ChemKnits

Preorder the 2026 Spring Mini Skein Mini Series Yarn! (2026 SMSMS)

2026-03-19T15:44:00.001-04:00

Spring is right around the corner, and I today I just launched preorders to the 2026 Spring Mini Skein Mini Series! Each of these miniskein sets will have 5 - 20 g miniskeins of yarn that are hand dyed to work together for a project. The colorways may be fades, gradients, or sets of coordinating colors. Each set will come wrapped with fun extras... and the dyeing will be featured in a special SMSMS event that starts on Monday June 15, 2026 on the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube Channel.

This year I hope to have at least 4 different yarn dyeing videos in the SMSMS event. 3+ videos featuring dyeing miniskeins (and sock blanks!) and one bonus video dyeing a fun bonus colorway on a mermaid sparkle yarn. This event is differnet from Chanukah (where you unwrap a mini from each night of the series.) In SMSMS all 5 of your minis were dyed in the same video. If you order multiple sets, I do my best to send you sets from different nights.

WHAT ARE THIS YEAR's YARN BASES?

Make sure you check out the SMSMS listing itself for the full fiber contents and yardage. There are two DK weight options available this year (options A & B) . The rest of the yarn bases are all sock weight (C-K). There are two different sparkle yarns this year - Option F has a silver stellina and options J/K have the new iridescent mermaid stellina. (I'll be showing off this base more in the March early access video for ChemKnits Patrons.)

WHEN WILL THE VIDEOS BE RELEASED?

The 2026 ChemKnits Spring Mini Skein Mini Series will start in the evening of Monday June 15, 2026. One video will come out each night (6/15, 6/16, 6/17, etc.) The total number of videos is still TBD. Each package will be labeled with the date so you know which night you can watch me dye your yarn.

All of the yarn dyeing tutorial videos will be publicly available on the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube Channel. https://tinyurl.com/2026SMSMS

ARE THERE FULL SKEIN ADD ONS?

Yes! At this point, you will need to purchase a miniskein set to purchase one of the following fun add-ons. Each add on will come wrapped labeled with the date the video comes out and will come with a progress keeper. (I will do my best to send you bonuses from different nights as your miniskein set.)

You can add on a 100 g Yarn Mop dyed in one of the main videos:
You can add on a sock blank dyed in one of the main videos. This will feature a similar colorway to the miniskein set from the same night, but I will discuss the difference between dyeing fades/gradients on miniskeins vs full skeins in the videos.
You can also add-on a bonus 100 g skein dyed in a bonus video. This year this yarn base will feature the iridsecent mermaid stellina and is available on both sock and DK yarn weights.

2025 ChemKnits Chanukah Special is here!

2025-12-15T10:06:00.001-05:00

Happy Chanukah, everyone! The 2025 ChemKnits Chanukah special is here and each night there will be a new yarn dyeing video featuring different techniques & colors to create yarns that will work up in different ways. You can find all of the videos on the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube Channel

Each video will premiere at 8:30 PM Eastern Time with a Live chat. Once the premiere is over the video will be available on demand. I'm going to try to hang out in the live chat as much as I can each night to answer questions and react to my own videos. These chats are where we ended up coining terms like "yarn lasagna" and have inspired many videos. I cannot wait to see what we come up with together this year!

In addition to 8 videos for the 8 nights of Chanukah, there will be three bonus videos. Two of these videos will feature the dyeing of the bonus add on skeins, and the third will be a behind the scenes vlog where I show off all of the thoughts I couldn't share along the way to avoid spoilers.

How long will each of the videos be this year?

Night 1 - 12/14 - 42 minutes
Night 2 - 12/15 - 31 minutes
Night 3 - 12/16 - 32 minutes
Night 4 - 12/17 - 37 minutes
Night 5 - 12/18 - 36 minutes
Night 6 - 12/19 - 39 minutes
Night 7 - 12/20 - 45 minutes
Night 8 - 12/21 - 36 minutes
Night 9 - 12/22 - Length TBD
Night 10 - 12/23 - Length TBD
Behind the Scenes Vlog - 12/24 - Length TBD

Do you want some yarn dyed in this series? There are still some 2025 Chanukah Samplers available in my shop, plus a lot of other fun Chanukah yarn options! (There are still some 2024 Chanukah yarn samplers available, too.)

Happy Chanukah!
-Rebecca

2025 ChemKnits Creations Black Friday Deals!

2025-11-28T08:30:00.001-05:00

The ChemKnits Creations Black Friday sale is here with a lot of super fun mystery options and discounts! Dozens of ready-to-ship yarns and other items are up to 25% off.

This sale and special listings end on Tuesday 12/2/24 at 11:59 PM EST or while supplies last. Prices are as marked deals are available while supplies last - some deals are more limited than others. Etsy doesn't let you use coupon codes on top of sale items, so check to see which will give you the biggest discount.

$10 Mystery Skeins

If you buy a skein of the 2025 Black Friday Colorway, you will have the option to add on a 100 g mystery skein of yarn. The mystery skein can be sock weight, bulky weight, or somewhere in between. It can be superwash or non-superwash. The technique and colors wll be a complete suprise. Please see the listing for full details.

There are actually two listings, the ready-to-ship one linked above and a dyed-to-order version where you can pick the yarn base (sock, DK, worsted, or bulky), and I'll dye up more of this colorway!

You can watch me dye the 2025 Black Friday yarn on YouTube.

Mystery Bundles

A favorite mystery bundle is back! Let's stuff a bag with 300+ g of mystery yarn and a bunch of fun extras. You can pick between a sock weight, DK weight, or worsted weight non-superwash bundle. There are only a few of these bundles available. The bundle will have at least 300 g of the yarn weight you picked. It may have some miniskeins in a different yarn weight.

The Stitch Marker Mystery Bundles have stayed in the shop all year, but they are going to be discounted for Black Friday. I'll be making up some new bundles, so there will be even more variety than last year. If you order multiple stitch marker bundles you may get some duplicate stitch markers.

2025 Chanukah Yarns are ready to ship!

There are still 2025 Chanukah Yarn Samplers available in both sock weight and DK weight yarn. I'm running low on both the Sparkle and the Silky bonus add on skeins, and those will not be restocked again.

I recently listed some "Just one Night" full skeins featured in 2025 Chanukah Nights 1-7. These will be wrapped and will be dyed with the same colors and the same technique as one of the miniskeins in the Chanukah Samplers.

ChemKnits x KnitPicks Gift Guide

I worked with KnitPicks to put together a gift guide of some of my favorite things they offer. Through 12/1/25, you can save 30% off KnitPicks and Crochet.com with the coupon code "11BLACKFRIDAY25" (I am a KnitPicks affiliate which means I may earn a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on one of my links.)

The 2025 KnitPicks Big Sale is Here!

2025-11-03T16:14:00.013-05:00

The 2025 KnitPicks Big Sale launched 11/3/2025 and will run through 11/18/2025. There will be so many fun daily deals and promos and I'm excited to track things for our annual archive. (See the bottom of this post for past Big Sale recaps!) I love the Big Sale because I dye a lot of KnitPicks bare yarn in my yarn dyeing tutorials.

I'll update this post as new deals and discounts pop up, so feel free to check back to hear my thoughts!

I am a KnitPicks & WeCrochet (crochet.com) affiliate marketer, so the links in this post are affiliate links and I do earn commissions on sales made through my links. This post was most recently updated 11/20/2025.

2025 KnitPicks Big Sale Bonus Deals

11/17/2025 - This KnitPicks Big Sale is drawing to a close with a flash Sale - Get 50% off 50 of KnitPicks' Favorite items plus free shipping with the code "11FREESHIPPING25"

11/14/2025 - 11/15/25 30% off Bags and Storage. The everyday tote bag with vegan leather and cute knit fabric on the inside is one of my go to tote bags. I have this big in MANY different colors and use them all the time. (I got my first tote free with purchase in a Big Sale in 2017, I'm bummed we're not seeing a lot of freebies this year.) I'm also a huge fan of the snap mesh bag & chart keepers.

11/12/2025 - 11/13/2025 Up to 50% off select tools & accessories. Some notable things include Jacquard acid dyes are 20% off and blocking mats are 50% off (not the premium ones)

11/10/2025 - 11/11/2025 20% off all needles and hooks - The wooden Options interchangable knitting needles are my favorite knitting needles ever. I use them for everything whether it is flat or in the round. I will do a magic loop instead of using double pointed needles. The cables are flexible and the wooden tips are very durable. The only times I've ever broken a tip it has been 100% user error (I left my knitting needles on the bed and then sat on top of them - don't do this!) KnitPicks even sent me a clutch set this fall so I now have more tips to add to my collection.

11/7/2025 -11/8/2025 3 piece winding station set for $60 - This is a 50% savings off of a swift, ball winder, and yarn bowl. I own all three of these items. I am so jealous that the bal winder comes in so many colors (even though purple is my faovrite color, so I might stick with the original color anyway, but the blue is tempting.) I don't use yarn bowls that often, but I have two of the swifts. The first one needed some repair (just replacing the twine at the corners) but since it is still working I never started using the replacement that has metal connections now.

11/3/2025 - 11/5/25 $2, $4, $6 yarn sale, The 2025 KnitPicks Big Sale launched with hundreds of skeins up to 60% off, but also the fantastic $2/$4/$6 yarn day where select colors of certain bases are signficantly marked down.

Before the Big Sale Launch - in the weeks leading up to the big sale we had some freebies with coupon codes. The Try It interchangable needle set and the colorwork snap bag. (The wooden options needles are my favorite needles in the world!) In the past we would get a lot of freebie with purchase options, so I don't know what else will come this year.

My Big Sale Strategy

I recomend you look at my 2024 post if you want to see me get into the math. But basically, I focus on buying yarn bases I would normally purchase at full price (or at a 15% off discuont with a bulk bare yarn 20 pack) if they are discounted 40% off or more.

	Price as Marked Discount	+ Coupon Code (20% off)	+ Coupon Code (25% off)
Bulk Bare Yarn 20 Pack	15%	32%	36.25%

This is basically what I think about whenever I am shopping a sale or have a coupon code. How would a coupon code stack with the bulk bare yarn I puchase?

If I were to buy 20 individual skeins at 40% off, this would be a great deal for me. One downside is that I'm likely to receive 20+ individual skeins versus full bags of 10... but it is worth it to me for the price.

I typically will fill up my cart with the yarn that I want, but I will save some of the items for later in the week in case there is a freebie I want. I've loved collecting free project bags and enamel pins over the years! I tend to purchase hundreds of skeins during the big sale to help stock up for dyeing yarn over the next year, so this gives me the ability to break up my purchases to hopefully get the best deals. Two of the freebies from 2024 (the snap colorwork project bag and try it needle sets) were already offered in the weeks leading up to the big sale for 2025.

What about Black Friday?

The 2025 Big Sale endss on 11/18/2025, so what will happen after that? If we take a look at previous years, historically we get a site wide coupon code. For example, in 2021, 2022, and 2023, KnitPicks had a 25% off coupon for Black Friday and then 20% off coupon for the rest of cyber weekend. In 2024, we got a 30% off coupon! I don't know what will happen in 2025, but I'll update this so we can plan our KnitPicks Black Friday shopping next year!

Update 11/20/2025 - the Black Friday Sale is starting! The KnitPicks Black Friday Sale is here with 30% off sitewide using the coupon code "11BLACKFRIDAY25" https://tidd.ly/4gwTrAW (Affiliate link) This deal is good through 12/1/2025 at 11:59 PM PT. This might be the longest a Black Friday coupon code has ever gone. This coupon code also works on crochet.com.

Traditionally this code stacks with other marked down items, so I like to stock up on bulk 20 back of bare yarn (that start out as 15-20% off) This gives a combined savings of 40.5% - 44%!

In 2024, KnitPicks brought back a Black Friday deal (25% vs 30%) in mid December. So It is possible we aren't done with deals this year. However, I would take advantage fo the 30% off with "11BLACKFRIDAY25" through 12/1/2025 and not hold out for another deal. I have never seen a coupon code better than 30% off.

2025 ChemKnits x KnitPicks Gift Guide!

This year, I got the opportunity to make a special gift guide with KnitPicks featuring my favorite notions, bare yarns, and more. The landing page shows a few items I selected for each category. I think with the exceptions of a few yarn colors and the drop spindles, I own everything on the list except for the very last section. (And I'm planning on picking up that National Parks Knitting book during the Big Sale!)

Big Sale Archive: 2018 - 2024!

I started tracking the big sale way back in 2018, even though I was shopping it even earlier than that. Take a look at some of my favorite deals from past years:

2025 ChemKnits Chanukah Preorders are Now Open!

2025-09-16T08:41:00.000-04:00

Preorders of the 2025 ChemKnits Chanukah Yarn samplers are now available on Etsy!

The ChemKnits Chanukah Special is an annual ChemKnits tradition, one of my favorite things to plan. Every night of Chanukah I release a new yarn dyeing video after sunset at 8:30 PM EST starting December 14, 2025. In the yarn sampler, you can unwrap a miniskein of yarn while you watch how the yarn was dyed in a ChemKnits Tutorials video! Choose between Fingering Weight or DK Weight Samplers for 8 Nights (100 g total) that will include 8 - 10 g miniskeins & one 20 g miniskein to open over the 8 nights. Samplers will ship in mid-November 2024.

Everyone is invited to participate in this Chanukah celebration with me, you don't have to be Jewish. Treat yourself to a delightfully wrapped miniskein sampler complete with a Chanukah card signed by Rebecca from ChemKnits. This unboxing will be an experience! In addition to the 9 miniskeins (8- 10 g, 1 -20 g) all samplers some fun extras, and a hand signed chanukah card from Rebecca.

All of the bonus extras will be either winter, Chanukah, ChemKnits, or Rebecca themed. In 2024, the samplers had a signed card, a sticker, and 4 progress keepers - '24 gelt, a triceratops skeleton ("oil" plus I'm a huge dinosaur lover), a beaker (science), and a snowflake cookie. In the behind the scenes vlog I'll talk more about the extras and what went into the sampler.

Bonus 100 g skein Add Ons

The ChemKnits Chanukah Special goes beyond the 8 nights of Chanukah. There will be at least 3 bonus videos - two mystery full skein add-ons and a behind the scenes vlog. If you buy one of the chanukah mini skein samplers you can add on some full skeins:

Bonus Sparkle Colorway - This stunning shiny yarn is 90% superwash merino / 10% Lurex in a sock weight yarn.
Silky Colorway - 50% Silk / 50% Superwash Merino yarn that is luxurious and soft and drapes like a dream. This second mystery colorway will be avilable on either Sock weight or DK weight yarn.

The colorways for the Sparkle base and the Silky bases will be dfferent. During the preorder phase, you need to purchase 2025 sampler to get the add-ons. This gives priority to the customers who want the miniskeins. If you have already ordered a sampler, you can purchase the add-ons on their own in a separate order. (Due to the volume of Chanukah preorders, I cannot combine shipping separate orders. Thank you for understanding!)

All of the bonus colorways will come wrapped with a progress keeper.

You can find all of the Chanukah listings in the "Chanukah" section of the ChemKnits Creations Etsy Shop.

Check out the 2024 ChemKnits Chanukah Special Playlist on YouTube to see what I created last year!

Halloween 2025 Mystery Yarn

The 2025 Mystery Halloween Yarn is almost ready to ship! I have dyed up all of the yarn, I just need to film conclusions for the video that will air on Halloween, finish making the progress keepers, and then I'll start shipping out the yarn. This colorway is available on 5 different yarn bases and I cannot wait for you to see how things turned out!

2024 Chanukah Samplers

Want to revisist last year's Chanukah Special? There are some 2024 Chanukah Samplers remaining that are ready to ship - and they are currenty on sale at 30% off! (Please note that If you want to get the add-ons for this year, you must order the 2025 Chanukah Sampler Preorder.)

New Ready-to Ship Yarns!

In addition to the Chanukah Preorders, there are a lot of new ready-to-ship yarns listed in the ChemKnits Creations Shop! We have some mini skein sets, sparkle yarn, BFL, Corriedale, Alpaca/Linen, sock blanks, and more.

If you order ready-to-ship yarn with your Chanukah Sampler, the yarn will ship mid-November when I start shipping Chanukah yarn. If you want the ready-to-ship yarn sooner, please place separate orders. Thank you for understanding!

The 2025 Spring Mini Skein Mini Series starts Tonight! (2025 SMSMS)

2025-06-02T10:43:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe the 2025 Spring Mini Skein Mini Series starts tonight, Monday 6/2/25. Each night this week at 8:30 PM Eastern Time there will be a new video premiere on the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube channel featuring the dyeing of different miniskein sets. I will be in the live chat during the premieres to answer questions, react to the videos, and just hang out.

Here are some more details for each of the videos:

SMSMS Night 1 - 60 minutes long
SMSMS Night 2 - 48 minutes long
SMSMS Night 3 - 39 minutes long
SMSMS Night 4 - 42 minutes long
SMSMS Bonus Full Skein - 40 to 50 minutes long (Full length is TBD, I'm almost done editing)
SMSMS Vlog - Full length TBD

Once the premiers are over, the video will be available to watch on demand (like a regular YouTube video.) You can find all of the SMSMS videos and shorts in the following playlist as they are published.

Ready to ship yarn!

All of the SMSMS yarn preorders are now ready-to-ship. I still have some miniskein sets, yarn mops, neon rainbow yarn mops, sock blanks, and bonus full skeins available. I have not updated the listings to let you pick your yarn by the episode number, but if you're hoping for yarn from a particular night I can check and see what yarn bases I have available. Please reach out on Etsy with any questions.

