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Giveaway: The Modern Natural Dyer and a Yarn Dyeing Kit!

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This week I'm giving away a great book on dyeing and a kit so you can try it yourself.

Sock Hop Kit

This is such a fun giveaway I can’t even stand it. Kristine Vejar of A Verb for Keeping Warm has a new book out called The Modern Natural Dyer. It’s all about how to dye yarn and fabric with natural dyes, and it’s a beautiful book that’s sure to inspire anyone who’s ever had the least bit of interest in dyeing to try it.

And if you’ve done some dyeing before you’re going to love it, too, but it’s really great for people who might be intimidated by the process because there are really detailed, step-by-step instructions on the general processes of dyeing as well as 20 projects where she’s done the math for you and tells you exactly what you need for success.

The projects are varied and include things like tea dyeing onesies, indigo dyeing silk scarves, dyeing wool top to make felted balls for a necklace and, of course, dyeing yarn and then knitting it.

To make it even easier, A Verb for Keeping Warm is selling project kits for a few of the projects, including a sewing kit dyed with pressed flowers, a premade pair of socks, a bandanna for indigo dyeing and the Northwoods Hat kit, which includes a skein of Quince & Co. Puffin and all the supplies you need to dye it.

I got to try the kit out, and as you can see I chose purple, but there are a few different dyes you can choose from. It’s a long but not difficult process, and I had a lot of fun (and dyed mine two shade by leaving part of the yarn out of the dye pot for 30 minutes of the dyeing time). I can’t wait to get started on the hat and am sure I’ll love wearing it all winter knowing I not only knit it but dyed it, too.

So, this week’s giveaway is both a copy of this excellent book and your choice of kit. (I’d go with the hat but it’s really up to you.)

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post before the end of the day Sunday, November 15, for your chance to win. (United States only, please.) I’d love to know if you have any experience with dyeing, or which one of the kits you would choose.

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing, and good luck!

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Comments

  1. How exciting! The hat..all sound like fun. I’ve over-dyed yarn with Kool-Ade, and also have tried eco-dying on paper and muslin this fall- my appetite has been whetted. Some have worked, some not, but it is all fun.

  4. I would love to try natural dying, and the book seems like an excellent resource! Your test on this is beautiful.

  7. I am really intrigued by the thought of dyeing yarn. The hand dyes that you purchase are always just beautiful. I often wonder if it is something that you have to learn to do well.

  8. When my children were young, we dyed with koolaid, with tea, & with coffee.
    If I actually won, I’d want the hat kit like you because you actually get to dye yarn. I’d have picked the sock kit, but you’re dying a pair of ready made socks, not yarn to knit your own, so that wouldn’t be fun.

  11. I’ve sort of tried dyeing wool. I tried with koolaid and I don’t think I really finished it. But I’ve been dying to try again! I would love this kit! I have tons of nondyed wool that’s just waiting to be dyed!

  16. The Dyeing I have done was an adventure lol I used permanent markers and alcohol and it turned out , believe it or not, GORGEOUS! I think the hat kit would be awesome!

  17. I love dyeing yarn/fabric. I’ve only done kool-aid dye & tea, coffee, & a few vegetables. The kits look fun!

  20. This would be fun! I’ve dyed fabric before but never yarn. I think I would pick the socks kit as my favorite.

  21. The Northwoods hat kit looks like so much fun! I attended a weekend natural dyeing workshop at a farm the summer before last and it was wonderful! I learned so much and would like to do some dyeing at home too.

  22. As a teenager of a certain time period tie-dying t-shirts with koolaid or Rit dye was just done. Later I worked at a vintage clothing store and one of my tasks was to tea or coffee dye fabric pieces so that the aged fabric had a more even tone.

    I prefer the Sock Hop kit but any one of them would be fun.

  28. I have (not very successfully) tried dyeing fabric in the past to make some curtains. It was AWFUL!!! I don’t really know what I did wrong, I went over the directions repeatedly and it still came out horrible, I pray it was me or the fabric itself. I would love to try the bandana kit (my niece would too!)

  31. I’ve dyed some fabric using synthetic dyes, and some yarn with Kool Aid, but that was pre-kids, so a long time ago. I’ve never done any natural dyeing at all but would love to try some.

  36. Hat, please! I have done microwave dyeing. I guess we all knew KoolAid permanently stains anything.

  37. What a great giveaway! I’ve never tried dyeing fabric or textiles before, outside of a couple of tiedye shirts when I was a kid. And I love all of the kits, but would most likely get the most out of the bandannas or the hat. Both would make awesome Giftmas gifts for my other half.

  38. I would love the Northwoods Hat Kit. I’ve seen so much about hand dying yarn I would love to try it.

  41. I have not tried to dye my own yarn yet, but I want to try dying yarn in the near future. I would chose the Northwoods Hat kit, it sounds interesting.

  42. What a beautiful purple!! I have made an extract from walnut hulls collected in my backyard. The cotton that I dyed turned a bit dingy, but I put in some bit of wool yarn too and it came out a very nice, warm pinky brown. I would love to experiment more!! I think I’d like to try printing directly with flowers and making a lovely little sewing kit. Thanks for hosting the giveaway!!

  44. Yes, I have been wanting to try some of the techniques and would love a book to show me the way. Thanks!

  45. I’ve never dyed yarn before; it seems very intimidating. I have done tie-dye as a kid and always enjoyed it.

Have you read?

What’s Next for Joann?

Now that all the Joann stores have closed, a mysterious message has appeared on the company’s website:

For generations, Joann has been honored to be part of your creativity: your quilts, costumes, school projects, and handmade moments of love. It has been our joy to serve markers and dreamers across the country.

We’re stitching up something new behind the scenes and we can’t wait to share what’s next.

Stay tuned for exciting news about the future of Joann.

To quickly recap, Joann filed for bankruptcy in January for the second time in less than a year. In February, in the hope of making the company more attractive to potential buyers, it petitioned the court for permission to close about 500 of its 800 stores. The company was put up for auction, with Gordon Brothers set to buy the company, sell its assets and close all the stores if no other buyer materialized.

In the end the winning bidder was GA Group, but the result was the same: all stores were to be closed by the end of May if not sooner.

Once store closure sales started the company quickly stopped selling on its website, and now all that remains is this jpeg image hinting at new ventures.

I’m sure there will be a tone of speculation in the coming days and weeks (or as long as it takes for them to announce the meaning of the message) as to what sorts of plans Joann could be cooking up.

My theory based on nothing but my gut is that they will transition to an online only storefront, probably with much reduced inventory, sort of like Herrschners (which had previously announced that it will be carrying Big Twist yarn, the beloved private label yarn brand sold at Joann). I also think they will use whatever retail sales they do to support CreativeBug, the digital learning platform that Joann purchased in 2017. That could mean producing kits for projects that already have classes, or developing classes based on products they want to sell, or both.

As of this writing the CreativeBug website seems to still be functional and there’s a full slate of new classes planned for June. I’ve got my eye on both the Joann website and the Joann restructuring website and will let you know as soon as I see changes.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your speculation as to what the next chapter might be for Joann.