I’ve cast on for a new sweater and my level of enthusiasm for this project is off the charts! I mentioned in our latest YouTube video that inspiration/enthusiasm really ebbs and flows for me. I can go months just casually knitting on projects that are lovely but that don’t necessarily spark something inside me. Then something will shift and suddenly I’m alive with excitement over what I’m working on. I’m happy to report that I’m in an excited and inspired phase (after what felt like a very long slow period) and my current project is definitely stirring something up in me.
I’m knitting a City Limits sweater for my son in the yarn shown above. This is a sample of a 100% highland wool yarn - doesn’t sound that special until I tell you that it’s the first totally untreated yarn we’ve ever dyed so successfully. In the world of indie dyed yarn, superwash merino has reigned supreme for the 15 years that I’ve been in the biz. It’s easy to dye, easy to get bright, saturated and exciting speckles on, it really is a dyer’s best friend. It’s readily available from suppliers who market undyed yarns to dyers. The superwash process is also really bad for the environment and the process of making a yarn superwash essentially removes all of the wonderful wooly properties from the yarn.
In 2015 we decided to move away from superwash for our business and it was so difficult to source a non-superwash yarn base to dye that we had to spend the better part of a year creating our own! We launched our line of custom spun, eco-friendly and organic PureWash yarns in 2016. I am so proud of our PureWash yarns and have absolutely loved dyeing them and working with them. They are so soft and bouncy! Pure joy to work with, really. And without taking anything away from them there has been one thing on my mind since the day we started developing the line… does it really need to be non-felting? I moved away from calling our yarns “washable” a few years ago because even though that’s a big part of their appeal - the fact that they won’t be destroyed if you accidentally toss a PureWash garment in the wash - you really shouldn’t machine wash any of your knits. Even dyers who dye superwash yarns will often specify “hand wash, lay flat to dry” on their labels because that’s the best way to ensure that your garment lasts beautifully forever. Our labels say hand wash. If you ask me in an email I’ll tell you to hand wash every time, there’s really no two ways about it. Now, I have accidentally ended up with a PureWash sweater that went through the wash with a batch of laundry and I was thrilled when it survived beautifully, so I have first hand experience on the perks of having a non-felting treatment on my yarns (especially for kids garments) but I’m thinking it’s redundant. I love the natural properties of wool and don’t want to do anything to compromise them. Natural wool is insulating, water repellant, breathable, magical, mystical, magnificent!
We’re at a bit of a crossroads here at TFA currently. With supply chains being what they are these days I’ve got 2 bases backordered and I’m thinking it’s a good time to fill in the gaps in our inventory with new, non-treated yarns. We’re experimenting with a few bases and I’m excited to share them with you as soon as I can. I’d love to hear your thoughts on untreated yarns. Are you a fan of pure wooly goodness?