We've reached WEEK 2 at Jimmy Beans Wool University as well as our summer sale! And because you've all been such great students, we've made the yarns mentioned below between 25%-55% off! Remember: these backpack packin' bargains are only available for a week before they cycle out!

All right, class, this week's lesson is on the process of dyeing your yarn, so it's about to get COLORFUL up in here! There are so many different ways to achieve a beautiful range of colors, and this is where you can really express yourself through the project (as our very own Jimmy learned last month at MadTosh headquarters!)

Whether you like deep, dark, earthy tones, or find yourself leaning more into vibrant, neon hues, color is essential to the mood you want to create with your garment.

Looking for something a little unique? Hand dyed yarn may be for you! Each skein that finds itself in this process is lovingly cared for and treated, as you guessed it, by hand!This process makes it super difficult to have dye lots (so alternating skeins is always recommended), as each skein will behave slightly differently (maybe a speckle on one skein is a splatter on another!), but it adds to the beauty and sophistication of the item itself.

Grab your gloves and face masks, because things are heating up as we enter the dye house! Machine dyed yarns (such as Berroco and Shibui Knits) are great for many people, offering a reliable and even coloration throughout the entire skein. This method of dyeing yarn can result in much larger dye lots, as you can fit QUITE A FEW hanks of yarn onto the spindles that are then sent through the dyeing process.

The average life of a machine dyed hank of yarn goes as follows:

• Bleach the hanks prior to adding dye. This way, you can make sure your richest reds and vibrant violets really POP!
• (Optional) Rinse yarn and then exchange that rinse water with dye water (Depending on how many colors you want, this process can take anywhere between 3-5 HOURS!
• Rinse once more with boiling water followed by more cool water to set the colors.
• Once your hank is ready for the drying process, it's placed inside a large tub. This tub goes inside an extractor (think of it like your dryer at home but rotating at HYPER SPEED) and spins around until the majority of the water is forced out.
• Take your (now MOSTLY dry) hanks out and place them on a drying conveyor to finish the process!

Mother Nature's Paint Set

Natural things such as foods and roots have been used for dying various things since at LEAST 4,181 B.C.! This tried and true method is still used in many different cultures around the world to this day due to its ease and availability. Some ingredients can give you a very different color than expected (such as indigo - it starts off as the color of pea soup, but once it oxidizes, it takes on that deep, well, indigo hue!) and are typically more readily available than packaged dyes. Fibers like Urth Yarns Harvest Worsted use this method and create brilliant, shockingly vibrant colors from things like pomegranates, figs, and of course, indigo and madder (rubia)!

Here's a quick cheat sheet for what colors can be achieved through natural ingredients (most of which you could probably find in your pantry right now!):

Urth Yarns Harvest Worsted Black Grape

Urth Yarns Harvest Worsted Orange

Urth Yarns Harvest Worsted Citrus

Urth Yarns Harvest Worsted Pistachio

Urth Yarns Harvest Worsted Indigo

Urth Yarns Harvest Worsted Blueberry

Here's some more cool yarn chemistry: Hikoo Abracadabra is a unique yarn in that it is UV activated! This fun fiber comes in a natural ecru shade while indoors, but once you expose it to the sun...? Color starts to quickly overtake your project, which can make just a short trip outside all that more special in your day! This color change is thanks to blending pigment-containing photochromic microcapsules into the fibers for something a little funky and a lot of fun!

DID YOU KNOW?: Eyeglasses that tint darker when exposed to UV light uses a similar kind of technology as Hikoo Abracadabra yarn!

Remember those projects we talked about last week? Well, by completing one of them and sending in pictures of your project by the end of the summer, you will be entered in a drawing for the title of V.I.P (Very Important Pupil!) and will be featured in the following newsletter's Show and Tell section!

Did you get your learn on last week? Here's our first quiz for CREDIT! If you get 100% on every single quiz moving forward, you'll be entered into a drawing to win a fully loaded Namaste Maker's Train Case or Namaste Maker's Backpack!

Show & Tell!

The Beans have been up to something special! Casting on July 1st, we're starting a knit-along of the Weekender pullover by Andrea Mowry. We will be doing Facebook live check-ins as we progress on this project, and we will finish it just before sweater weather begins! Want to join in? Kits are available in different bases of our favorite Rowan yarns!