Sock Blanks vs MiniSkeins

I didn't just dye miniskein sets in this year's series, I also dyed sock blanks in each video and chat a lot about the pros and cons of a miniskein set versus a sock blank for similar types of colorways.

I plan (at some point) to bring all of the miniskein and sock blank footage into a longer video where I can talk about dyeing yarn to get the gradient or fade that you want. This will be mostly pros and cons of miniskeins vs sock blanks for smaller projects. You can still dye up sock blanks for larger skeins, but if you're making a sweater or something that needs a lot more yardage it won't all fit on one blank.

I have a few sock blanks left that are ready to ship! (If you want me to unravel the blank for you, please allow a few extra business days.)

ChemKnits Emotes for YouTube Channel Members

If you join to become a channel member on YouTube for $0.99/month you can get access to these fun ChemKnits emotes to use in comments and the live chat. I really wish I could add these emotes as an option here on Patreon, but unfortunately there is not integration between the two platforms. If you're going to pick one platform over the other, I recommend sticking to Patreon. Here is an older post talking about the differences between the two platforms.

If I get 7 more channel members then we open up a slot for another emoji. Let me know if there are any you would like to see and I can start working on a mood board to commission some more emotes. I feel like I use the "No stirring" and "Indy Barking" emotes a lot within my videos, but the ones I use most frequently in comments are the yarn heart, laugh, and facepalm. (At least these are the ones I type out the codes for from memory when I'm in the channel backend!)

The FDA Bans Red 3 Food Coloring; What does this mean for food safe yarn dyeing options?

2025-01-28T10:01:00.002-05:00

It is the end of an era. On Jan 15, 2025, the FDA officially banned Red 3 food coloring for use in food and beverages. I am a yarn dyer who started my journey dyeing yarn with food coloring before expanding into commercial dyes. I often recommend people try dyeing yarn with food coloring before investing in dedicated dyeing equipment so they can see how they feel about the whole process. The Red 3 ban limits the food safe color palette.

Given these changes, I think I'd address a few questions people may have for me as a yarn dyer:

Do I still consider Red 3 to be food safe dye for dyeing yarn? No. Since it is no longer approved for use in food, I will no longer use food colorings containing Red 3 with any pots or utensils I use for food preparation.

This is not a judgement on the ban itself. I am a yarn dyer who uses food coloring to dye yarn versus for cooking. I give recommendations to novice dyers on what dyes (i.e. food safe dyes) I'm comfortable using with cooking pots and pans versus dedicated dyeing equipment. Since Red 3 is no longer approved for food, it is no longer considered food safe and I cannot responsibly continue to use it for dyeing yarn in anything other than dedicated dyeing equipment.

What are the food safe artificial food colorings? Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, and Blue 2 (uncommon) are currently FDA approved for use in food. While there are other pigments approved for food and beverages as well, these 5 are the ones I've encountered on ingredients lists when buying food coloring to use for dyeing yarn.

Will I still use Red 3 to dye yarn? Yes, although I won't seek it out any more once I run out. I will treat food colorings with Red 3 in them the same as I would any other commercial dye - only using them with dedicated dye equipment that is not used for the preparation of food. The real perk of Red 3 is that it used to be food safe - there are other pink commercial acid dyes out there that have better lightfast properties.

I dye yarn in my kitchen with commercial acid dyes - dyes that are not and have never been food safe. I protect my work surfaces, use dedicated dye equipment and utensils, and clean my work areas to go back to a food kitchen after a day of dyeing. Here is a post where I talk about my favorite tools and equipment for dyeing yarn. I feel comfortable still using Red 3 in my kitchen.

How on earth do you dye yarn with food coloring? Artificial food colorings in the US are in the same class of molecules as acid dyes. So if you combine acid (vinegar or citric acid), heat, and a wool or other animal fiber yarn together, you can create pretty yarn with food coloring. Since those pigments were approved for food versus picked for dyeing textiles, they may not be as light fast as commercial dyes, but I have dyed hundreds of skeins of yarn with food coloring over the years and they are very washfast. Dyeing yarn with food coloring is a great way for a beginner to dabble in the craft, but in the longer term commercial dyes have a bigger range of colors and are more cost effective.

If you plan to sell yarn that you dye, I recommend that you disclose to your customers when yarn is dyed with food coloring versus commercial dyes. This is what I do in the ChemKnits Creations Etsy Shop, I always list the dye type at the top of the listing so my customers can be informed.

Why am I bummed about this ban? I am not bummed that the FDA made a decision for the safety of the public. (Again, I'm not evaluating the science here. The only fact that matters for me is that Red 3 is no longer approved for use in food.) I am only bummed from a food safe color mixing perspective. Red 3 is a bright pink food coloring. The other approved Red in the US, Red 40, is more of a crimson color. You cannot mix bright purples with the deeper red color. Since my perspective on this is with regard to dyeing yarn, versus coloring food, and there are other pink dyes available on the market, overall this isn't a huge deal to me.

Color Mixing with Red 3, Blue 1, and Yellow 5

Color Mixing with Red 40, Blue 1, and Yellow 5

I'm also bummed because Red 3 is great to have for color breaking. Color breaking is when you mix one color with multiple pigments and then they separate when you dye the yarn. You can take advantage of this breaking to create stunning colorways.

Dip dyeing to break Wiolton's violet. The Red 3's bind to the yarn first, leaving bright blues at the other end.

Wilton's violet icing color breaking on yarn. Since the Red 3 strikes to yarn much faster, it binds where it was placed and then the Blue 1 spreads out giving these stunning speckles.

What food colorings contain Red 3? The best thing you can do here is to read the ingredients labels. Most individually labeled icing containers (like Wilton's Violet shown below) have the food colorings listed (in this case Red 3 and Blue 1).

4 packs of liquid food coloring from the grocery store (Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green) will have the ingredients on the package, but not always the ingredients of each individual bottle. A deep blue will have some red mixed in with Blue 1 - it may not be red 3, but there will be some reds in there.

Food coloring formulas change over time, so always go off of the ingredients on the package you have in your posession versus what you google.

When will Red 3 be gone from food coloring? The FDA has given food companies until early 2027 to reformulate their products, although I have a feeling some of these companies will try to release new versions sooner than that. To the best of my knowledge, there hasn't been an immdiate recall of products that contain Red 3 in them.

I predict that more and more companies will start using vegitable juice to color products in the future. I do find it intersting that items can say "vegitable juice color" without stating which vegitables were used... but we'll see how things happen moving forward.

I dyed some yarn with these drink mixes, not realizeing that there was no red food coloing in them!

Why am I not commenting on the science behind the Red 3 FDA ban? It does feel strange as a trained scientist with a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmocology to not look into the science behind the Red 3 ban. However, as a content creator and an artist, my opinion on the science itself isn't important. The fact that I care about is the fact that the FDA banned the use of Red 3 in food, and therefore it is no longer considered food safe. Since I have used Red 3 as a food safe dye for years in tutorials, I now have an obligation to share that the facts have changed, and I no longer consider Red 3 to be a food safe dye as it is no longer approved for food by the FDA.

What should I do with my food colorings that have Red 3 and I don't want too use them for food? Dye some yarn! This is a great way to use up the pigments. Here is a livestream I did recently dyeing a lot of yarn with food coloring.

The 2024 ChemKnits Chanukah Yarn Dyeing Special is Here!

2024-12-25T13:00:00.004-05:00

The 2024 ChemKnits Chaunkah Special starts tonight, 12/25/2024, on YouTube! Every night of Chanukah, plus a few nights beyond, a new video will premiere at 8:30 PM Eastern Time on the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube Channel. The premiere will be like a live television event where we can all watch the video at the same time and react in a chat room. I will be in this chat for as many episodes as I can, so keep an eye out for me! Once the premeier has finished the video will be available on demand just like a regular YouTube video.

For planning purposes, these are the run times of each of the 2024 Chanukah Yarn Dyeing Videos:

Night 1 - 12/25/24 - 47 mim
Night 2 - 12/26/24 - 35 min
Night 3 - 12/27/24 - 40 min
Night 4 - 12/28/24 - 31 min
Night 5 - 12/29/24 - 33 min
Night 6 - 12/30/24 - 47 min
Night 7 - 12/31/24 - 36 min
Night 8 - 1/1/25 - 33 min
Merino/Yak/Silk Bonus Colorway (Night 9) - 1/2/25 - 37 min
Sparkle Bonus Colorway (Night 10) - 1/3/25 - 36 min
Behind the Scenes Vlog - 1/4/25 - 53 min

Typically there is a count down clock that starts at 8:30 PM, so the episode may begin at ~8:02. I cannot wait to hang out with you while we watch these videos!

You can find all of the videos as they are published in the 2024 ChemKnits Chanukah Special Playlist. (The playlist will appear empty until the first video is published.)

There is still some Chanukah yarn available in the ChemKnits Creations Etsy Shop! Miniskein samplers, full skeins from individual nights, and bonus 100g colorways.

My Favorite Teacher Thank You Gift - Word Cloud Tote Bags

2024-12-19T17:39:00.001-05:00

For the last three years, I made word cloud tote bags for my kids' teachers as an end of year gift. This is a fantastic collaborative class gift that allows for easy participation for families.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. I may earn a comission if you make a purchase after clicking on a link.

Sample Email to the Class

Here is the basic email I included to the other parents in my kids' classes. I included some sample word clouds photos so people could see what I was talking about.

We want to put a word cloud on a nice tote bag for each of the teachers. Can you please ask your kids to describe [TEACHER NAMES] and then email [PARENT] the results by [DATE]? Don't worry about full sentences, a list of words and/or phrases is fine.

Making the Word Cloud

As I received emails with descriptions from other families, I made a spreadsheed and copy and pasted the phrases. I made the word cloud on wordart.com for free. You can copy all of the text you have collected and it will import words for you, counting how many times each word appears and elimiting common words. If you want multiple word phrases you will need to adjust those manually. (I try to keep track of any phrases separately.)

For formatting, I set the teacher name to be the largest size and default the angle to "0" so it will be horizontal. The other words will be sized based on how many times they appeared.

You can select any shape you want and customize the fonts that are used in the cloud. (For fonts I used "Headline One" for the name and then "Teen" for the rest of the words. I am including my layout settings for this particular word cloud, but you can play around with them to get something you want.

Under "Style" you can make the backdrop transparent. These word clouds come out adorbale whether you have a more crowded cloud with a lot of words or fewer words.

Last year, I downloaded the free lower resolution version of the file myself and turned it into a cuttable image for my cricut, but this year I paid $10 for 5 high resolution downloads - and I could download a SVG directly. This saved me a LOT of time inporting the image into Cricut design space. With the lower resolution file, any small words didn't import well as an image so I just typed the words out and replaced those area in cricut design space.

Cutting the file

I imported the SVG's into cricut design space and made my hearts 11.5" wide. At first the image looked like a black square - but there is a background border that you can turn off to see the design. I love that the SVG's have each idividual letter so if you accidently misspell something you can edit that before cutting.

I used the Siser Watercolor Rainbow Heat Transfer vinyl to cut the image on my Cricut Air Explore 2. It cut and weeded very nicly, although I will admit the tiny words were challenging to weed and took some patience. Don't forget to mirror your cut!

I ironed the design onto Navy Cotton Tote bags with my EZPress, but you absolutely could use a regular iron. These tote bags are inexpensive but not cheap feeling and would work well for groceries or books.

I finished up all 5 bags I wanted to create this year in one morning. Why did I pick tote bags? Personally, I feel like I can never have enough tote bags for groceries or quickly packing up extra items to send to school. I love how the word cloud project both personalizes the bags and allows the entire class to contribute. This also doesn't single out any famlies who are unable to contribute since it is a group effort.

Many years ago, I shared a fun end-of-year craft we did for teachers at our Preschool. This was a group project where kids decorated petals for each teacher and then we assembled them into flowers on folders. I adored this project, but as my kids get older it is hard logistically to both distribute and collect items for this kind of collaborative thank you gift.

Do you want to see more of my cricut projects? (As I type this question I realize that I now have comments off on the blog because of the high volume of spam - so I'll try to share some from time to time.)

2024 ChemKnits Creations Black Friday Sale

2024-11-29T08:30:00.004-05:00

The ChemKnits Creations Black Friday sale is here! Over 100 ready-to-ship colorways are 25% off plus there are some fun mystery bundles available.

This sale ends 12/2/24 at 11:59 PM EST or while supplies last. Prices are as marked deals are available while supplies last - some deals are more limited than others. Etsy doesn't let you use coupon codes on top of sale items, so check to see which will give you the biggest discount.

Extra Special Black Friday Deals

Buy a 100 g skein of the 2024 Black Friday Colorway and you can add a mystery skein of yarn for just $12! The Mystery skein will be a complete surprise in yarn weight (lace weight - jumbo) and fiber content (all will be at least 50% animal fibers), and either superwash or non superwash. Mystery skeins will be wrapped in tissue paper so you can unwrap the surprise but they do not come with any additional extras. These yarns may come from current shop inventory or could come from unlisted stock. (There is a separate listing for the non-superwash merino/silk yarn dyed in the Black Friday colorway.)
300 g Mystery Yarn Bundle - Buy a drawstring canvas project bag and I will stuff it with 300 g of mystery yarn and fun extras. Full retail value is over $100. You can pick between sock weight (superwash), DK weight (Superwash) or Worsted Weight (non-superwash) but the colorways will be a complete suprise. This isn't intended to be a fade set, so the yarn may or may not coordinate together.
Stitch Marker Bundles - A small organza bag with 6 stitch markers in a susprise mystery bundle. All of the progress keepers have lobster claw clasps that are either silver or gold colored. The charms may overlap with past samplers (SMSMS, Valentine's Day, Chanukah) but will NOT overal with the 2023 Chanukah Sampler extras.

New Chanukah Yarn Options

"Just One Night" Full Skeins - Get a 100 g skein of one of the upcoming 2024 Chanukah Colorways on a sock yarn base! I will wrap the yarn in tissue paper to avoid spoilers, but these do not come with any progress keepers.
Chanukah Yarn Mops - I have a few yarn mops on either sock or DK weight yarn from filming this series, and these are now available to you!

I still have many sock Chanukah Yarn Samplers and a few DK samplers left.

New Yarns and Roving

I have edited so many videos in the last week, which means that I can officially list a lot of new rovings and yarn in this shop restock!

Thank you so much for supporting the ChemKnits Creations Etsy Shop and the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube channel! I hope you decide to buy some yarn to help me make space for more dyeing adventures in 2025.

Watch me dye the 2024 Black Friday yarn on YouTube:

The 2024 KnitPicks Big Sale is Here - Shopping Strategy and All of the Deals!

2024-11-08T08:10:00.032-05:00

It is the most wonderful time of the year... time for the KnitPicks Big Sale! From 11/11/24 - 11/27/24 hundreds of yarns on KnitPicks and Crochet.com sites will be up to 60% off! This is the biggest yarn sale KnitPicks offers every year, and they always have lots of fun promotions that rotate every couple of days.

In this post, I am going to track all of the deals and discounts in the 2024 KnitPicks Big sale. You will find the currently active deals, an archive of expired promotions (so we can track for future years), and my personal shopping strategy. Let's have some fun!

I am a KnitPicks & WeCrochet (crochet.com) affiliate marketer, so the links in this post are affiliate links and I do earn commissions on sales made through my links. This post was most recently updated 11/27/2024.

2024 KnitPicks Big Sale runs 11/11/24 - 11/27/24

Black Friday 2024

The 2024 KnitPicks Black Friday coupon is the biggest we’ve ever seen! Save 30% off KnitPicks with code "KPBLACK30" and 30% off crochet.com with code "CROCHET30" Thursday 11/28/24 through Tuesday 2/3/2024. See the websites for full terms and conditions.

The coupon codes below above are for 30% off your purchase - a coupon code that will stack with bulk bare yarn discounts. In previous years we’ve had 20-25% off over the course of the weekend. Happy shopping! (If you take 30% off an item that was already 15% off you save 40.5%!)

Active Deals at KnitPicks and WeCrochet

During the big sale, a ton of individual yarns are marked down. KnitPicks and WeCrochet also offer many other discounts that rotate throughout the duration of the sale. Below you can see the current deals, and I'll track the expired 2024 Big Sale freebies and sales at the bottom of the post so we can reference this next year.

You can only use one promo code per order, but they do stack with individual item markdowns. All promo codes are while supplies last and may include some restrictions. Most promo codes can only be used one time per customer, so plan accordingly. Please see the KnitPicks or Crochet.com websites for full terms and conditions.

KnitPicks Active Deals

Freebie Deal - None as of 11/24.

Bonus Deal - 20% off all needles at KnitPicks 11/21- 11/27/24. While supplies last. Open stock cables not included. The wooden interchangable needles are my personal favorites. I own these in multiple colors and sizes and often will add more to my collection.

Free Shipping - 11/27 only with the code ="KPFREESHIP" for free standerd shipping at checkout.

Free Shipping Always Deal - Free shipping at knitpicks.com on US orders $75+. No coupon code necessary, stacks with above deals. There are free shopping minimums for other countries, too.

2024 Discount Code - Build your own yarn pack promo - Save 10% off any 10 skeins of the same yarn line with the code "MYYARNPACK." As of 11/4/2024 this coupon code stacked with marked down yarns. Promo ends 12/31/2024.

