All about Amy… and Stranded Dyeworks

When I recorded my first podcast I didn’t expect that anyone else would see it, that it would be just too embarrassing to watch myself during the editing process. Now I am really in the swing of podcasting and love it! Apart from getting to chat on about my crochet and yarny projects I’ve ‘met’ loads of interesting people. I put ‘met’ in inverted commas because most of these meetings have been virtual, but no less enjoyable for that.

In the last couple of weeks I’ve exchanged messages with Amy, who is an independent hand dyer with her own business called Stranded Dyeworks. Amy features in Episode 8 of my crochet podcast and she very kindly donated a skein of her gorgeous hand painted yarn as a giveaway to be drawn Thursday 19th May 2016.

Ooooh Stranded Dyeworks yarn… a new giveaway for the podcast

Isn’t it gorgeous?

Its on an oasis base, which is a 75% merino wool, 25% nylon fingering weight /4ply yarn and the colourway is called ocean rainbow… This is a repeatable colourway, although no two skeins are every absolutely identical, you can order two or more to make a larger shawl or even a jumper/sweater.

This is so generous of Amy to support my podcast in this way – hand dyed yarn is a luxury item for most knitters and crocheters and to get one for free, just for subscribing to a podcast is a brilliant treat.

Seeing the quality of the yarn and the vibrance of the colours has given me a really big attack of the wanties, so I’ve favourited Amy’s Etsy shop Stranded Dyeworks for future reference. I’m supposed to be on a mission to complete some of my many works in progress at the moment and already have a huge mound of yarn that’s waiting for new projects, but I feel my resolution to curb my yarn buying (made two weeks ago after Yarn Shop Day) wavering already…

This wavering is not helped by the beautiful socks that Amy herself has knitted up in this yarn.

The stranded dyeworks blog and podcast

As I was going to feature Amy and her hand dyed yarn in the podcast (really an excuse to drool over the yarn but also I thought other people might be interested in looking behind the scenes at the life of a dyer), I did a bit of research on her blog…

Then I discovered not only that she had a video podcast, but that I’d actually watched a couple of episodes of it but never made the connection. Bit slow on the uptake there…

So I went back and watched a couple more episodes and came across the one where she talks very openly about her struggle with mental health issues and how knitting has really helped her through some really rough times in the last few years. I’ve embedded that episode below and if you want to check out her other episodes you can click to watch it on YouTube and subscribe to her YouTube channel, which is under her name Amy Edwards Green.

I am full of admiration for Amy in coming through such a dark time to become such a fantastic dyer of yarn. Her business is only young, as is Amy, but I hope that it will go from strength to strength and that she continues to keep well and move forward with her career and her dreams. I think she is certainly a dyer to watch out for… You can check out her Etsy shop for yourself, and the stock changes all the time, but here are just a few more of those gorgeous yarns, which are probably even more lovely in real life…

This one is called Stranded dyeworks Funfair

This one is Sugarplum…

This one is Crackle…

And Amy also does sock blanks in most of her colourways. This is the Ocean Rainbow sock blank… The sock blank is made by knitting up undyed yarn to form a long rectangle. This is usually done on a knitting machine. This is then hand painted with dye and processed just like a skein of yarn, but its sold in its knitted form. When you get it home, you knit directly from the blank, then block your socks or whatever you’ve made. The colour combinations are different when compared to a hand dyed skein of yarn – so a very interesting technique.

You can find out more about Amy in Episode 8 of the Crafternoon Treats Crochet Podcast.