I don’t know if you’re like me, but I follow so many yarn dyers on Instagram and often I look at the yarns and think, “pretty!” and scroll on. But occasionally, I come across a yarn that screams at me not just because of the yarn, but because of the person behind it too!

I’d been aware of Skeinhawk Yarns’ posts calling to me for a few months when one post absolutely screamed at me and as soon as I could I purchased Didn’t You have a Flaming Sword? for my Holey Moley! pattern sample last year and if ever a yarn was on fire this was it!

I absolutely love all of their colourways, but it’s Naomi, the dyer behind all this gloriously vibrant dyeing, that really makes her yarns stand out.

She began dyeing back in 2020, originally as a way of keeping up with her self confessed voracious demand for sock yarn during lockdown. But thankfully, her imagination soon outgrew her capacity for knitting, and Skeinhawk Yarns was born.

Naomi grew up in a sheep farming family so wool has always been close to her heart and is passionate about spreading the joy of hand-dyed yarn in a way that is accessible and undaunting. Her yarns are designed to be appreciated as much by the thrifty knitter treating themselves to the occasional fancy pair of socks, or one-skein scarf, as it is to those who are shopping for sweater quantities. All her bases are superwash and selected to give a good range of practical, versatile and forgiving fibres for the beginner and seasoned crafter alike.

She uses the kettle and immersion dyeing technique (you can often see videos of her doing this if you follow her on Instagram) rather than precise hand painting, as she loves to see how colours layer, combine and merge with each other. Speckles, splashes and overglazing techniques also feature depending on the effect she wishes to create.

Being very small scale, Naomi only dyes 4 or 5 skeins at a time, carefully overseeing how the dyes are evolving and striking. And that just makes her yarn even more special! And then begins the process of drying and getting each skein ready to be sent to its new home. Her skeins are wound up and labelled by hand and personally wrapped up (with little extras!) before heading off to be used in projects all over the world.

As well as her Signature Colourways, Naomi also offers Limited Edition colourways, custom dyed yarns and her film and book inspired monthly mystery yarn clubs which she admits is a great way for her to exercise her creativity with unusual themes. I mean, who else has a 'Withnail & I' inspired colourway (Are You The Farmer?)?

And it’s this shared love all of things geeky, nerdy and quirky that has led to Naomi and I doing secret squirreling behind the scenes to come up with a very special collaboration at the end of the year. No spoilers for now, but keep your eyes peeled for sneaky peeks and mentions!

And one last thing! My current Pattern of The Week is Something For The Weekend. I mention this because if you want to see another example of how good one of my one skein wonder patterns looks in a Skeinhawk colourway, just look at the last image of my newsletter to see it knitted up in the joyous colour fest that is Let The Music Play.

TL:DR If you love colourways that jump out at you and make your heart sing, you must check out Skeinhawk Yarns!