WeCrochet Active Deals

Freebie Deal - Free crochet.com sample yarn box with $85+ purchase using code "SAMPLE24" though 11/27/2024. It looks like you get some hook samples, some of the most popular synthetic yarns and a bunch of bare yarn miniskeins so you can test out different wool based yarn lines.

Bonus Deal - Yarn Bowl Flash Sale at crochet.com 40% off select yarn bowls while supplies last. Prices are as marked. 11/26-27.

Free Shipping Always Deal - Free shipping at crochet.com on US orders $45+. No coupon code necessary, stacks with above deals.

Want to see how this Big Sale compares to previous years?

When I say I track the Big Sales... I really do mean that I track them! I love going back and seeing what deals were offered previously so I can plan out my shopping strategy for the current year.

What about Black Friday?

The Big sale ends 11/27/24 - the Wednesday before Thankgiving. Historically there is a site wide coupon for Black Friday and Cyber weekend. For example, in 2021, 2022, and 2023, KnitPicks had a 25% off coupon for Black Friday and then 20% off coupon for the rest of cyber weekend. We don't know yet what will happen for 2024, but part of my shopping strategy is based on the possibiltiy of a discount promo code.

Update 11/28/2024:

I believe this is the first time the Black Friday coupon started on Thanksgiving day itself. This is also the biggest discount we've ever seen KnitPicks do - and it is for the entire weekend!

My 2024 Shopping Strategy

I purchase a LOT of yarn during the KnitPicks Big Sale. In 2024 I purchased over 100 skeins or bare yarn and colorways I thought would be fun to overdye! I spend a lot of time thinking about how to best organize my purchases so I can take advantage of freebies and get the best deals during the sale. My personal strategy is to take advantage of yarns that are 30-60% off during the big sale and to split my orders up so I can get free shipping and take advantage of any daily promotions.

At KnitPicks and Crochet.com, you are allowed to use one coupon per purchase. These coupon codes stack with items that are already marked down, so you can sometimes get a free item with a minimum purchase or you may be able to get an additional discount on top of what is already marked down.

In previous years, there have been muliple freebie options during the big sale. We've seen project bags, travel kits that include scissors, tiny stuffed alpacas, pompoms, yarn, enamel pins, and even more items available for free with a coupon code and minimum purchase. Because I didn't know when the next freebie deal would drop, I would divide up my orders so I could get the yarn I want and take advantage of as many other additional items as possible.

This may be a little silly, but since I plan to order a lot of yarn ANYWAY, this works for me. Don't forget that I'm ordering yarn to supply the materials for my YouTube yarn dyeing videos so shopping the Big Sale is a great way for me to get savings on yarn I would be buying anyway.

Coming soon - photos of my shopping cart!

Discount Math

Let's chat about everyone's favorite subject... Math. (Math really was my favorite subject in school!) I promise that this is fun Math because I'm going to talk about more ways we can save money buying yarn!

You can stack a site wide coupon code with the bulk bare yarn discount (15% off a 20 pack of yarn - priced as marked) for additional savings. If you use a 20% coupon code on an item already marked down 15%, you can save 32% off of the retail price! This stacking discount is why I tend to focus on yarns that are >30% off from the Big Sale markdowns.

	Price as Marked Discount	+ Coupon Code (20% off)	+ Coupon Code (25% off)
Bulk Bare Yarn 20 Pack	15%	32%	36.25%

I keep these numbers in mind in case there is a site wide coupon code once the Big Sale ends. Of course, we can't guarantee that there will be a coupon code for Black Friday - but I'm pretty sure there has been one every year as far back as 2015. There is also never a guarantee that the yarn you want will still be available for a site wide coupon, so if there is something you NEED it is best to shop early.

I confirmed 11/11/2024 that the "MYYARNPACK" coupon code stacks with Big Sale discounts!

You can use one coupon code per purchase, and we know about an awesome coupon code that has been active for all of 2024 - the Build Your Own Yarn Pack promo. Through 12/21/2024, if you buy 10 or more skeins from the same yarn line, use the code "MYYARNPACK" to save 10% off these 10 skeins. This discount stacks on top of other discounts marked on the website. It does NOT stack with the bulk 20 packs of bare yarn.

I did the math for you so you can see how a 10% off discount stacks against other discounts. (Don't forget that the 10% off is applied to the discounted price, not the original item price.)

Item Markdown	Plus Stacking the "MYYARNPACK" 10% off code
10%	19%
20%	28%
30%	37%
40%	46%
50%	55%
60%	64%

This means that during the Big Sale - if the yarn you want to purchase is discounted, you should use the Build Your Own Value Pack deal on 20 individual skeins versus the discount for buying a bulk 20 pack. All of these give you a bigger discount. Occasionally there are limits to how many skeins you can buy of a given item - but that doesn't typically apply to the standard Big Sale yarn listings.

Unfortunately for me, the yarns I buy the most of every year (Bare Stroll Fingering & Bare Swish DK) don't typically get marked down very much during the Big Sale. However as I'm waiting for the Big Sale to launch in a couple of days I can cross my fingers and hope!

KnitPicks vs Crochet.com

KnitPicks and Crochet.com share a warehouse and offer many of the same yarns. Why might you shop at one versus the other? The big sale discounts should be the same on both websites, but you may notice some other difference.

They two sites have different minimums for freeshipping ($75+ at KnitPicks and $45+ at Crochet.com) They often feature different promotions (freebies, special item discounts, etc) and may carry some items that are unique to that website. Any KnitPicks/WeCrochet yarn should be available on both sites, but some knitting needles / crochet hooks, notions, and third party offerings may vary between the sites. Recently the company updated the Crochet.com website so the layout is now different from the KnitPicks site, so you may feel more comfortable navigating one site vs the other.

KnitPicks & WeCrochet Bare Stroll Fingering weight yarn. This 75% Superwash Merino / 25% Nylon sock yarn is my favorite yarn base to dye. I think I've dyed thousands of this yarn base over the years.

You will notice most yarns are labeled with "KnitPicks" and "WeCrochet" - these are the in house branded items for both companies. Anything labled "WeCrochet" on crochet.com is manufactured by the company, versus being another yarn line such as Lion Brand or Berroco. In posts like this I will often say "WeCrochet" vs "Crochet.com" out of habit since that is still how I think of the branding.

New Yarn Bases?

Coming soon. There is never a guarantee that there will be something new, but sometimes we get a release of "Special Reserve" limited edition yarns during the Big Sale. Fingers crossed!

There are three rovings that are new-ish including one that appears to have been added in November 2024 - Island of Lights roving that is 20% sparkly stellina!

The High Desert Rovings are marked down in the Pre-Big Sale 30% off Promotion.
I'm not sure if they'll still be on sale during the Big Sale itself.

There are a few other yarn bases that are "new to me" but may have been added earlier this fall. I just placed an order on 11/9/2024 and will let you know as soon as they arrive!

The Best KnitPicks Big Sale Deals in 2024

Coming soon!

Big Sale Livestreams

I went Live on YouTube at 11 AM Eastern Time on 11/11/24 to shop and strategize for the Big Sale. Watch the replay (or join me live!) if you want to see me answer some questions and hang out.

Random Thoughts

In 2024, the Big Sale and $2/4/6 yarn day launched at midnight Pacific time - likely because they announced that promo ahead of time. In past years, website updates happened at 5 AM Pacific, 8 AM Eastern. This is good to know, but it is possible if there was bare yarn on $2/4/6 yarn day it had sold out by the time I woke up at 6 AM.

Archive of 2024 Deals

I keep track of the older KnitPicks and WeCrochet deals from the current Big Sale so we can make predicitons in following years. This archive is in reverse chronological order with the most recent deals listed first. Double check the dates to see if the discount is still active. (The current active promotions will be listed at the top of this blog post, too.) The big sale doesn't officially begin until 11/11/2024, but they started offereing some discounts from the beginning of November so I'm tracking those, too.

Freebies

More coming soon!
Free crochet.com sample yarn box with $85+ purchase using code "SAMPLE24" 11/22 - 11/27/2024. It looks like you get some hook samples, some of the most popular synthetic yarns and a bunch of bare yarn miniskeins so you can test out different wool based yarn lines.

Free Snap Bag with $100+ KnitPicks Purchase using code "SNAP25" through 11/23/2024. While supplies last, limit one per customer.

KnitPicks sent me a sample of this snap bag for free and I adore how it feels. I like that you can see the yarn in it and that you can move the yarn between the snaps like a mobile yarn bowl you can pop into a tote bag. This will protect your yarn from tangles while allowing you to knit on the go with ease.

Free Snap Bag with $65+ Crochet.com purchase using code "SNAP24" Limit 1 per customer, sale ends 11/21/2024 or while supplies last. (limited to first 200 customers)
Free Try It Set with KnitPicks Purchase $65+ using code "TRY2024. Promo ends 11/14/2024. While Supplies Last. This kit includes the interchangables options needle tips in Nickel-plated (Size 7, 4.5 mm) and laminated wood (size 6, 4.0 mm). There are two cables (1 each of 24" and 40"), 4 cable end caps, 1 cable key, and the needles come in a clear vinyl needle case with a snap.
Before I discovered my favorite Options tips, I started out with a similar try it set way back in 2011. I prefer the wooden needle tips to the nickle plated metal ones - I use these in various colors for all of my knitting projects. I find the cables to be super flexible and easy to work with, too. (Side note - I cannot believe I found my old order in my email from 13 years ago!)
Free Bag with $65+ Crochet.com purchase using code "DONTCRY24" Promo ends 11/14/24 at 11:59pm PT while supplies last. Add item to cart valued at $65 or more and apply code at checkout. Limit one per customer.
Free Project Bag with $75 purchase with code "KPBAG75". Promo ends 11/7/2024. These drawstring bags are 13" wide x 17" deep (when laid flat) and easily fit a small project. The rainbow yarn it the bottom corner is Bare KnitPicks Twill hand dyed by me in a June 2024 livestream.
Free Book with $65+ crochet.com Purchase with code "BOOK24". Deal ends 11/7/2024.

Special Deals

More Coming Soon!
Yarn Bowl Flash Sale at crochet.com 40% off select yarn bowls while supplies last. Prices are as marked. 11/26-27.
20% off all needles at KnitPicks 11/21- 11/27/24. While supplies last. Open stock cables not included. The wooden interchangable needles are my personal favorites. I own these in multiple colors and sizes and often will add more to my collection.
30% off Tunisian Hook Sets at crochet.com 11/24/24 - 11/25. I own one of these sets, although I have never used the one I own. I tried Tunisian crochet at a craft fair once and enjoyed it. I really need to try it out for myself!
25% off Blacking Combs Sets at crochet.com. 11/22-11/23 I'm bummed I forgot to take advantage of this because the blocking combs connect and look awesome.
$1.99 Pattern Sale at KnitPicks 11/19 - 11/20
25% off Pine Wood Yarn Spindle at Crochet.com 11/20-11/21/24. This isn't a drop spindle, but a yarn cake lazy susan that spins the yarn cake around while you're working. I haven't seen something like this before, so I'm intreagued.
Two days only - $1.99 Exclusive KnitPicks Patterns 11/19 - 11/20
50% off Swift & Ball Winder Bundle at crochet.com 11/18-11/19/2024. This is a promo that was on KnitPicks earlier during the big sale, so it is interesting to see the same promo but different days on both sites.
50% off KnitPicks Knitting Notions 11/16/24 through 11/18/2024 Some of my favorite notions are the flexible stitch markers and the blocking mats. I also love the magnetic chart keeper.
40% off WeCrochet Pattern Folio 11/16/24 - 11/17/24. This folio looks so cool. There are spots to bring your crochet hooks and some notions along with the pattern. If it also had a magnetic chart keeper then I would order one for myself!

50% Off KnitPicks Ball Winder & Swift Set 11/14 - 11/15/2024 while supplies last.

I own both of these items myself. I've had to replace the ball winder once because I broke my first one (it was attached to a stool, a toddler knocked the stool over and the clamp broke.) With the swift, I've had to replace the ties holding some of the pieces together over the years. I bought a replacement swift (also from KnitPicks) that I haven't started using because the old one still works perfectly fine. So I'm happy enough with both items to replace them with the same ones.

$1.99 WeCrochet digtial patterns - over 250 patterns marked down to $1.99 from 11/14/2024 - 11/15/2024. Promo applies to select patterns only.

$2/$4/$6 yarn days at KnitPicks! With the launch of the Big Sale comes one of my favorite bonus days where we can see some yarns with the steapest discounts we get all year. Fingers crossed for some good bare yarn options! The 2/4/6 yarn will be available 11/11- 11/13 or while supplies last. In 2024 thre is a limit of 10/item/customer.
On 11/9/24, two days before the launch of the big sale, KnitPicks sent customers an email letting everyone know that one of the best bonus deals of the Big Sale will start with the sale launch! During the big sale yarn is up to 60% off, but on 2/4/6 day these discounts can be much larger. Usually there is a limit per person per item, BUT you can order the same yarn from KnitPicks and WeCrochet.

$2/4/6 yarn day at crochet.com through 11/13/24 or while supplies last.
On 11/9, two days beforee the launch, WeCrochet sent an email with a sneak peek to the promo.
Black Friday Early Pricing! 30% Off select items through 11/10/2024
Share the Love Promo. Select items are Buy One Get One Free at crochet.com using the code "LOVE24" through 11/10/2024. Promo only applies to select items.

Preorder the 2024 ChemKnits Chanukah Yarn Samplers!

2024-09-16T14:52:00.002-04:00

I'm pleased to share that preorders of the 2024 ChemKnits Chanukah Yarn samplers are now available on Etsy!

Each night of Chanukah 2024, unwrap a 10 g miniskein of yarn and watch how the yarn was dyed in a new ChemKnits Tutorials dyeing video! New dyeing videos will be released every night of Chanukah on YouTube after sunset at 8:30 PM EST starting December 25, 2024. Choose between Fingering Weight or DK Weight Samplers for 8 Nights (100 g total) that will include 8 - 10 g miniskeins & one 20 g miniskein to open over the 8 nights. Samplers will ship in mid-November 2024.

You don't need to be Jewish to celebrate Chanukah with me. Treat yourself to a delightfully wrapped miniskein sampler complete with a Chanukah card signed by Rebecca from ChemKnits. This unboxing will be an experience! In addition to the 9 miniskeins (8- 10 g, 1 -20 g) all samplers some fun extras, and a hand signed card from Rebecca.

Bonus 100 g skein Add Ons

There are some fun add on full skein options for the 2024 Chanukah Sampler that you can purchase with your sampler.

Bonus Sparkle Colorway - I am so excited to dye up this sparkly yarn (75% Superwash Merno / 20% Nylon / 5% Silver Stellina) that is available on both sock weight and DK weight yarn.
Bonus Yak/Silk Blend Colorway - This colorway will be dyed on two similar yarn bases that are Superwash Merino / Silk / Yak blends. The DK weight yarn has a 60/20/20 ratio, and the sock weight has a 65/20/15 blend. The DK and sock bases will have the same colorway dyed on them.

The Yak/Silk Blend will be a different colorway than the Sparkle Colorway. During the preoroder period you need to purchase a 2024 sampler to purchase one of the add ons, but they do not need to be in the same order.

The dyeing of thesebonus skeins will also be feautred in the series. There will be 3 bonus videos that are part of the 2024 ChemKnits Chanukah Special (that technically will air in early 2025 because Chanukah starts so late this year!) Two of the videos will feature the dyeing of 100 g full skein colorways, and the third will be a behind the scenes vlog as I work on the series.

Extra Stitch Markers

There are two Chanukah themed progress keeper / stitch markers I made for past samplers that are available in the shop. One is a beautiful silver colored menorah, and the other is a dreidle I made out of clay... literally!

These progress keepers are ready to ship now and are available for everyone, you do not need to preorder any mystery 2024 Chanukah yarn, however I am happy to add them in with your samplers for you.

You can find all of the Chanukah listings in the "Chanukah" section of the ChemKnits Creations Etsy Shop.

Check out the 2023 ChemKnits Chanukah Special Playlist on YouTube to see what I created last year!

Preorder 2024 Summer Mini Skein Mini Series Yarn Sets! (2024 SMSMS)

2024-04-18T14:19:00.001-04:00

I am pleased to share that I just opened up preorders for the 2024 Summer Mini Skein Mini Series! This annual event will have multiple yarn dyeing videos that are published nightly starting Monday July 8, 2024. You will watch me dye mulitple different sets of miniskeins on a variety of yarn bases, plus there will be some bonus dyeing videos, too.

2024 SMSMS Yarn Sets

There are multiple different yarn bases to choose from your your miniskein set. Each set of 5 - 20 g miniskeins will be dyed within one video. All sets will arrive wrapped and labeled with the date and episode number of the video so you know when you can watch the dyeing. Each yarn set also comes with mulitple fun extras, and the theme of the packaging this year is adorbable and ties into the theme for this year. (The theme isn't based around the colors, but more around the techniques I plan to feature.)

You can see all of the Summer Mini Skein Mini Series options in the 2024 SMSMS ChemKnits Creations Section.

