Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Lace Yarn!

Lace knitters, this is for you. I tend not to sell a lot of lace yarn except when it is in conjunction with a mystery KAL. The thing is that I really like to dye lace yarn, but how many skeins can I use for myself? I only dye up almost solids in lace; variegateds are tricky to use. While I'm happy to do one as an occasional custom order, I know that as a group, they don't sell well, and anyhow, when I knit lace shawls, I want the pattern to show up and not fight with the yarn. So here's my question? Would you be interested in a selection of colors that I can dye up as custom colors for you? e.g.. I would have maybe 10 different colors that you could choose from and then I would dye to order. Does this sound realistic? Would you be interested?

Lace yarn is considerably more money for me to buy than sock yarn, so I don't want to dye up yarn that no one will want. On the other hand, I love dyeing it. And that is my conundrum.

Any ideas from you would be most appreciated. You can comment here on my blog, send a personal message to me on Ravelry (ruth on ravelry), or email me here:

fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com.

No obligation, just me noodling around with an idea.

Hanne - Thanks for your thoughts. That's exactly what I was thinking too. People will buy sock yarn just for the fun of it. It's relatively inexpensive and takes not much time to knit up. Lace shawls are another matter. They take a lot of time, and people are much fussier about color. So, yeah, I think this might be a good idea. If you think of anything else, let me know. I appreciate any ideas.

Posie Knit - I was thinking of sending out small samples, perhaps a yard, of the undyed yarn to those who wanted them.

MK - that's a good idea. I have some ideas in my head that I have to translate into actual knitting and charts.

4 comments:

Hanne said...

I think this is a good idea. I don't normally buy lace yarn if I'm not ready to cast on. I still have a stash of lace yarns from time I began to knit actively two years ago, and succumbed to temptation of lace. I'm lucky if I finish two shawls in one year between my other knitting projects, so I try not to stash it. Chances are it will sit in stash for years. Dyeing to order would save you from keeping unnecessary stock, but we could still be able to order your lace yarn for the perfect project when it's time to cast on.

Posie Knit said...

I think that your approach is terrific. It might be helpful if you would make available (for a small fee perhaps?) a sample of the base that you would be using. It is hard to tell from a picture what the weight of the lace yarn is like.

MK said...

There are always beginner lace knitters looking for a pattern perhaps you could also offer a pattern along with your choice of colors.

Heathwitch said...

I would love to see more colours and perhaps have a set palette that I knew I could always order from, should I need a laceweight yarn in a colour more "me". A lot of the problem that I have been finding is that yarn producers tend to think that laceweight = pastel or pale colours, and for those of us who prefer hues a little darker, this can be infuriating. I am a vibrant redhead and pastels or white/cream just don't work for me -- I favour black, midnight blues, deep reds, royal purples and the like. Laceweight yarns can be exciting and break the mould -- it would be great to have a palette of options available which fit more into this theme. And variegated versions of darker hues, which I recognise can be difficult, are always good too! ;-)

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