬆️ this ⬆️ happens in my backyard.

We have four ornamental plum trees that bloom in mid to late February. When we bought our house (in winter, so many years ago now!) we didn’t realize what these trees were going to do. And each late winter, I am astounded by just how awesome the natural world is.

Right after peak bloom, when the wind rustles the new red-purple leaves, the pink petals fall like snow. It is utterly magical and the whole show takes place over the course of just two weeks.

My stainless steel dye table littered with pink blossoms and purple tree bits.

We are at the tail end of this show right now, and of course I’ve dyed another pink colorway to express just how much I love these trees and San Francisco and being able to dye yarn outdoors.

This mood board:

became these two colorways:

If you’re in my yarn club, you received one of these as your surprise colorway for February/March. The top one is Apple Blossom and the bottom one is Minuet in Peach.

If you’re not in my yarn club, and future you would like a small surprise in about two months, you can sign up here. I’m open for new subscribers this week (sign up by Friday, please) and I’d love to include you in the next round! (This is my absolute most economical offering and the project that brings me and everyone in it so, so much joy!)

If you looked at those colors and thought, wow, that peach would make a gorgeous spring sweater, wait till next week. 😉 I’m testing the color on a few bases and, next Sunday, I’ll be offering preorders on the bases where the color looks its absolute best.

Whether, like most of my readers, you’re in the U.S. and are in winter’s last gasp, I hope you are able to find a quiet moment in the natural world. Whether it’s cold or warm, whether the earth around you is waking up or still deep asleep—whether you’re in the U.S., like 75% of my readers, or whether you’re in one of 46 different other countries, like 25% of my readers—I am rooting for you.