Add-ons to the mini skein sets

You can add more yarn to your miniskein set! At this time these add on options are only available to customers who purchase a miniskein set. All extra skeins come wrapped with a progress keeper and will be labeled with the date they're featured in a video. There are three different categories of Add ons this year:

Add on Full Skein - These 100 g skeins of yarn are dyed as a bonus colowray for the series, and are dyed in their own dedicated video. All three bases will be dyed the same colorway, although there may be some dye lot variation. The yarn bases include:

100 g Sock 80/20 2-ply (80% superwash fine highland wool / 20% polyamide)
100 g Superwash DK 8-ply (100% Superwash Merino)
100 g SW Worsted HT 3-ply (100% Superwash Merino)

Add on Sock Blanks - I will dye some sock blanks in the miniskein videos themselves, but I may also do a sock blank stand alone video. There will be a variety of colors within blanks of even one base. I will do my best to send you a sock blank featured on a different night from your miniskein set, but this may not be possible. The yarn bases include:

Double stranded 75/25 Sock Blank (75% Superwash Merino Wool / 25% Nylon)
Double Stranded 80/20 Sock Blank (80% superwash fine highland wool / 20% polyamide)
Single stranded 75/25 Sock Blank (75% Superwash Merino Wool / 25% Nylon)
Single Stranded Merino/Silk Sock Blank (80% Superwash Merino / 20% Silk)

Add on "Yarn Mop" - this will be a 100 g skein of yarn dyed in one of the miniskein dyeing or bonus dyeing videos. This might be a prototype, bonus colorway, leave no dye behind, or more classic "yarn mop" skein. I will do my best to send you a yarn mop /bonus skein featured on a different night from your miniskein set, but this may not be possible.

Yarn Bases: Pick between Sock, DK, or Worsted Weights. There will be some variation in the base itself, but all yarn will be superwash Merino based with up to 30% nylon.

When will I get my yarn?

I will ship out the 2024 SMSMS Yarn in the middle of June 2024. The videos begin on July 8, 2024. Once the videos are public, you can find them in the following YouTube Playlist: https://tinyurl.com/2024-SMSMS

The yarn base I wanted sold out! Will you restock them?

I intend to dye more yarn than I orginally list in the 2024 SMSMS preorders. If the yarn base for a SMSMS yarn set sells out, please reach out to me on Etsy and let me know. I will order more yarn if I can and do a restock once I have more of that yarn base on hand.

I also typically hold back some inventory until I've shipped out all of the preorders, so there is usually a restock closer to the shipping dates.

Can you combine shipping on mulitiple orders?

No. Due to the volume of orders, I cannot combine shipping on multiple orders. However, if you have already purchased a mini skein set in one order, you can place an order for add-ons in a separate order. (You do not have to order a second mini skein set unless you want to!)

I'm so excited!

I'm not announcing the loose theme I have for this year, as the theme has more to do with part of the techniques and dyeing process (and the packaging for the yarn) than it does the actual colors. Expect some sets composed of tonals and others that are more variegated. There should be a lot of variety!

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This announcement was also published on the ChemKnits Patreon. You can follow me over there for free to get public announcements sent to your email, or you can join as a Patron and get some cool perks.

The 2023 ChemKnits Chanukah Special is Here!

2023-12-07T14:40:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the 2023 ChemKnits Chanukah Special! Every night of Chanukah (plus a few nights beyond) there will be a new yarn dyeing video on the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube Channel published at 8:30 PM Eastern Time. These nightly videos will run from 12/7/23 - 12/17/23.

At 8:30 PM Eastern Time each new Chanukah Special video will air as a live premiere on YouTube. The premiere comes with a live chat room so you can chat with me and we can react to the video and the yarn together. The video will be available on demand once the premiere ends. For planning purposes, here are the approximate lengths of the videos and what nights I will not be part of the live chat.

At 8:30 PM there is a couple minute countdown before the premeier begins. These runtimes are approximate. Most videos are between 30-45 minutes long.

12/7 Night 1 - Runtime ~36 minutes

The first night! I'll see you in the live chat!

12/8 Night 2 - Runtime ~44 minutes
12/9 Night 3 - Runtime ~41 minutes
12/10 Night 4 - Runtime ~32 minutes
12/11 Night 5 - Runtime ~32 minutes
12/12 Night 6 - Runtime ~42 minutes
12/13 Night 7 - Runtime ~39 minutes

This is my 40th birthday, so I will likely not be in the live chatroom.

12/14 Night 8 - Runtime ~33 minutes
12/15 Bonus Night 9 ~42 minutes
12/16 Bonus Night 10 - Runtime TBD

I will not be in the live chatroom for this saturday night livestream.

12/17 Behind the Scenes Vlog - Runtime TBD

There is still some 2023 Chanukah Yarn available in the ChemKnits Creations Etsy shop! There are a handful of sock yarn samplers and some bonus skeins. Keep your eye out for other shop launches during the Chanukah Special!

2023 ChemKnits Creations Black Friday Sale!

2023-11-24T08:32:00.001-05:00

The ChemKnits Creations Black Friday sale is here! Over 100 colorways are 25% off plus there are some fun mystery bundles available.

This sale ends 11/27/23 at 11:59 PM EST or while supplies last. Prices are as marked deals are available while supplies last - some deals are more limited than others. Etsy doesn't let you use coupon codes on top of sale items, so check to see which will give you the biggest discount.

Extra Special Black Friday Deals

Buy a 100 g skein of the 2023 Black Friday Colorway and you can add a mystery skein of yarn for just $10! The mystery skein will be a surprise yarn weight (lace - jumbo), surprise fiber content (will be at least 50% animal fiber), and could either be superwash or nonsupewash. (Mystery skeins may come from current shop inventory and will randomly be added to the orders. There are no progress keepers with this mystery skein.) Watch the video to see me dye the 2023 Black Friday Colorway and to hear me chat more about all of these deals.
300 g Mystery Yarn Bundle - Buy a drawstring canvas project bag and I will stuff it with 300 g of mystery yarn and fun extras. Full retail value is over $100. You can pick between sock weight (superwash), DK weight (Superwash) or Worsted Weight (non-superwash) but the colorways will be a complete suprise. This isn't intended to be a fade set, so the yarn may or may not coordinate together.
Stitch Marker Bundles! A small organza bag with 6 stitch markers in a susprise mystery bundle. All of the progress keepers have lobster claw clasps that are either silver or gold colored. The charms may overlap with past samplers (SMSMS, Valentine's Day, Chanukah) but will NOT overal with the 2023 Chanukah Sampler extras.

You can find all of these special listings under the "Black Friday" shop tab. Sale yarn up to 40% off can be found under the "On Sale" Tab.

All of these deals are available while supplies last or thought Monday 11/27/23 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Unfortunately Patreon coupons do not work on items that are already discounted, Etsy will override the sale price to use the coupon. So please check to see which is a better discount!

Chanukah Samplers!

You can still order a 2023 Mystery Chanukah Yarn Sampler! These are ready to ship and come with 8 wrapped packages of hand dyed yarn featured in dyeing videos releasing each night of Chanukah.

Shipping

Due to the volume of orders on Black Friday / Cyber weekend, I cannot combine shipping if you place mulitple orders. Thank you for understanding! All Black Friday orders will start shipping Tuesday 11/28/23. I will ship Chanukah Samplers out first thing Monday 11/27/23 so hopefully they will arrive in time for Chanukah to begin.

Watch me dye the 2023 Black Friday Yarn

I published this new YouTube video at 8:30 AM on Friday 11/24/2023 to show off the dyeing of the special Black Friday colorway.

Other Black Friday Yarn Deals

The following list includes affiliate links to KnitPicks, WeCrochet, KnitCrate, and Paradise Fibers, and I make commissions from purchases made through these links.

KnitPicks & WeCrochet - Save 25% off sitewide with the code "THANKS25" 11/23/23 - 11/24/23 for Black Friday! See websites for full details.

Which site should you shop with? There are a few things to make the decision:

WeCrochet has a lower minimum for free shipping ($45 in the US) vs KnitPicks ($65 for US customers.)
KnitPicks has bulk bare yarn discounts
WeCrochet carries Lion Brand Yarn
There are some other exclusive tools and patterns that vary between the websites, too.

This coupon code stacks with bulk bare yarn purchases! If you purchase a 20 pack of bare yarn (see the individual yarn listing for this option), those are marked down at 15% off. When you add the Black Friday coupon, you get a total discount of 36%!

Save 20% off KnitPicks and WeCrochetSitewide with the code "CYBER20" Saturday 11/25/22 through Monday 11/27/22. See websites for full details.

The 2023 KnitPicks Big Sale is Here - Shopping Strategy and All of the Deals!

2023-11-08T08:01:00.065-05:00

The 2023 KnitPicks Big Sale is here! Select skeins of yarn are up to 60% off starting 11/8/2023 and going through 11/21/2023. In this blog post, I will keep track of the 2023 discounts and special deals, share my picks for the best discounted bare yarn bases, and talk about my general shopping strategy for both KnitPicks and WeCrochet. I do this every year, and I'm excited to see what the 2023 KnitPicks Big Sale has in store for us! I will update this page daily during the big sale to keep track of the current offers.

I am a KnitPicks & WeCrochet affiliate marketer, so the links in this post are affiliate links and I do earn commissions on sales made through my links. This post was most recently updated 11/23/2023.

What is "The Big Sale"

Every November leading up to Thanksgiving, KnitPicks has a huge sale over a couple of weeks full of many different discounts (hundreds of yarns up to 60% off), mark downs, coupon codes, freebies, and more. Occasionally they even release new yarn bases! In the past these new yarn bases have included limited edition ("special reserve") bases, "Oops" colorways of Chroma, new bare yarn bases, and more. I always have my fingers crossed for new bare yarn bases.

Some of the Big Sale deals span multiple days, and others are only avilable for a day or two. Of course, I write this assuming that this year's Big Sale will be similar to 2022, which I cannot say for sure. KnitPicks and WeCrochet carry a lot of similar items, and usually individual products that are on both websites are marked down the same amount. However, there are often different coupon codes and order minimums between the two sites which is why I will be sharing both here.

Active Deals at KnitPicks and WeCrochet

The Big Sale has a combination of discounts that last the entire sale, weekly specials, and deals that are only valid for 1-2 days. In years past I would keep a running list of all of the active deals and discounts, which gets long and harder to look through. In 2023, I will post the current active deals here, and then archive them down at the end of this blog post once there are new specials. There are often similar deals at both KnitPicks and WeCrochet, but some of the details (such as minimum orders for free shipping) can be slightly different. Some of my favorite freebies from the past enclude enamel pins and project bags.

Please note that most coupon codes are limited to one use per customer, so you can only get one freebie. (However, you can make purchases at both KnitPicks and WeCrochet!) Make sure you see the store websites for full terms and conditions.

KnitPicks Active Deals

Daily Deal: The KnitPicks Big Sale is over for 2023, but there are Black Friay deals! See the archive below.

Weekly Deal: Free Snap Bag with KnitPicks $100+ Purchase using the code "KPSNAP23" 11/20/2023 - 11/26/2023 or while supplies last. I haven't touched this bag yet, but I did order one that hopefully will arrive before this promo is over so I can tell you all about it.

Always Deal: Free Shipping on KnitPicks orders over $65. (No coupon code required. This stacks with the above offers.)

WeCrochet Active Deals

Daily Deal: The WeCrochet Big Sale is over for 2023, but there are Black Friay deals! See the archive below.

Weekly Deal: Free Snap Bag with WeCrochet $75+ Purchase using the code "FREESNAP23". Offer valid 11/20/2023- 11/26/2023 and while supplies last. I have a sample of the KnitPicks snap bag on the way, but it looks like a mesh bag which will allow you to separate different yarns for colorwork, I'm super excited to see what it's like!

Always Deal: Free Shipping on WeCrochet orders over $45. (No coupon code required. This stacks with the above offers.)

What is coming next?

In my Big Sale shopping livestream on 11/8, I did a small unboxing of an order and found an awesome surprise - a calendar for the KnitPicks Big Sale! This shows all of the weekly deals that will be coming up, what days we can expect to find daily deals, and confirmation of a 25% off sitewide sale for Black Friday 11/23-11/24 and a 20% off sitewide cyber monday sale 11/25-11/27. WeCrochet weekly deals may be different.

So what is coming up? After the free project bags there will be free travel sets, then a snap bag, then a chart keeper all with a minimum of $100 KnitPicks purchase. I'm happy to be able to plan.

Build Your Own Yarn Pack

At both KnitPicks & WeCrochet, you can use the coupon code "MYYARNPACK" for 10% off 10 or more skeins of a single yarn line. In 2022 the equivalent coupon code stacked with Big Sale mark downs, so it is worth trying out again. Remember that you can only use one coupon code per purchase. Most coupon codes are limited to one use per customer, but I think this build your own yarn pack coupon can be used on multiple orders.

My Yarn Pack details from the KnitPicks Website. Use the code "MYYARNPACK" to save 10% off 10 or more skeins of the same yarn base through 12/31/2023.

My Yarn Pack Details from the WeCrochet Website. Use the code "MYYARNPACK" to save 10% off 10 or more skeins of the same yarn base through 12/31/2023.

KnitPicks Black Friday Coupons? My Big Sale Shopping Strategy

The KnitPicks Big Sale typically ends before Thanksgiving (11/23/2023). This year the big sale ends 11/21/2023. Historically there is a discount coupon on Black Friday, and then a smaller coupon off of your entire purchase for the rest of cyeber weekend. In 2021 and 2022, KnitPicks had a 25% off coupon for Black Friday and then 20% off coupon for the rest of cyber weekend. We cannot guarantee that these discounts will be available in 2023, but I base my Big Sale shopping strategy around the potential of site wide coupons towards the end of the year. EDITED 11/9/23 - I found a postcard in a recent order that confirmed the discounts will happen for 2023! See above in this post.

Save 25% off KnitPicks and WeCrochet sitewide with the code "THANKS25" 11/23/23- 11/24/23 for Black Friday! (affiliate links) See websites for full details.

Should I order then yarn I want now or wait for Black Friday?

I typically will purchase yarn that is 30%+ off during the Big Sale and then wait in case there is a coupon code later for full price items or items that are 20% off or less - if it is something I want to buy in bulk. If you have yarn you need for a specific project, go ahead and buy it now! I buy hundreds of skeins of yarn a year for the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube Channel where I film yarn dyeing videos so I am always looking to maximize the savings I get on bare yarn.

On the Retail KnitPicks website, you can save 15% off bare yarn if you buy a 20 pack. (The available 20 packs are now on each individual bare yarn listing page versus all being in one place.) If you have a 20% off coupon and use that on your bulk bare yarn purchase, you have a 28% savings from the retail price. If you have a 25% off coupon and stack that on the 20 pack 15% discount, you save ~36% off of retail price. This is why I will typically purchase the yarn I want that is marked down at 30% off or more for the Big Sale.

Note: Bare yarn is available at WeCrochet again, there was a period of time when it was no longer listed here. Unfortunately I have not found any options for a bulk 20 pack of bare yarn on the WeCrochet website, so I recommend ordering your bulk bare yarn through the KnitPicks retail (or KnitPicks Wholesale website.)

Should I purchase everything in one order?

This is your call, but I typically place multiple orders during the Big Sale at both KnitPicks and WeCrochet, depending on the special deal. (I have a collection of project bags, pouches, and enamel pins from past Big Sales. I adore them!) The KnitPicks Big Sale comes with a lot of discounted products, but then there are also coupon codes in the daily and weekly deals. You can only use one coupon code per purchase. I tend to make a list of what I want to purchase at the beginning of the big sale and then place multiple orders while I wait for a good freebie or even the coupon that historically comes on Black Friday.

My goal is to hit the free shipping minimum with every purchase. I order a LOT of yarn, and tend to stock up on the materials for my videos during the Big Sale. At WeCrochet you get free shipping on orders of $45+ in the US, and at KnitPicks you get free shipping on orders of $65+. There are minimums for free shipping to Canada, the UK, and Australia, but those minimums are higher. This strategy may not be for everyone - as I mentioned I order hundreds of skeins of bare yarn a year so I am always looking for good deals.

My first order (left) so I could get a free project bag.

Other items I want (right) that I plan to order later.

New Yarn Bases!

In the middle of the 2023 Big Sale KnitPicks released some NEW yarn bases! I almost missed this. These don't appear to be limited edition or "special reserve."

I plan to pick a few of these new bases up in my next order. Caterpillar is 57% Cotton, 43% Merino Wool Sport weight. It has some stunning barber polling in some of the skeins. Impressionist is 80% Merino / 20% Nylon, also sport weight. I'm not entirely sure why these are sold in 25 g balls of yarn, this makes me raise my eyebrows as full price is $11.99 / 25 g. I'm a little disappointed because it looks so soft and fluffy.

Y2K Is a new bulky yarn line that is 93% Superfine Alpaca / 7% Nylon and the names of the colorways made me giggle. I think that I first discovered these yarn bases in a livestream on Friday 11/17. Names include "Fetch" "Whassup" "Chillax" and "Lowrise Jeans" and this Oregon Trail Generation / Elder Millenial is dyeing to see what this feels like. It looks like there is a chain construction, which feels perfect for bringing up memories of making icords in my childhood.

Finally, there is Felicini, the sibling of the popular self striping line Felici. I tihnk Felicini (also 75% Superwash Merino / 25% nylon) has smaller stripes and it also comes in a 100 g ball of yarn so you don't need to get multiple for a full pair of socks.

The most important thing is that Future Rebecca needs to remember that new yarn lines can drop in the middle of a sale and surprise us all. Fingers crossed that in 2024 there will be some new bare yarn lines.

