The Ultimate Guide to Caring for Hand-Dyed Yarns

You finish a project with a gorgeous hand-dyed yarn; one section is noticeably darker. Or you rinse your finished piece and the water in the sink turns pink. If either happens to you, you are not alone, and neither means you did anything wrong. Caring for hand-dyed yarn starts before you ever pick up your hook; it takes a little extra attention.

I love hand-dyed yarns. Most of the patterns in my catalog are made with them. I am always on the lookout for new indie dyers to work with. Supporting small businesses matters to me. I am a small business too, and I believe in makers backing other makers. But hand-dyed yarn behaves differently from factory yarn. Once you understand why, caring for hand-dyed yarn stops feeling like guesswork.

Test for colorfastness first

Here is a trick I use on every hand-dyed skein before I start a project. Cut a small piece off the end of your skein and let it soak in a glass of water. If the color bleeds into the water, changing it from clear to something else, that hank is not fully colorfast, and you will want to handle it with care.

If it bleeds, put the hank in a lingerie bag and wash it on a gentle cycle, or hand soak it, then lay it flat to dry. A wool wash helps but is not required. If you are still seeing bleeding, especially onto your hands, reach out to the dyer. They know their yarn best and can tell you what to do next.

Test first any time you are pairing a dark color, like red or black, with something lighter. This is where bleeding shows up the most, and it is also where it does the most damage. Two minutes with a glass of water before you cast on saves you from a bled color you cannot fix once it is worked into your stitches.

Work two hanks at once to blend the color

Every hank of hand-dyed yarn is unique. Dyers work hard to keep colors consistent, but variation between hanks is normal. Caring for hand-dyed yarn requires careful handling, since dyeing by hand can introduce subtle shifts. This becomes a problem partway through a project. You add a new hank, and suddenly one section looks darker or lighter than the rest.

To avoid that hard line, work two hanks at a time and alternate between them. Here is how I do it. Work two rows with the first hank. Pick up the second hank and work two rows. Go back to the first hank for two more rows. Keep alternating in this pattern until the first hank runs out, and the second hank carries the rest of the project on its own. This blends any difference in color gradually, instead of dropping it into your work all at once.

Launder based on fiber, not habit

How you wash a hand-dyed project depends on what it is made of, not on what you usually do for every project. Treat the fiber content as your instructions.

For animal fibers, wet soak the piece in a sink. Avoid the washing machine the first time you wash it, unless you already know the yarn needs that kind of prep. Use cold water and a wool wash or a gentle detergent. Once you have soaked the piece, lay it on a towel, roll the towel up, and press to squeeze out the excess water. Lay flat to dry, and shape or block as needed.

If your yarn is even partly linen or silk, skip soaking and machine washing altogether. If the project needs cleaning, take it to a dry cleaner and tell them exactly what fibers are in the piece. If you only need to block it, use a steam block with a hot iron or a steamer, and keep the piece damp rather than soaking wet. Make sure the iron or steamer never touches the fiber directly. Fibers can melt that way, and I know this from experience.

Cotton is its own category. A steam block works well, though some crocheters soak or machine wash cotton on a gentle cycle instead. If you are unsure, a dry cleaner is always a safe choice.

For anything else, a specialty fiber like bamboo, milk, or corn, read the yarn label first and contact the dyer if you are still not sure what to do. These fibers do not all behave the same way, and the dyer will know theirs best.

The short version

Test before you start. Blend your hanks as you go. Match your laundering to the fiber, not to habit. Caring for hand-dyed yarn requires a bit more attention than a mass-produced skein. Yet it’s not complicated once you know what to look for.

Tell me about your experience with hand-dyed yarns. Leave a comment below or send me an email. If you have a question about a specific yarn, let me know how I can help.