Description
Skein
Queen is a small independent yarn dyeing business established in June
2007 and run by myself, Debbie Orr, currently on a part-time basis.
I am responsible for all the dyeing and my husband, Calvin, is a tech genius and built the shop and website.
Above
all, I love colour and wanted to go to art school in my younger days
but took the sensible career route instead. In retrospect, I would
probably have not been very excellent at all at drawing, but dyeing
yarn gives me that creative outlet and allows me to experiment in
colour - seeing how the colours blend during the process, how different
yarn types take up the dye, how the colours magically mix up during
rewinding and finally how they knit up into the finished project. And
the added bonus is that I get to chat to customers and meet lots of
fellow yarn enthusiasts.
I'm
a long-time knitter and crocheter and I really do have a royal workshop
in deepest Berkshire - it was completed in August 2008 and gives me a
place to splash about in dyes and yarn to my heart's content.
The silks and cashmere I use
come from a superior mill based in the Hebei province of China. The
cashmere is fine quality 100% Mongolian cashmere.
I also
cater to those who prefer to buy British yarns - both Blissful and
Encore are grown and dyed in the UK. Divine and Entice are purchased
from a British supplier but are sourced in Europe. I do occasionally
have guest yarns so it's worth looking out for those in the shop.
I use professional dyes to ensure colourfastness and lightfastness.
The hand dyed yarn types I offer are:
Wisp - 2 ply cashmere/silk
Lavish - 4 ply cashmere/silk
Mellow - 6 ply cashmere/silk
Sumptuous - 2 ply cashmere
Opulent - 4 ply pure cashmere
Blush - 4 ply plus cashmerino
Divine - 4 ply merino
Entice - 2 ply merino
Plushness - DK Light lambswool/angora/cashmere
Kimono - Aran weight pure silk
Blissful - 4 ply sportweight BFL
Encore - 4 ply sportweight BFL/nylon
Bamboozle - 4 ply sportweight merino/bamboo
Elegance - 4 ply plus merino/bamboo/silk/nylon
I have recently expanded into offering pre-dyed solid colours
of luxury yarn for the occasions when hand-dyed yarn is just not
appropriate. This yarn comes from my Chinese supplier and is of the
same quality of base yarns as my hand-dyed range. Their range is called
Lotus Yarns and the first of these I'll be introducing comes in 15
colours and is 100% bamboo. |