The Best Bare Yarn Deals for 2023

In my opinion the best discounts on bare yarn in the 2023 KnitPicks Big Sale include:

Coming Soon - screenshots of my personal shopping cart!
50% Off Bare Yarns

Bare Hawthorne - This is one of the yarn bases that I have dyed the most of. This sock yarn is 80% Superwash Fine Highland Wool / 20% Polyamide. It is 2-ply and dyes up like a dream.
Bare Capretta Superwash - This fingering weight superwash MCN yarn (80% Fine Superwash Merino Wool, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon) is a favorite of mine. This is a SUPER good price for the yarn base!
Bare Andean Treasure - This DK weight yarn is 100% baby alpaca and is incredibly soft. I have plans to make myself a whole hat, glove, and cowl set out of this base if I can ever get around to it.
Bare High Desert Worsted - I'm not sure if I've dyed this 100% American Grown Wool non-superwash yarn yet, but I have always wanted to.
Bare Luminance - 100% Silk Lace Weight yarn. This yarn is a delight to dye, but since it is expensive usually ($25.99 / 100 g full price) it is hard to experiment with. I will be picking some up for sure.
Bare Stroll Sock Blanks - Stroll is the yarn base I have purchased more of than any other base ever. It is 75% Superwash Merino Wool / 25% Nylon. These sock blanks are double stranded and stand up to dyeing really well without unraveling. I love that these are $10 each right now!
Bare Hawthrone Sock Blanks - These double stranded sock blanks are knit with the same Hawthorne I mentioned above. For $10 each, this is a great deal!
Bare Gloss Roving - 70% Merino Wool / 30% Silk Roving. I actually have some of this presoaking in my kitchen right now as I'm getting ready to film a new epsiode of Dyepot Weekly focused on this delicious blend.
Bare Stroll Roving - 75% Superwash Merino Wool / 25% Nylon roving. There is now Swish Roving (which doesn't look like it is on sale) as a 100% SW Merino option, but before that the stroll roving was the only superwash option KnitPicks offered.

40% Off Bare Yarns

Bare Swish Bulky - 100% Superwash Merino wool, this is a bulky version of one of my favorite DK weight yarn bases.
Bare Paragon - Always a favorite luxe yarn. This sport weight base is 50% Finer Merino / 25% Baby Alpaca / 25% Mulberry Silk.
Bare Reverie - 80% Baby Alpaca 20% Acrylic Brushed. I'm not sure if I've dyed this blend before myself... Why haven't I done it yet?
Bare Stroll Sport - 75% Superwash Merino Wool / 25% Nylon. I don't dye sport weight yarn very often at all, but I do have some of this on hand for requests. The fingering weight version of stroll is the yarn I dye more than any other yarn.
Bare Lindy Chain - this is a fun blend for yarn folk who love working wtih plant fibers. This is a chain plied 70% Linen 30% Pima Cotton fingering weight yarn.
Simply Alpaca in Alaina - 40% off This 100% Alpaca yarn isn't marketed as "Bare Yarn", but the whole line is spun out of natural Alpaca colors. It dyes up beautifully!
Bare Merino Style DK - a great option if you want a 100% merino non-superwash yarn.
Bare Capretta - 80% Fine Merino Wool / 10% Cashmere / 10% Nylon I tend to go for the superash version of this yarn (which is 50% off for the big sale), but the non-superwash is also a dream to work with.
Bare Wool of the Andes Superwash Worsted & Bulky - I consider Wool of the Andes to be my workhorse yarn. It is inexpensive and wonderful for hats and other projects. The superash versions (100% Superwash Peruvian Highland wool) are great for if you want something washable.
Bare Hawthorne DK - 80% Superwash Fine Highland Wool / 20% Polyamide. It is 2-ply and dyes up beautifully.

30% Off Bare Yarns

Super Bulky Soft - Super bulky 70% Superwash Wool, 30% Superfine Alpaca. I adore this yarn, I have dyed and knit myself two hats with this yarn base. It is super warm and holds up well during wet snowy weather.
Bare Twill - this is a heavy worsted weight bounch 100% Superwash Merino wool yarn. There are only 149 yards / 100 g, but this was plenty to make my 10 year old a stunning hat (that also fits me.) This yarn is so bouncy and is fantastic for glazing.
Bare Wool of the Andes Roving - this 100% Peruvian Highland Wool Roving is very forgiving and great for your first journey into dyeing roving. I enjoy spinning and dyeing this a lot.
Bare Cotton Boucle - 100% Tanguis Cotton. This 2 ply yarn has one thick ply and one thin ply, giving a very subtle boucle effect. I love how this yarn takes up color and I dye it up a lot myself.
Bare Woolen Cotton - 50% Merino Wool / 50% Pima Cotton
Bare Simply Cotton Organic Fingering

There are some deeply discounted yarn bases that I have left off of this list (I'm looking at you Muse Sock), and mainly because they're not bases I am considering purchasing myself this big sale. I've tried to limit this list to my favorites. Any yarn I listed above that isn't in my shopping cart right now would be because I already have a lot of it in my stash!

I also left any of the discounted mini samples from the list. KnitPicks offers 10 g miniskein samples of some popular bare yarn bases for $1.50 each (full price.) These are samples versus bulk packages of miniskeins. They are great to purchase if you want to test out a yarn base without committing to a full hank, but they are not an option for buying the yarn in bulk. If you want to find the samples available, sort the bare yarn page by price low to high.

I am anticipating that the individual discounts overlap between the KnitPicks & WeCrochet Big Sales, but I'll update if I notice any differences.

If you want to easily find the best bare yarn deals - I recommend clicking on the 50-60% off category on the big sale page, and then sorting items in alphabetical order. Most bare yarn at KnitPicks starts with "Bare" at the beginning - so this is a great way to see the biggest discounted skeins all in one place. (There are a few yarn bases that do not have Bare at the start of the title, but you can usually find those on the Bare Yarn page.)

If you are interested in dyeing your own yarn, you don't have to limit your deal hunting to bare yarn bases. You can overdye almost anything, as long as the base color isn't too saturated. I have a whole playlist on YouTube dedicated to overdyeing yarn. Typically I would recommend pastel colors for overdyeing, especially if you plan to dye yarn with food coloring.

Big Sale Shopping Strategy Livestream

2023 Big Sale Unboxing!

Streamed 11/20/2023 at 1:30 PM Eastern Time on YouTube

2023 Weekly Deals - Archive

This archive is in reverse chronological order, with the most recent daily deals first. Check the dates to see if the newest deals are still active.

Free Snap Bag with WeCrochet $75+ Purchase using the code "FREESNAP23". Offer valid 11/20/2023- 11/26/2023 and while supplies last. I have a sample of the KnitPicks snap bag on the way, but it looks like a mesh bag which will allow you to separate different yarns for colorwork, I'm super excited to see what it's like!
Free Snap Bag with KnitPicks $100+ Purchase using the code "KPSNAP23" 11/20/2023 - 11/26/2023 or while supplies last. I haven't touched this bag yet, but I did order one that hopefully will arrive before this promo is over so I can tell you all about it.
Free Travel Set with $75+ WeCrochet Purchase with code "FREETOOLS23" 11/13/2023 - 11/19/2023. Limit one per customer while supplies last. This set includes a zipper pouch, a tape measure, foldable scissors, a sticky note pad, and locking stitch markers. I don't have this exact travel set myself, but I do have some of these zipper pouches and really like them. This freebie was still in stock 11/14. As of 11/17 I cannot find this on the website anymore, so I think it sold out.
Free Travel Set with $100+ KnitPicks Purchase with code "KPTRAVEL23" 11/13/2023 - 11/19/2023. This is different (but similar) to the free travel set I got in 2022. It comes with a zippered pouch (I have some of these pouches and they're really nice) filled with an emergency fix keychain crochet hooks), row counter, wire yarn stranding guide, split ring stitch markers, and a tape measure. As of 11/14 this may be sold out, I got a "code sold out" or similar error when I checked out. As of 11/17 this has been removed from the website and replaced with the free calendar code from below.
Free Project Bag with $55 WeCrochet Purchase 11/6 - 11/12/23 with code "FREEBAG23". Limit one per customer. See the WeCrochet website for full terms and conditions.
Free Project Bag with $75 KnitPicks Purchase 11/6 - 11/12/23 with code "KPBAG23". Limit one per customer. See the KnitPicks website for full terms and conditions
Free Calendar with $55 WeCrochet Purchase using code "FREECAL23" 10/30- 11/5/2023. Technically this deal took place right before the Big Sale started, but I wanted to include it because it is a promo that was included during the Big Sale in the past. Plus it shows that deals and special offers started before the official launch of the sale yarn.
Free Calendar with $75+ KnitPicks Purchase with code "KPCAL23". 10/30-11/5/2023. Technically this deal took place right before the Big Sale started, but I wanted to include it here so I will remember that deals started before the official 2023 Big Sale launch in 2024.

2023 Daily Deals - Archive

This archive is in reverse chronological order, with the most recent daily deals first. Check the dates to see if the newest deals are still active.

$29.99 WeCrochet Dot Hooks & Caddy Set (See Below). 11/20/2023 - 11/21/2023 (The Last Day of the Big Sale!) I have a set of bright hooks from WeCrochet that have a soft rubber handle that feels like it would be very comfortable. I'm assuming that these ones might have a similar feel, but I haven't tried them personally.
$5 KnitPicks Exclusive Ebooks 11/20/23 - 11/21/23
$12 Ball Winders and $40 Swift/Winder Sets at WeCrochet. 11/18/23 - 11/19/23
25% Off KnitPicks Interchangable Needle Sets 11/18/2023 - 11/19/2023. I love the wooden interchangable needles, I almost exclusively knit all of my projects with these sets. I love the ergonomics of the foursquare line, but all of the wooden ones are my favorites.
40% off WeCrochet Totes & Cases 11/16/23 - 11/17/23. I own a lot of these bags. The Everyday tote bags are a favorite of mine - the fabric on the inside has a crochet hook pattern. I also own a swift case, a hook case, some of the zippered pouches, and some canvas tote bags, too. Many of these were freebies in previous big sales, but others I purchased myself. 40% off is a great price!
$1.99 Exclusive KnitPicks Patterns 11/16/2023 - 11/17/2023
Additional 10% off WeCrochet value Packs 11/15/23
$5 Exclusive KnitPicks Books 11/15/2023

$2/$4/$6 WeCrochet Yarn Sale! 11/14/2023 Only. The crochet.com sale likely includes many of the same discounted items as the KnitPicks sale, but I will do my best to confirm. Don't forget that WeCrochet has a lower minimum for free shipping. There is a limit of $5/item/customer/website. In terms of bare yarn, Swish Roving was marked down to $4 on both KnitPicks and WeCrochet, but bare imagination was only available at KnitPicks.
$2/$4/$6 KnitPicks Yarn Sale! 11/14/2023 Only. This is a favorite deal, even if the categories are all $1 more expensive than last year's 1/3/5 sale! Update - there is a max of 5 per item per person. Make sure you check it out early because a lot of the steapest discounted yarns will go quickly. In recenty years they started limiting the number of discounted skeins each customer could order. I remember back in 2015 I successfully ordered discounted roving and then there wasn't the inventory to fulfill my order so that item was canceled and I was disappointed.
20% off Pattern Folios, 50% off WeCrochet Exclusive Print Books 11/11/23 - 11/12/23
KnitPicks - $12 Ball Winders and $40 Swift/Winder Sets. 11/11/2023 - 11/12/2023/ I use the KnitPicks ball winders and swifts. I got a new swift in one of the previous years, but I still haven't replaced my old one that I keep repairing with simple fixes.
30% off all WeCrochet Hooks 11/9/23 - 11/10/23. Prices are as marked, no coupon codes required.
30% off all KnitPicks needles & hooks excluding interchangable sets. 11/9/2023 - 11/10/2023. I have a lot of KnitPicks wooden needles and really like them. I adore the interchangable needles (it looks like individual interchangable tips are on sale, just not the bundle sets.)

Want to see how this Big Sale compares to previous years?

2023 ChemKnits Chanukah Yarn Sampler Preorders - Almost Ready to Ship!

2023-10-30T07:54:00.003-04:00

Preorders for the 2023 ChemKnits Chanukah Samplers are still available and shipping will start soon! All of the yarn is dyed and I am currently wrapping and labeling miniskeins to pack up the samplers. Shipping should start the week of November 7, 2023. (Sampler shipping will happen in waves throughout the week, so don't worry if you don't receive a tracking number right away.)

Each night of Chanukah 2023, unwrap a 10 g miniskein of yarn and watch how the yarn was dyed in a new ChemKnits Tutorials dyeing video! New dyeing videos will be released every night of Chanukah on YouTube after sunset at 8:30 PM EST starting December 7, 2023. Choose between Fingering Weight or DK Weight Samplers for 8 Nights (100 g total) that will include 10 - 10 g miniskeins to open over the 8 nights. Samplers will ship in November 2023.

You don't need to be Jewish to celebrate Chanukah with me. Treat yourself to a delightfully wrapped miniskein sampler complete with a Chanukah card signed by Rebecca from ChemKnits. This unboxing will be an experience! All Samplers include 8-10 wrapped miniskeins (100 g total), some fun extras, and a hand signed card from Rebecca.

Some of the bonus full skein add-on options are currently sold out, but you can still preorder a Bonus Silk Sock colorway to your Chanukah Sampler. I will restock the Yarn Mops (DK, Sock, and Worsted Weight) and the DK Silk Sparkle Non-Superwash bonus colorway after I have shipped all of the outstanding preorders. All bonus skeins will be wrapped and labeled with the date they are featured in a YouTube video and come with a bonus progress keeper.

The 2022 ChemKnits Chanukah Sampler. Last year's samplers include 8 - 10 g minis and 1 - 20 g mini skein. The packaging and bonuses for the 2023 Sampler will be different.

There are more FAQ's on the 2023 ChemKnits Chanukah Yarn Sampler listing in the ChemKnits Creations Etsy Shop. Please check out the whole listing, or reach out to me via Etsy Messages if you have any questions about this year's series.

I will be in the live chat for the premiere during multiple of the episodes. It is so much fun to hang out and react to the videos while answering questions and chatting with you! Once we get closer to the start of Chanukah (December 7, 2023 is the first night this year), I will make a post here with the approximate run time of the episodes and any nights I will not personally be in the live chat.

Watch the livestream announcement of the 2023 Chanukah Sampler Preorders below:

2023 Spring Mini Skein Mini Series

2023-06-05T15:24:00.000-04:00

Tonight is the first night of the 2023 Spring Mini Skein Mini Series! Join me at 8:30 PM Eastern Time every night this week on the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube channel for the live premieres. I cannot wait to hang out with you in the chat room!

How long are the videos? When premieres are scheduled you can't see the video length. I like to share these times so you know if the premeire (and therefore live chat room) will still be going on if you join late. Typically the countdown is 2 minutes long, so the video itself will begin ~8:32 PM.

Night 1 (6/5/2023) - 33 minutes
Night 2 (6/6/2023) - 40 minutes
Night 3 (6/7/2023) - 45 minutes
Night 4 (6/8/2023) - 45 minutes
Night 5 (6/9/2023) - 50 minutes
Bonus Full Size Skeins (Night 6; 6/10/2023) - TBD, likely around 45-50 minutes
Vlog (6/11/2023) - TBD, These can be on the longer side

What is a YouTube Premiere?

The first viewing of the video will air like a regular TV program that starts at a certain time. There will be a countdown clock at 8:30 (Thanks, YouTube!) and then the video will start playing. If you join at 8:45, the video will be in the middle, but you can rewind it to start from the beginning. After the premiere is over, the

The best part of premieres is the live chat room. I try to be in the chat during the premiers to react, answer questions, and occasionally face palm when I notice something I missed during editing.

SMSMS Yarn

Check out the ChemKnits Creations Etsy Shop to grab more Spring Mini Skein Mini Series yarn. I just updated the main SMSMS listing so you can pick the night of your mini skein set. If you first select a yarn base you can see what nights are available, or if you select a night you can then see the yarn bases that are available.

Swatching Acid Dye Powders on Yarn, Part 2

2023-01-06T08:30:00.004-05:00

I love to dye yarn with dry acid dye powder. I love the subtle or vibrant speckles, and the soft control I can get without dissolving the dyes first. There is one small issue, it is hard to know looking at a dye color name or swatch online to see how it will speckle. Therefore, I dye crude swatches with acid dyes! I like to take a little bit of the dye powder and put it on wet yarn to compare to other colors. This way I know when I pick colors for speckles I am picking colors that will look different from one another.

This post is part 2 from a post I wrote almost two years ago sharing photos of crude acid dye swatches on yarn through April 2021. This post is going to be very similar - I will have the swatch images plus a caption with the acid dye brands and names below so you can search this post to find the colors you're interested in comparing. I have also linked the videos where I made the swatches so you can see how the dyes perform in a YouTube video.

Are there any other colors you would like me to swatch? I'm already planning on doing more in 2023!

Swatching all of my purple acid dyes across multiple brands. Key: PC - PRO chemical and dye, D - Dharma acid dyes, J - Jacquard Acid Dyes, PF - Paradise Fibers acid dyes and GS - Greener Shades. Dharma Purple Pop, Dharma Plum Dandy, Dharma Eggplant, Dharma Amethyst, Greener Shades Amethyst Purple, Dharma Espresso Bean, Dharma Berry Crush, Dharma Antique Mauve, Dharma Twilight Gray. Dharma Intense Iris, Dharma Lilac, Jacquard Lilac, Dharma Electric Violet, Jacquard Violet, Jacquard Purple, Dharma Royal Purple, Dharma Deep Purple, Jacquard Periwinkle, Dharma Hyacinth, Dharma Delphinium Blue.

