Today I wanted to talk about how the same colorway can look significantly different depending on the type of yarn or yarn base it is dyed on. I took photos of a few colorways I have dyed on several bases so you can see what I mean.

What makes the difference? There are a several causes. First of all, there is the fiber itself. Different fibers tend to take dye more or less brightly. If I use the same amount of dye, I have found that mohair and BFL take color very intensely while merino and polwarth are just a bit less bright. Silk tends to look a little less intense than wool, and camelid fibers like alpaca and llama tend to be lighter in color saturation still. There’s also the question of superwash wool versus non superwash. Superwash wool tends to take dye more brightly than non-superwash, presumably because it is a flatter surface so it reflects more light. There is also the factor of the natural color of the fiber. All my millspun yarn bases so far are white or ecru, but if someone starts with a gray or beige fiber instead, the dyed colors will be more muted.

If you look at the photo showing my Kristin Lavransdatter colorway below, you can see what I mean when I say that different fiber combinations result in different saturation levels.

The leftmost yarn is my So Silky base, which is made of 50% mulberry silk and 50% superwash merino. As you can see, the colors are softest on that yarn base. Just to the right of So Silky Sock is my Sock Perfection base, which is made of 80% superwash merino and 20% nylon. It’s considerably brighter. The one in the middle is dyed on my Sparkly Merino Sock yarn base. That one is made of 92% superwash merino and 8% lurex. That one is a bit brighter than the ones around it because it is made of a higher percentage of superwash merino. Next up is Super Sport, which is made of the same proportions of superwash merino and nylon as Sock Perfection, yet it is a little bit lighter than Sock Perfection. I believe that is because there is proportionately more surface area and less middle to a sock-weight yarn compared with a sport-weight yarn, so the dye isn’t absorbed by the middle of the yarn.

The yarn on the far right is my Buttery Soft DK. As you can see, that one is a bit darker than the others even though it is made with alpaca and silk. The only way I can explain that is by talking about the other thing that causes differences in color, and that is the nature of hand-dyeing yarn. For my semi-solid yarn and my traditionally variegated yarn, I keep track of my dye “recipes.” I make notes of exactly how much dye I use, how concentrated the dye is, and how much of the skein I covered with a given color. In spite of all of that, there will be small differences from batch to batch because, well, because I am not a machine, but I am able to get pretty close from one yarn batch to the next.

For my Splashed & Speckled colorways, however, the colors vary more. While I use the same dye colors every time I make a certain colorway, the amount of dye and the placement of the dye vary from batch to batch and even skein to skein. That brings me back to why the Buttery Soft DK skein of Kristin Lavransdatter is darker in spite of the fact that the base I dyed it on is one that usually takes colors a bit more softly. The only logical explanation is that I used more dye. There are definitely days when I’m a little more cautious and days when I am a little more “aggressive” with my Splashed & Speckled method, and Kristin Lavransdatter was dyed using that method.

My next example is my Lizzie colorway, inspired by the protagonist of Pride and Prejudice.

Unlike Kristin Lavransdatter, I dyed Lizzie using a traditionally variegated method with blocks of color in a specific order. I first dyed it as part of my Jane Austen lace collection in the spring, and then I recently decided to dye the same colorway on So Silky Sock and Super Sport. I used the same amount of dye on all three yarn bases. As you can see, the Silky Sparkly Lace on the left is softest followed by So Silky Sock in the middle. Both of those have silk, which, as I mentioned, takes the dye more softly than wool. You would think that So Silky Sock would be the lightest since it has more silk, but it is also made using superwash merino whereas Silky Sparkly Lace is a non-superwash yarn. On the right is Super Sport, which is clearly brighter even though it was dyed in the same batch as So Silky Sock. That one is made of 80% superwash merino and 20% nylon, and it definitely wins the color-intensity contest.

My last example is Rivendell. I actually had to invent a new dye technique to make this yarn possible. (This is what I do when I can’t sleep. It’s kind of like counting sheep but a little more productive.)

As you can see, Rivendell is brightest on Sparkly Merino Sock in the middle, which is made of mostly superwash merino. The two on either side are a bit softer because of the silk in So Silky Sock and the combination of silk and alpaca in Buttery Soft DK. Buttery Soft DK is also made with a non-superwash merino. It’s especially interesting to see how much brighter the green is on the Sparkly Merino Sock yarn compared to its companions even though it’s the same green.

I organize my shop by yarn weight and photograph each base separately, but I know many indie dyers organize their shops by colorway, and they don’t always have the opportunity to photograph each yarn base ahead of time. If you have ever ordered yarn from an indie dyer and then found yourself a bit surprised at how different it looked from the photograph, this might help explain why. From my standpoint, the variations in color and texture are all part of the joy and uniqueness of hand-dyed yarn.

Happy fiber artistry!

P.S. Next week I”m going to be interviewing Dana Gervais, the amazing designer of wonderful socks. I’ll “see” you then.