Swatching all of my pink acid dyes across multiple brands. Key: PC - PRO chemical and dye, D - Dharma acid dyes, J - Jacquard Acid Dyes, PF - Paradise Fibers acid dyes and GS - Greener Shades. Dharma Tangelo, Dharma Peach Blush, Jacquard Salmon, Dharma Pink Orchid, Jacquard Pink, Dharma Fluorescent Fuchsia, Jacquard Hot Fuchsia, Paradise Fibers Magenta, Dharma Deep Magenta. Dharma Valentine Blush, Dharma Ballerina Pink, Dharma Flamingo Pink, Dharma Plum Dandy, Dharma Berry Crush, Dharma Amethyst, Jacquard Chestnut, Dharma Antique Mauve, Jacquard Burgundy, Dharma Cabernet.

Swatching all of my Blue acid dyes across multiple brands. Key: PC - PRO chemical and dye, D - Dharma acid dyes, J - Jacquard Acid Dyes, PF - Paradise Fibers acid dyes and GS - Greener Shades. D. True Turquoise, PF Turquoise, Jacquard Turquoise, Dharma Caribbean Blue, Dharma Frozen, Pro Chem Sea Breeze. Greener Shades River Blue, ProChem Brilliant Blue, Jacquard Brilliant Blue, Jacquard Sapphire, Dharma Sapphire, Paradise Fibers Blue, Dharma Peacock Blue, Jacquard Sky Blue. Dharma Dkar Navy, Dharma Blued Steel, Jacquard Navy Blue, Jacquard Gun Metal. Paradise Fibers Green, Dharma Teal Green, Jacquard Teal, Greener Shades Coral Reef Aqua, Dharma Bright Aqua, Dharma Sea Spray. Jacquard Royal Blue, Dharma Extreme Blue, Dharma Indigo Blue, Dharma Alpine Blue, Dharma Baby Blue Eyes, ProChem Cornflower Blue, Dharma Electric Violet, Jacquard Violet, Dharma Delphinium Blue, ProChem Violet, Dharma Intense Iris, Dharma Twilight Gray, Jacquard Periwinkle.

Swatching all of my Blue acid dyes across multiple brands, class blue collection. Close up on Greener Shades River Blue, ProChem Brilliant Blue, Jacquard Brilliant Blue, Jacquard Sapphire, Dharma Sapphire, Paradise Fibers Blue, Dharma Peacock Blue, Jacquard Sky Blue.

Swatching all of my Blue acid dyes across multiple brands. Close up on bright blues. D. True Turquoise, PF Turquoise, Jacquard Turquoise, Dharma Caribbean Blue, Dharma Frozen, Pro Chem Sea Breeze.

First Look at ProChemical and Dye Pro Washfast Acid Dye Line - 340 Poppy Red, 367 Watermelon, 119 Sun Yellow, 490 Brilliant Blue, 845 Lilac, 818 Violet, 672 Jet Black, 502 Chocolate Brown, 412 Cornflower, 408 Sea Breeze, 228 Saffron, 826 Deep Orchid, 370 Rhodamine red

First Look at Paradise Fibers Acid Dyes in Brown, Gray, Black, Navy, Blue, Green, Turquoise, Soft Yellow, Yellow, Orange, Red, Magenta, and Violet.

First Look at Greener Shades Acid Dyes - Coral Reef Aqua, Amazon Green, Sunrise Yellow, Sunset Orange, Ruby Red, Flame Red, Midnight Black, Amethyst Purple, River Blue

Crude Swatches of 12 Red Acid dyes from Dharma and Jacquard: Dharma Acid Dyes - Cherry Bomb, Fire Engine Red, Poinsettia, Cayenne Red, Chinese Red, Oxblood Red. Jacquard Acid Dyes - Fire Red, Crimson, Cherry Red, Russet, Scarlet, Vermillion.

1% Depth of Shade of Reds in Dharma and Jacquard Acid Dyes - In Solution. Dharma Acid Dyes - Cherry Bomb, Fire Engine Red, Poinsettia, Cayenne Red, Chinese Red, Oxblood Red. Jacquard Acid Dyes - Fire Red, Crimson, Cherry Red, Russet, Scarlet, Vermillion.

1% Depth of Shade of Reds in Dharma and Jacquard Acid Dyes on finished dry yarn. Dharma Acid Dyes - Cherry Bomb, Fire Engine Red, Poinsettia, Cayenne Red, Chinese Red, Oxblood Red. Jacquard Acid Dyes - Fire Red, Crimson, Cherry Red, Russet, Scarlet, Vermillion.

ChemKnits Dye Along, October 2022. Dharma acid dyes in Dark Navy, Amethyst, Plum Dandy, Cabernet, Teal Green, Emerald, Forest Green, Muck Green, Electric Violet, Royal Purple, Intense Iris, Exterme Blue, Midnight Blue

Does Heat influence the swatching? Dyepot PS #51 (Short answer is Yes! for some colors) Dharma acid dyes in Sage Leaf, Sea Spray, Hyacinth, Dark Navy, Twilight Gray. ProChem Lilac, Violet.

July 2022 #ChemKnitsDyeAlong: Dharma acid dyes in Teddy Bear Brown, Pecan Brown, chocolate brown, and spearmint breeze.

2022 Chanukah Night 6 - Dharma acid dyes in Duckling, Bright Aqua, Sea Spray, Deep Purple, Pink Orchid

2022 Chanukah Bonus Night 9 - Dharma Acid Dyes in Pink (pink orchid?), hyacinth, electric violet, indigo, eggplant, deep magenta, berry crush, frozen, and spearmint breeze.

Dyepot Weekly #324 - Liquid dye stocks from Dharma acid dyes in Dark Navy, Indigo, Sapphire Blue, Baby Blue Eyes, Sea Spray, Radioactive, and Flamingo Pink.

Chanukah 2021 Night 4 - Sunset Colors Dharma acid dyes swatches in Fire Engine red, blazing orange, peach blush, honey mustard, brilliant yellow, sunflower yellow, golden poppy, tangelo, cherry bomb, flamingo pink, pink orchid.

July 2021 #ChemKnitsDyeAlong livestream - Watermelon yarn! Dharma acid dyes in poinsettia, Chinese red, cayenne red, oxblood red, cherry bomb, fire red, amethyst, fluorescent fuschia, flamingo pink, pink orchid, peach blush, chartreuse, sour apple, radioactive, emerald green, kelly green, forest green.

Mixing all 40 Jacquard Acid Dyes together, what color is the muk liquid? The muk color came from a combination of all 40 jacquard acid dye powders. The swatches are all powders unless otherwise noted. Jacquard acid dyes in - Chestnut, Brown, Burgundy. Dharma acid dyes in Cabernet, espresso bean, antique mauve, auburgine, teddy bear brown, twilight gray, pecan brown.

May 2021 #ChemKnitsDyeAlong Blue Jays! Dharma acid dyes in Sea Spray, Frozen, Caribbean blue, baby blue eyes, alpine blue, sapphire blue, twilight gray, platinum gray, true black, teddy bear brown, pecan brown, sand dune.

March 2021 #ChemKnitsDyeAlong. Dharma acid dyes in Sour Apple, Chartreuse, Lichen, moss Green, honey mustard, teddy bear brown, true black, and silver gray.

In this photo you can see the swatches fromt eh dharma swatch card along with the colors of the dyes. note how some of the colors look much closer with dry dye powder than they do on the containers. (Note: I cut up a poster and taped the swatches to the tops of the containers, they don't come this way.

2021 Summer Mini Skein Mini Series Night 1 - Dharma acid dyes in Avocado, Golden Poppy, Brilliant Yellow, Pecan Brown, Golden Straw, Sunflower Yellow, Honey Mustard, Sour Apple, Emerald Green.

Swatching My Green Acid Dyes (Video coming February 2023) - Dharma Forest Green, Jacquard Spruce, D. Emerald, J. Emerald, PF Green, D. Kelly Green, J. Kelly Green, G.S. Amazon Green, D. Chartreuse, J. Chartreuse, D. Radioactive, D.Lichen, D. Sour Apple, J. Olive, D. Olive Brown, D. Tobacco Leaf. D. Moss Green, D. Avocado, D Sage Leaf, D. Pistachio, D. Spearmint Breeze, D. Sea Spray, PC Seabreeze, D Bright Aqua, J teal, D Teal green, J. Spruce, D Muck Green, and ??? TBD - Jacqaurd Alligator Green

Swatching My Green Acid Dyes (Video coming February 2023) - D. Moss Green, D. Avocado, D Sage Leaf, D. Pistachio, D. Spearmint Breeze, D. Sea Spray, PC Seabreeze, D Bright Aqua, J teal, D Teal green, J. Spruce, D Muck Green, and ??? TBD - Jacqaurd Alligator Green

Swatching My Orange and Yellow Acid Dyes (Video coming August 2023) - D. Champagne, D. Vanilla, J. Ecru, D. Ivory, D. Golden Poppy, J. Aztec Gold, P.C. Saffron, D. Honey Mustard, J. Golden Ochre, J. Golden Yellow, P.F. Soft Yellow, D. Sunflower Yellow, D. Duckling, P.F. Yellow, J. Bright Yellow, D. Brilliant Yellow, P.C. Sun Yellow, J. Sun Yellow, G.S. Sunshine Yellow, J. Fluorescent Yellow, D. Fluorescent Lemon

Swatching My Orange and Yellow Acid Dyes (Video coming August 2023) - D. Golden Straw, D. Fawn, D. Tobacco Leaf, J. Salmon, D. Peach Blush, D. Tangelo, D. Persimmon, J. Deep Orange, J. Burnt Orange, D. Saffron Spice, J. Fluorescent Orange, D. Fluorescent Safety Orange, P.F. Orange, D. Blazing Orange, J. Pumpkin Orange, G.S. Sunset Orange. D. Champagne, D. Vanilla, J. Ecru, D. Ivory, D. Golden Poppy, J. Aztec Gold, P.C. Saffron, D. Honey Mustard, J. Golden Ochre, J. Golden Yellow, P.F. Soft Yellow, D. Sunflower Yellow, D. Duckling, P.F. Yellow, J. Bright Yellow, D. Brilliant Yellow, P.C. Sun Yellow, J. Sun Yellow, G.S. Sunshine Yellow, J. Fluorescent Yellow, D. Fluorescent Lemon

Swatching My Orange and Yellow Acid Dyes (Video coming August 2023) - Dharma Fluorsecent Safety Orange, Jacquard Fluorescent Orange.

Swatching My Orange and Yellow Acid Dyes (Video coming August 2023) - J. Ecru, D. Vanilla Cream, D. Champagne, D. Ivory.

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Don't forget that the color intensity of a given brand and color can vary based on the amount of dye I added onto the swatch. So a color like Teddy Bear Brown may look different in different images. But pay attention to the hue and temperature of the colors as they compare to the others on the swatch.

Want to see all of the swatches in one video? Check them out here:

This post includes crude swatches I've done from May 2021 - December 2022. See The following post for crude acid dye swatches done prior to April 2021.

Where to Buy Bare Yarns (Undyed Yarns) in 2023

2023-01-04T10:42:00.004-05:00

It is no secret that I love to dye yarn. While you can technically dye any yarn that is light enough to accept more color, sometimes you want a blank canvas so you have the most control over the final colorway. Where do you buy your bare yarns to dye?

In this post, I will list many online retailers of bare or undyed yarn as of January 2023. I will note in the descriptions which companies I've purchased from, received free product from, or am waiting to try out. The companies below vary from large yarn brands with dozens of different undyed yarn bases to smaller companies that maybe only have one or two options.

I have two older blog posts on this topic. The most recent post from 2018 on Where to Buy Bare Yarns is now out of date (as is the even older post from 2010!)

This post contains affiliate links which means that I earn a commission from sales made through these links. I will note my affiliation with the company in their bullet.

KnitPicks (Affiliate Link) - KnitPicks is the first company I purchased bare yarn from, and I feature this yarn frequently in yarn dyeing tutorials on the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube Channel. You can purchase individual skeins of bare or natural undyed yarn through the retail site with a free shipping minimum of $65 USD. I love KnitPicks because you can also purchase solids of many of the same yarn lines to work with your hand dyed yarn. There are no longer bulk 20 packs of bare yarn on the retail website (see below for wholesale options), but you can save 10% off 10 skeins of many bare yarn lines with the code "MYYARNPACK" through 12/31/22. (See the KnitPicks website for full terms with the coupon. This doesn't work on every bare yarn base, but appears to work on multiple.) Full Disclosure, I became a KnitPicks Affiliate in October 2017, but I have been using these yarns for YEARS before I started officially promoting them.)
KnitPicks Wholesale (Affiliate Link) - KnitPicks now offers wholesale options where you can save 20-40% off the retail pricing. I'm making this its own category because the wholesale portal is a separate section of the website. The wholesale pricing is 20% off packs of 20 skein and 30% off 50 packs. Select yarn bases (some of the most popular ones) are available for 40% off packs of 100. KnitPicks coupons don't work through the wholesale portal, but it is awesome to be able to purchase my favorite bases at a discount that is better than it used to be through the retail website. Free shipping is available on orders over $400. Full Disclosure, I became a KnitPicks Affiliate in October 2017.)
Wool2Dye4 - Wool2Dye4 offers so many incredible yarn bases at fair prices. I think they have more variety in undyed yarn bases than any other brand listed on this page. Their customer service is incredible and their boxes are always shipped in a very sturdy way. Wool2Dye4 has wholesale discounts for registered businesses on orders of 5 kg or more, however their retail pricing is very fair. I love that they offer cones of bare yarn, skeins outside of the standard 100 g (10 g, 20 g, 50 g, and even bigger than 100 g in some cases) and also super long skeins that are perfect for self striping yarn. Chester Wool Co is the related brand that has warehouses in the UK and the Netherlands.
Paradise Fibers (Affiliate Link) - Paradise Fibers is a great source for undyed spinning fiber and undyed yarn. I've dyed a lot of their rovings and combed tops on YouTube. In 2021 Paradise Fibers released their own brand of acid dyes, and the dyes are super pigmented. When you are exploring the website, you can select "undyed" under search refinement to help you find what you're looking for. Their customer service is excellent and responsive. (Note, I became a Paradise Fibers Affiliate in June 2018 and they have sent me free products to review on multiple occasions. I also unbox their Fiber of the Month club subscription every month on YouTube.)
Knomad Yarn - Knomad offers a lot of staple bare yarn bases (100% superwash merino and Merino/Nylon blends) but they also have some unique bases that I love. Knomad sent me samples to dye in 2022 and I'm excited to try out some of their newer select yarn lines that have even softer merino wool. If you are a registered business you can set up a wholesale account for more discounts on Knomad Yarn.
Dharma Trading - I've never used any of Dharma's dyeable yarns, but they have multiple natural and synthetic bare yarn options. I know other dyers who have used Dharma's bare yarn and have been happy with the results. Dharma's acid dyes are some of my favorite dyes to use to dye yarn, and it is nice that you can also get undyed yarn at the same time. Dharma also has a wide variety of dyeable rovings that include cellulose and synthetic fibers. I've never dyed 100% cellulose spinning fiber, and I'm excited to give it a try.
Yarn Undyed / bareyarns.com - Bareyarns.Com is the website for US based shoppers, but they also have websites for UK and EU shoppers. There is a HUGE assortment of bare yarn options. I have never ordered any yarn from Yarn Undyed, but I know other dyers who order from here regularly. They offer free airfreight shipping on orders over $100 in case you are worried about expensive international shipping.
Ashland Bay - The website is available for wholesale accounts, but you may find Ashland Bay bare yarn through other online retailers. I haven't personally tried any of their bare yarns, but I know that they are popular with other indie dyers. They even provide sock blanks! Unfortunately, you can't set up a retail account with them. In order to set up a wholesale account, you have to commit to spending $750/year and send them a copy of your business license within the fiber/textile industry. I no longer can find the list of online/in person retailers of Ashland Bay Yarn through their website as of January 2023, but three online suppliers (who are also on this list) who offered Ashland Bay Yarn or Spinner Fiber in the past are WEBS, Paradise Fibers, and Fiber to Yarn.
WEBS America's Yarn Store - The local yarn store on the web that has the domain yarn.com, has a limited selection of natural undyed yarns. (Search their site for "undyed" for the results to come up.) They do, however, offer a wide selection of undyed spinning fiber as roving and top. I have ordered dyed yarn from WEBS plus a lot of spinning fiber in the past, although I'm not sure if I've dyed any of it on YouTube yet. I don't live that far from the WEBS warehouse but have never made a visit there, I hope to someday!
Woolery - I consider Woolery to be more of a spinning resrouce than a bare yarn resource, but they do have a few bare yarn options. However, they have a huge selection of bare and undyed roving. I have made multiple purchases from Woolery in the past including some dye-lishus treated cotton yarn that you can dye with acid dyes. They even have a whole dyeing section that includes seeds for setting up your own dye garden!
ACME Fibers - This Canadian company offer a variety of weights and fiber bases. All of the prices are listed in Canadian dollar. I'm not sure what international shipping would cost to the US - the recommend adding items to your cart to see what the estimate would be before checking out. There is free shipping on Canadian orders over $200 CAD. I haven't ordered from here personally, but I wanted to include a Canadian source for our friends to the North.
Elitespun - This is another Canada base company that offers a variety of yarn bases. I found a price list for the dyeable yarns on their site, but it doesn't look like they have pictures of the individual yarns. You will need to contact them directly for price lists, but it looks like they have options for you to order samples and set up a wholesale account.
Artigina is another Canadian retailer that sells dyes and single skeins of bare yarn recommended to me in the ChemKnits Lab Facebook Group. The have dozens of bare yarn bases plus sock blanks. They offer free shipping over $89 for most places in Canada. It doesn't look like the offer international shipping, but I'm happy to include more resources for Canadian indie dyers!
Indie Dyer Yarn - I was a bit confused by the title of this company at first because it sounds like it could be a market place for indie dyers to sell their yarn, but it is a bare and undyed yarn supplier! They offer a lot of staple bare yarn bases and some really unique ones. There are wholesale options available but as of January 2023 I couldn't determine the terms.
Maritime Family Fiber - Bare yarn from a small family farm and a small mill located in Maine. The offer wholesale pricing, bulk bare yarn, and even a sample kit you can get where you can see a 4 oz skein of a lot of the bases.
Fiber to Yarn - They have limited 4 oz skeins in stock, but they also sell some dyeing kits. It looks like this might be a good place to try out some single skeins of Ashland Bay yarns before committing to a bulk order.
Pacific Wool and Fiber - It looks like Pacific Wool and Fiber currently is only stocking bare unspun fibers, but they certainly have a lot of wheel and wheel accessory options. They carry a nice variety of wool breeds so you can have some choices for the fiber types you want to dye and spin.
Quince & Co - Quince & Co offers many beautiful commercially dyed yarns, but almost all of the lines also have an undyed option. There is no bulk pricing, skeins are sold individually. I always love when I can buy a pure solid to go with a skein of the same base I dye myself. They no longer have a category specifically for bare yarns, so you will need to look through the yarn bases to find what you're looking for. This is a great option for undyed yarn if you've ordered from them before - it is awesome to start dyeing a yarn base you already are familiar with.
Thirteen Mile Lamb & Wool Company - This small company offers a variety of natural wool yarn colors in addition to some plant dyed colors. With their natural colors, you can specify whether you would like sport, worsted, or bulky weight in the given natural undyed colorway. I'm not sure if there are other minimums, but this company also does have a wool mill for spinning yarn from fleece
Laxtons - A UK based yarn shop that offers a lot of bare and undyed yarn options. I'm not sure if they ship internationally or not.
Rooster Yarns - This is another UK based company with undyed and bare yarn. You need to become a wholesale customer to order through the website. I've heart others talk about this company but I have no personal experience with them.
Revolution Fibers - Undyed fiber and some yarn, too.
Mountain Meadow Wool - There are three yarn bases with a natural (and therefore undyed) option in each of them. This doesn't appear to be specifically a bare yarn company, but there are at least a few options.
Jagger Spun Yarn - You need a wholesale to buy the natural and undyed yarn directly from Jagger, but you can also find a list of retailers on their website where you can purchase from with retail pricing.
A Child's Dream - Child's Dream only has 3 different options for undyed yarn as of January 2023 and include single ply undyed wool or wool/mohair blends in worsted, bulky, and super bulky weights. The yarns appear to come the Brown Sheep Yarn Company in Nebraska.
Darn Good Yarn (Affiliate Link) - They offer a limited selection of dyeable yarns that vary from wool to silk sari ribbon. As of January 2023 there is only the sari ribbon yarn available. You can purchase the yarns in individual skeins. (Note, I became a Darn Good Yarn Affiliate Marketer in February 2018.)
Lion Brand Yarn (Affiliate Link) - While not really an seller of undyed yarns, I need to include Lion Brand on this list since the first ever yarns that I dyed were Lion Brand Wool Ease in the color Fisherman. This yarn is 80% acrylic, 20% wool but it still takes up food coloring surprisingly well. I know that a lot of my followers like to use Sock Ease in Marshmallow (75% wool, 25% nylon) because it is something that they can find in big box stores without needing to shop online. Sometimes I struggle to find some of the dyeable yarn lines in retail stores, but you can find them directly through the Lion Brand Website or even sometimes WeCrochet. (Note, I became a Lion Brand Affiliate in January 2018.)
WeCrochet (Affiliate Link) - A sibling company to KnitPicks, there are limited bare yarn options here now. One perk of WeCrochet is that they also offer Lion Brand yarn and have lower minimums for free shipping ($45) thank KnitPicks ($65.) However, the only bare yarn left on WeCrochet are the Chroma, Wonderfluff, and Curio lines where the bare yarn options are on the same page as the dyed options. (I am a WeCrochet Affiliate)
Your Local Yarn Store (LYS) - Not all local yarn shops sell bare or undyed yarn, but there is no harm in visiting your local shop to see if they sell any. While online shopping is convenient, it is always wonderful to support brick and mortar businesses. Your LYS isn't the best source if you want to buy a lot of bare yarn in bulk for dyeing, but it can be a handy place to find a pastel or natural colored skein to start dyeing.
Big Box Stores like Michaels and JoAnn's - While you won't come up with many yarn options (or any at all) if you search of bare or undyed yarn at these two major US retailers of craft supplies, you can find some dyeable yarn in the stores. (However it is hard to find 100% wool yarn in person at these retailers.) The first yarn I ever dyed with Lion Brand Wool Ease, and this is a line you can sometimes find in big box retailers. If you want to dye yarn with food coloring or acid dyes, I recommend looking for yarn that is at least 20% wool or another animal fiber. 100% acrylic/polyester yarn is a lot harder to dye.

Did I include your favorite place to purchase bare yarn in the above list? Let me know and I can update the list!

Free Scrappy Knitting and Crochet Projects

2022-12-20T13:56:00.005-05:00

What do you make with your Chanukah Yarn? Your advent calendar yarn? Collecting 10-20 g mini skeins can be a lot of fun, and there was a time when I was trying to get as many as I could possibly find for the beekeepers quilt. (This isn't a free pattern, but one of my personal hibernating scrappy projects!) Below I'll try to collect some options for fun scrappy projects that are free patterns. Even if you don't want to make the exact pattern I've linked, it might inspire you how to use the yarn with another of your favorite designs. I am also going to include some of these patterns of examples of what you can do with one of your favorite existing patterns.

Free Scrappy Knitting Patterns

Ombré, designed by me! This is a hat pattern that uses worsted weight, but you could increases the stitches in multiples of 4 to blend thinner yarns for the hat. I love using this with scraps of solid colored yarn I have on hand, but it would be also fun to blend variegated ones.
Scrappy Marl Hat - A stockinette hat with a ribbed brim that is a great way to show off a lot of colorways. Knit with two strands of fingering held together (or DK weight yarn)

This hat shows off how a lot of fun stockinette hat or sock patterns can be used with remnant yarn. If your yarn has a lot of speckles or color variation, then a stockinette pattern can show it off well.

Scrappy Socks - This pattern is a free Ravelry Download. A simple stockinette ankle sock knit with fingering weight yarn. The pattern shows off two socks that are knit in different colorways, so you can visualize a pair of mismatched socks.
Scrappy Ski Hat - Knit with worsted weight yarn, this is a fun colorwork pattern for blending different yarns.
Scrappy Bias Shawl - uses 200 g of fingering weight yarn. It looks like it is knit in garter stitch. I love blending different yarns together with garter stitch projects.
Happy Scrappy Fingerless Mitts - This pattern is a free Ravelry Download. This patterns shows off solid yarn, but imagine the fun you could have with the Chanukah Sampler yarn! This pattern is written for fingering weight with a self striping yarn, but you could put your won stripes into it.
Scrappy Block Socks - This pattern is a free Ravelry Download. Knit in fingering weight yarn 400-490 yards. Want to go a bit beyond stripes or a fade? Pick minis that have some contrast and work them in this fun colorwork pattern.
Super Scrappy Socks - This pattern is a free Ravelry Download. This is a super fun pattern that includes some contrasting colorwork between color changes to really make the different sections pop.
Sideways Scrappy Scarf - Knit in garter stitch with DK weight yarn, you can use up remnant yarn for a fun vertical stripped pattern.
Scrappy Bias Scarf - Knit in Aran weight yarn, but you can adjust the number of stitches to do this with fingering or DK weight. A bias is a great way to blend different colors because the diagonal stripes are super fun to wear.
Scrappy Cowl - This pattern is a free Ravelry Download. This is a fade to blend different minis together. The pattern is written for fingering weight yarn, but it wouldn't be hard to adapt for a DK weight project. The Chanukah Samplers aren't designed to be a fade set, but you could still blend the transitions in a super fun way.
Remnants Shrug - It is written as a one size fits most pattern, but I did look at the pattern and it would be easier to make bigger or smaller since it is knit as a rectangle. I would personally double check my arm span measurements and then also measure a towel across my back to get a sense of the dimensions that would work for me personally. However, I'm including this in the list as an idea of what you could do with another stockinette shrug or even sweater.
Garter stitch projects are wonderful for blending different yarns together, even if they aren't intended as a fade.

Free Scrappy Crochet Patterns

Scrappy Corner-to-Corner Crochet Blanket - I haven't doing any C2C crochet projects yet, but I've always wanted to do a colorwork version. I love the idea of a scrappy blanket to use up remnant or miniskeins! The sample was knit with DK weight yarn.
Scrap Yarn Crochet Basket - I adore this pattern. It is written for you to hold multiple strands of yarn together, which I don't love to recommend for the Chanukah yarn... BUT I love the idea of taking remnants from a bunch of projects and including them in a basket you use to hold yarn or other works in progress.
Scrappy Blanket 2 - This pattern is a free Ravelry Download. A chevron throw blanket that features so many different colorways. Since it is a blanket you could use almost any yarn weight.
Scrappy Bucket Hat - written for worsted weight yarn, but you can imagine how you can combine different colors for a more structured hat.
Granny Square Projects - In general yarn scraps are wonderful for projects made out of these fun blocks. I'm not linking to a particular pattern, but a lot of scrappy granny square projects are available.

Other Recommendations

The following video was recommended to me in one of the Chanukah premieres. I haven't watched it yet, but I wanted to share another source recommending scrappy projects. A Lovely Yarn "A Very Scrappy Episode ~50 Patterns Using Mini Skeins, Yarn Scraps, or Advent Yarn Kits"

The 2022 ChemKnits Chanukah Special is Here!

2022-12-18T08:42:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the 2022 ChemKnits Chanukah Special! Every night of Chanukah (plus a few nights beyond) there will be a new yarn dyeing video on the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube Channel published at 8:30 PM Eastern Time.

Each video will air as a live premiere, so we can watch the video together and react in a live chat in real time. After the video is finished it will be available on demand like a regular YouTube video. To help you know what to expect, here are the runtimes and nights I will be in the live chat room:

12/18 Night 1 - Runtime 32 minutes

I will pop into the live chat but I may be a bit late and it might be a short visit in the chat room. (I'm celebrating the first night of Chanukah in person with family and friends! I won't have footage of this for the vlog, but I'm super excited!)

12/19 Night 2 - Runtime 36 minutes

I will be in the premiere live chat!

12/20 Night 3 - Runtime 32 minutes

I will be in the premiere live chat!

12/21 Night 4 - Runtime 30 minutes

I will be in the premiere live chat!

12/22 Night 5 - Runtime 35 minutes

I will be in the premiere live chat!

12/23 Night 6 - Runtime 33 minutes

I will be in the premiere live chat!

12/24 Night 7 - Runtime 34 minutes

I will not be in the live chat for night 7. Christmas Eve is our big family Christmas celebration with my husband's family. I grew up celebrating Chanukah, and my husband grew up celebrating Christmas. We are a blended family now and celebrate each other's traditions together.

12/25 Night 8 - Runtime 34 minutes

I will try to be in the live chat but it is tentative. I will update closer to Christmas Day!

12/26 Bonus DK Colorway - Runtime 31 minutes

I will be in the premiere live chat!

12/27 Bonus Sparkle Colorway - Runtime 32 minutes

I will be in the premiere live chat!

12/28 Chanukah Vlog (behind the scenes) - Runtime 53 minutes

I will be in the premiere live chat!

The entire schedule of when I will be in the live chat is subject to change, so see the pinned post on the upcoming premiere in the YouTube chat for the latest updates. I'll also try to update this post as I have notice.

If you miss a video, don't worry! All of them will be in the 2022 ChemKnits Chanukah Special Playlist so you can catch up on any videos you missed.

The 2022 Chanukah Samplers have sold out, but you can still pick up some awesome hand dyed ChemKnits yarn on Etsy. Want to make sure you know when I launch special preorders in the future? You can follow me on Patreon even if you don't sign up for any of the tiers. I always announce in a public post when new preorders are available and you can get an email notification that the post is up.

ChemKnits Creations Black Friday Sale!

2022-11-25T08:31:00.001-05:00

The ChemKnits Creations Black Friday sale is here! Over 100 colorways are 10-40% off plus there are some fun mystery bundles available.

Sale ends 11/28/22 at 11:59 PM EST. Prices are as marked deals are available while supplies last - some deals are more limited than others. Etsy doesn't let you use coupon codes on top of sale items, so check to see which will give you the biggest discount.

In addition to the above deals, there are a lot of new colorways and even some new merch that I just listed. Thank you so much for checking it out!

Extra Special Black Friday Deals

Extra Special Black Friday Deals: Buy a skein of "Thanksgiving Berry" yarn and you can add a mystery skein of yarn for just $10! This mystery skein will be a surprise yarn weight (sock-bulky), fiber content (will be at least 50% animal fiber), and could be either superwash or no superwash. (mystery skeins may come from current shop inventory. There are no progress keepers with this mystery skein.) Watch the video to see me dye the Thanksgiving Berry Yarn and to here me talk about more of these deals.
300 g Mystery Yarn Bundle - Buy a project bag stuffed with at least 300 g of hand dyed yarn and fun extras. Full retail value is over $100. You can pick between sock weight, DK weight, or non-superwash worsted weight yarn, but the colorways will be a complete surprise. This isn't intended to be a fade set, so the 300 g may or may not coordinate together.
Add a Mystery Surprise Skein to the 2022 ChemKnits Chanukah Sampler! If you order a Chanukah Sampler during the ChemKnits Black Friday sale you can add a mystery skein for just $10! This mystery skein will come wrapped with a progress keeper. This mystery skein will be a surprise yarn weight (sock-bulky), fiber content (will be at least 50% animal fiber), and could be either superwash or no superwash. (Mystery skeins may come from current shop inventory.)

Please note that this is a new listing! The original ChemKnits Chaunkah listing is still there and doesn't show the option for the add-on mystery skein.

Stitch Marker Bundles! 6 stitch markers in either a new surprise bundle or a bundle you can see from last year. All of the progress keepers have a lobster claw clasp. The mystery bundle may overlap with the 2021 bundle but also have new items.

You can find all of these special listings under the "Black Friday" shop tab. Sale yarn up to 40% off can be found under the "On Sale" Tab.

All of these deals are available while supplies last or thought Monday 11/28/22 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Unfortunately Patreon coupons do not work on items that are already discounted, Etsy will override the sale price to use the coupon. So please check to see which is a better discount!

Watch the Black Friday Video

In today's YouTube video, I will talk a little bit about my Black Friday specials, plus you can watch me dye the "Thanksgiving Berry" yarn that is featured in one of the special offers above.

ChemKnits Creations Holiday Shipping Update

Any orders placed through ChemKnits Creations between 5 PM Friday 12/2/22 and Monday 12/12/22 will ship after Tuesday 12/13/22. The shop processing times will be updated to reflect these changes and the shop will remain open so you can place orders. Thank you for your understanding. Everything purchased during the ChemKnits Creations Black Friday Sale will ship next week.

This means that for the best chance to receive your ChemKnits Chanukah Yarn Sampler before the first night of Chanukah (12/18), order by the end of November! (Note: this link will take you to to the regular Chanukah Sampler listing, not to the Black Friday option with the mystery add on - see that link above or in the Black Friday shop section!)

Other Yarn Retails Black Friday Deals

The following list includes affiliate links to KnitPicks, WeCrochet, KnitCrate, and Paradise Fibers, and I make commissions from purchases made through these links.

KnitPicks & WeCrochet - Save 25% off sitewide with the code "CARTFULL25" 11/24/22 - 11/25/22 for Black Friday! See websites for full details.

Which site should you shop with? There are a few things to make the decision:

WeCrochet has a lower minimum for free shipping ($45 in the US) vs KnitPicks ($65 for US customers.)
Most bare yarn is only available at KnitPicks.
WeCrochet carries Lion Brand Yarn
There are some other exclusive tools and patterns that vary between the websites, too.

Save 20% off KnitPicks and WeCrochetSitewide with the code "GIFT2U22" 11/26/22 through 11/28/22. See websites for full details.
KnitCrate - Use the code "BLACKFRIDAY22" to get 50% off the Black Friday collection of yarn. This stacks with active member discounts. Sale ends 11:59 PM EST on Wednesday 11/30/22 and cannot be combined with any other coupon codes. See website for full details.
Paradise Fibers - Unwrap up to 20% off Black Friday Deals

They have a 12 days of Madeline Tosh advent that looks amazing.

Knomad - Save 50% off your favorite yarn bases (prices as marked) plus free shipping on US orders over $250.

I haven't tried their new select lines yet, but I hope to try them out in 2023! I am not an affiliate with Knomad, but I have received product for free in the past.

2022 KnitPicks Big Sale - Summary and Best Deals!

2022-11-09T08:12:00.039-05:00

The KnitPicks Big Sale starts 11/9/22 and goes through 11/21/22! I'll be updating this post as new deals come through KnitPicks and WeCrochet. Sometimes these sibling websites have the same deals, and other times they vary. At the bottom of this post you can find links to my previous years tracking the big sale and predicting what may come. You can see where I'm right and where I was wrong!

I am a KnitPicks & WeCrochet affiliate marketer, so the links in this post are affiliate links and I do earn commissions on sales made through my links.

2022 Weekly Deals - KnitPicks

Some deals last longer than others, here are some of the deals that are available on KnitPicks and WeCrochet in 2022.Most coupon codes are limited to 1/person/website, so you can often use the same code on both KnitPicks and WeCrochet.

In previous years of the Big sale, there have been some freebies that lasted the entire sale. This year it looks like the deals are more limited, which means we may get more freebies later on?!?

KNITPICKS: 11/9/2022-11/14/2022: Pick your Promo! Items will be automatically added to your chart when you use the promo code. Spend $75+ Get a free chart keeper with code "CHARTGWP", Spend $150+ and get a Free Needle Clutch with code "CLUTCHGWP", Spend $300+ and get a free interchanable needle set with code "MOSAIC300" or "PRISM300"
WECROCHET: 11/9/22-11/13/22: Spend $75+, add a basic chart keeper to your cart, and use code "CHARTGWP" at checkout.
KNIPICKS 11/15/22 - 11/21 - Buy an Everyday Tote and get a free basic travel pack with your purchase using code "TRAVELGWP" at checkout. I ADORE these every day tote bags and have them in multiple colors. The KnitPicks bags have a stockinette print on the inside, or at least they have in previous years. There are a few totes on clearance for $8 and those work with the promo code. UPDATE: It looks like the tote bags are the same on both websites, so some will have the KnitPicks stockinette pattern on the inside and the others may have the WeCrochet crochet hooks on the inside.
WECROCHET 11/15/22 - 11/21 Buy an Everyday Tote and get a free basic travel pack with your purchase using code "TRAVELGWP" at checkout. I ADORE these every day tote bags and have them in multiple colors. The KnitPicks bags have a stockinette print on the inside, or at least they have in previous years. There are a few totes on clearance for $8 and those work with the promo code. UPDATE: It looks like the tote bags are the same on both websites, so some will have the KnitPicks stockinette pattern on the inside and the others may have the WeCrochet crochet hooks on the inside.
Coming soon!

The WeCrochet website consistently updates its deals a few hours before KnitPicks. The KnitPicks website updates at about 8 AM Eastern Time, and WeCrochet a few hours before that.

2022 Daily Deals

What specials will we have in 2022? Will we have one day limited deals? Check out how they compare to the 2021 sale!

KnitPicks Daily Deals:

KnitPicks 11/10-11/11/22: Save 30% off all KnitPicks Exclusive needles and hooks.
KNITPICKS Daily Deal 11/12/22 - 11/13/22: Extra savings! $10 Yarn Bowls and Ball Winders, $15 Spindles. (Prices as marked, no coupon code needed.)
11/15/22 on Both KnitPicks and WeCrochet - $1 / $3/ $5 yarn day! Limit 5 balls per color per order.
11/16/22 KNITPICKS - 40% Off KnitPicks eBooks, & extra 20% off all clearance books
11/17/22 KNITPICKS - Select Kits and Value Packs 30% off. This is how I started accumulating a stash, I'd buy clearance kids with Palette since I used that base all the time for colorwork.
KNITPICKS November 18-20, Spend More to Save More! Save 10% off $100 with codue "STACK100", 15% off of $200 with code "STACK200", and 20% off $300 with code "STACK300" If you're buying yarn that is available on both KnitPicks and WeCrochet, go to WeCrochet because the discounts are bigger. (see the discounts below under WeCrochet daily deals)
11/21/22 - The last day of the Big Sale!

WeCrochet Daily Deals:

WeCrochet: 11/10/22 Only: Get the Cozy Cabin Ebook on WeCrochet for $9.99 or patterns for $2/each. Sale ends 11/10.
WECROCHET Daily Deal 11/11/22 - $30 Yarn Swifts and $10 Ball Winders (Prices as marked, no coupon needed.) This is a 50% off discount on these items, and it can stack with the other coupons.
WECROCHET Daily Deal 11/12/22-11/13/22 - $5 Bright Hook Set (prices a marked, no coupon code required.)
WECROCHET Daily Deal 11/14/22 only - Buy a Hank of Alla Prima Yarn and get a Free Skein of Tuff Puff with code "FREEPUFF"
11/15/22 on Both KnitPicks and WeCrochet - $1 / $3/ $5 yarn day! Limit 5 balls per color per order.
11/16/22 WECROCHET - 40% Off WeCrochet exclusive eBooks, & extra 20% off all clearance books, and $3 individual patterns
11/17/22 WECROCHET - Stuffed Alpaca 40% off today only! (I have one of the handpainted ones and it is SUPER DUPER cute.)
WECROCHET 11/18 -11/20, Spend More to Save More! Save 10% off $75 with code "STACK75", 20% off of $150 with code "STACK150", and 25% off $300 with code "STACK300" KnitPicks has a similar deal, but the discounts are bigger with smaller purchases with WeCrochet. One main difference between the inventories is that most of the bare yarn offerings are only available through KnitPicks.
WECROCHET 11/21/22-11/21/22 (The Last day of the big sale) - Spend $50 and get a free zipper pouch with code "FREEZIP50" This promo lasts one day beyond the big sale!

Best Bare Yarn Deals

Coming soon! Once the big sale starts I'll share my picks for the best value in bare yarn. There are a lot of bare yarns in the 30-40% off category.

Bare Chroma Twist Bulky - 50% Off
Bare Chroma - 50% Off
Bare Hawthorne and Stroll Sock Blanks - 30% off each
Bare Curio #10 - 40% Off
Bare Chroma Worsted - 40% Off
Bare Yarn Minis - 21% Off (these are 10 g mini skeins that you can sample popular bare yarn bases - they do not offer them in bulk.)
Don't forget that you can dye pastel colored yarn, so if there is a pale pink or green in a yarn base you love that is 60% off, this is a great candidate for overdyeing!

30% Off Bare Yarns - There are a lot of bases that are 30% off, so I'm going to list them here rather than put them all in a list. In general 30% off is better than any coupon code we ever get from KnitPicks. Bare Wool of the Andes Roving, Bare Wool of the Andes Superwash Wortsed, Bare Wool of the Andes Bulky, Bare Woodland Tweed, Bare Super Bulky Soft, Bare Swish Bulky, Bare Swish Fingering, Bare Twill, Bare Stroll Sport, Bare Shimmer, Bare Shadow, Bare Palette, Bare Paragon, Bare Reviere, Bare Rustic Wool, Bare Muse Sock, Bare Muse Aran, Bare Merino Wool DK, Bare Luminance, Bare Lindy Chain, Bare Journey Tweed, Bare Imagination, Bare High Desert Worsted & Sport, Bare Hawthrone, Bare Hawthorne DK, Bare Hare, Bare Galileo, Bare Gloss DK, Bare Gloss Fingering, Bare Glass Roving, Bare Felici Sock, Bare Capretta Superwash, Bare Capretta, Bare Cadena, Bare Aristo, Bare Andes Del Camp, Bare Alpaca-Merino Boucle, Bare Andean Treasure

20% Off Bare Yarns - Bare Wool of the Andes Worsted, Bare WOTA Superwash Bulky, Bare WOTA Sport, Bare Swish Worsted, Bare Swish DK, Bare Surefoot Sock Yarn, Bare Stroll Roving, Bare Eco Superwash Alpaca Sock, Bare Cotton Boucle, Bare CotLin, Bare Comfy 100g, Bare Array

10% Off Bare Yarns - Bare Woolen Cotton, Bare Wonderfluff, Bare Stroll, Bare Curio #3

On further inspection, it looks like every single type of bare yarn is at least 10% off for the big sale!

ChemKnits Big Sale Strategy

I love the KnitPicks Big Sale and getting freebies for yarn that I would purchase anyway. At the beginning of the sale, I make a list of the yarn that I would like - but I don't purchase all of the yarn right away. I try to make sure I have enough to get free shipping ($65+ USD) and then look to see about getting the minimum needed for a freebie. I also hold out in case there is a daily deal (think $3/yarn day) so I have enough for free shipping on those days, too.

In past years, I had advice on discounted yarn to purchased during the big sale versus waiting for a (hopeful) Black Friday % off coupon. KnitPicks recently made some changes to bulk bare yarn purchases, adding some wholesale options for indie dyers and removing bulk discounts from the retail website. This means that my advice on when to buy bare yarn during the big sale has changed a bit.

KnitPicks Wholesale bare yarn discounts range from 20% off packs of 20 to 40% off packs of 100 (on select bases.) These discounts do NOT stack with coupon codes from the retail website, which means that I'm no longer waiting to use a 25% off coupon on Black Friday to use on a 20 pack of bare yarn (25% off of the bulk pack that was already15% off is ~36% off the base price.) My old advice was to get anything that was 40% off or more. This year, I'm not recommending holding off on purchasing any bare yarn if the discount looks good in early November.

Personally, I will probably jump on any bare yarn I love that is over 20-25% off. At the time of writing this post (11/8), the big sale hasn't started. But I'm hoping we get some new Special Reserve or Limited Edition bare yarn lines!

Build Your Own Value Pack

The Build Your Own Value Pack discount stacks with the big sale, at least as of 4:45 PM 11/9/2022. With this sale, add 10 or more skeins from a featured yarn line and use the code "MYVALUEPACK" for 20% off this personalized pack. I just purchased 10 stroll sock blanks, 30 skeins of Bare Swish DK, and 10 skeins of Bare Wool of the Andes Superwash Worsted... and got 20% off all of it with this coupon.

I did not expect this discount to work on the big sale, and in fact earlier in this post I wrote "however I do not expect it to stack with any big sale discount." This may change. However, in my livestream we also realized that this works on more than just the yarn bases listed below. There are many bare yarn lines that work under "MYVALUEPACK" - see the listing description to see whether the yarn works with this sale.

These yarn bases include in this promo include: Wool of the Andes (Sport, Worsted & Bulky), Swish (DK, Worsted & Bulky), Palette, Stroll Fingering, WOTA Superwash (Worsted & Bulky), Twill, High Desert, and Brava. Note that the KnitPicks bare yarn options are not linked under the Build Your Own Value Pack link, so you will need to search for those options separately to add them to your cart. (Bare yarn seems to be mostly removed from the WeCrochet website as of 11/8/2022.) As of 11/9/22, this code works on a lot of different bare yarn lines, check the description of the listing to see where you can get this discount!

What Are My Favorite Discounts From Previous Years?

Free items with minimum purchase. I'm a sucker for enamel pins and tote bags, especially when I'm buying yarn I would buy anyway!
$1/$3/$5 yarn
Limited edition yarn. Some years we get awesome new skeins of bare yarn.

Want to see how this Big Sale compares to past years?

Watch me chat about the Big Sale in a Livestream!

What time do deals start?

As of 7 AM Eastern Time 11/9/21 the KnitPicks Big Sale Page hasn't updated, but there are some cool promos. The WeCrochet Big Sale was up when I woke up this morning - but the yarn page didn't work yet. I did get an email about the WeCrochet Big sale at 3 AM Eastern Time 11/9/22.

Things seemed to update at 8 AM eastern time (5AM pacific)

What about Black Friday?

In 2021, KnitPicks had a 25% off coupon on Black Friday and a 20% off coupon for cyber weekend. We will have to wait and see what will happen in 2022! I'll update this post so we can track the pattern for future years.

Update 11/24/22 - On Thanksgiving morning the Black Friday sale is starting! Save 25% off KnitPicks and WeCrochet sitewide with the code "CARTFULL25" 11/24/22 - 11/25/22 for Black Friday! (affiliate links) See websites for full details.

11/26 - 11/28/22 Save 20% off KnitPicks and WeCrochet Sitewide with the code "GIFT2U22" through 11/28/22. See websites for full details.

I am a KnitPicks and WeCrochet Affiliate which means that I earn commission for sales made through my links. I made all of the recommendations and product selections on my own and purchased them myself.

NEW! KnitPicks Wholesale for Indie Dyers + Build Your Own Value Packs for Retail Customers

2022-09-16T08:56:00.002-04:00

KnitPicks now has a wholesale option for indie dyers with discounts of 20-40% off of bulk packs of yarn! (Affiliate link) This is an exciting change for business owners who love KnitPicks yarn.

In this post I am going to answer some questions about the new wholesale accounts. These answers come from the perspective of a customer, I do not have any inside information to KnitPicks. I did not reach out to KnitPicks for clarification on any of these questions. Please note that this post contains affiliate links to KnitPicks which means ChemKnits earns commissions on purchases made after clicking on the links.

I found signing up for the wholesale account to be a fast and easy process. You will need to create a new account with an email that isn't the one you use on the retail website. I got personal assistance from a representative who reviewed my application to make sure that I had everything set up correctly. My account was approved within a few hours of the application.

Can retail customers still get bulk discounts on the retail website?

Yes, sort of. Historically, KnitPicks offered 15% off of pack of 20 skeins of bare yarn, but this option is no longer available. However, under the "Sale" tab on the website there is an option to Build your own value pack on select yarn bases. With this sale, add 10 or more skeins from a featured yarn line and use the code "MYVALUEPACK" for 20% off the personalized pack. I tested the code on 10 skeins of Bare Stroll Fingering weight yarn and bare Wool of the Andes Sport on 9/15/22 and the discount worked. (Note: this is subject to change.)

These bases include:

Wool of the Andes (Sport, Worsted & Bulky)
Swish (DK, Worsted & Bulky)
Palette
Stroll Fingering
WOTA Superwash (Worsted & Bulky)
Twill
High Desert
Brava

Note that the KnitPicks bare yarn options are not linked under the Build Your Own Value Pack link, so you will need to search for those options separately to add them to your cart.

The Big Sale is coming up in November, so historically there are some great discounts on bare yarn then. I think my strategy will have shifted from previous years, but I'll talk about that once we know more about the big sale.

EDIT: 11/9/2022 - The "MYVALUEPACK" discount works on a lot more bare yarn purchases than I originally thought. See the listing for it to be mentioned in the item description, but it works on a lot of cotton, alpaca, and other bare yarn bases, too. (It doesn't work on everything, like Bare Comfy worsted, but it did work on Luminance and Super Bulky Soft and others.)

What are the new KnitPicks bare yarn wholesale discounts?

All of KnitPicks wholesale bare yarn bases are 20% off packs of 20 skein and 30% off 50 packs. Select yarn bases (some of the most popular ones) are available for 40% off packs of 100.

What yarn bases are available in 100 packs?

Bare Muse Aran
Bare Stroll Fingering
Bare Stroll Yarn Sock Blank
Bare Super Bulky Soft
Bare Swish DK
Bare Swish Fingering
Bare Wool of the Andes Superwash Bulky

Some of this is surprising to me. I'm surprised that Swish Worsted/Bulky aren't at a discount. Same with Wool of the Andes Worsted. However, I suppose I wouldn't buy these in 100 packs anyway, so maybe it's not so bad.

Information as of 9/16/2022. Subject to change.

Can non-business owner customers who like to buy in bulk get wholesale accounts?

I don't know. When I signed up I had to provide my Federal Identification Number (EIN) to show that I'm a registered business. I recommend reaching out to KnitPicks customer service to see what they say. As of 9/16/2022, I know a few non-business customers who have applied for wholesale accounts, so I will update this if I hear back from them.

The wholesale application says: "The Bare Yarn Wholesale Program is explicitly for our independent yarn dyeing customers who actively sell hand-dyed or painted yarns, and not intended for resell of Knit Picks products in their original form."

Can you use KnitPicks coupon codes on wholesale purchases?

No. Coupon codes on the retail KnitPicks website cannot be used on the wholesale platform.

Is there free shipping with wholesale purchases?

Yes, although the minimum purchase is higher than on the KnitPicks retail website. As of September 2022, you can get free shipping on orders over $400. Shipping is a flat rate for purchases below $199 ($10 shipping) and for $200-$399.99 ($15). There are also tiered shipping discounts for Canadian customers with free shipping over $600 USD.

With the retail pricing of free shipping over $65 USD, 20 packs used to have free shipping automatically. However, I typically would buy multiple 20 packs at once, so I don't think I'll have any issue hitting the $400 minimum. I suppose it would be worth a cost benefit analysis to see if it is better to pay $10 for shipping or to pay full retail price through the retail website if you need to make a small order. Also - note the "MYVALUEPACK" option on the retail website for small purchases of some of the most popular bases.

What about WeCrochet?

WeCrochet (KnitPicks sister company that offers most of the same products) doesn't appear to have bulk 20 packs of bare yarn anymore, nor do they link to any wholesale options. As of September 2022, some bare yarn lines seem to be missing from the website, so I'm not sure if there is an update there or not.

How do I feel about this change?

I feel fantastic! When KnitPicks recently raised prices on a lot of their yarn lines I was considering switching to another supplier. (I was working on a whole blog post about the pricing changes and the feelings I was considering.) The wholesale option brings the prices of KnitPicks bare yarn down to where they were years ago, and even a bit lower if I buy 100 packs. This means I can continue to support the business where I first started buying bare yarn, so I'm thrilled.

I am disappointed that retail prices are more expensive for the average customer. I hypothesize that some of the price increases are to allow KnitPicks to offer such big discounts to indie dyers... and this could be the reason why Stroll is now more expensive than Stroll glimmer (historically glimmer was $1 more per skein.) The KnitPicks retail website does still have great advantages for new dyers - including solids in the same yarn lines, low minimums for free shipping, an easy to navigate website, and more. Please let me know your thoughts on these changes below.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links to KnitPicks which means ChemKnits earns commissions on purchases made after clicking on the links.