Materials · · 4 min read
Undyed, on purpose
Why the first drop leaves the wool the colour the sheep grew it, and what that costs.
Dyeing is the thirstiest step in making a garment. A single kilo of yarn can take a hundred litres of water through scouring, dyeing and rinsing, and the water does not come out the way it went in. Leaving wool undyed removes that step completely.
It also removes a lever we would otherwise have. Undyed fleece is not one colour — it runs from oat to a grey-brown depending on the animal and the season, so we buy a single clip at a time and accept that this year's sweater will not be an exact match for last year's. We think that is a fair trade, and children rarely file complaints about it.
What we will not do is call this a sacrifice. Undyed yarn is cheaper to process and it wears better, because the fibre has not been through a hot acid bath. The premium in the price is the single-origin clip, not the absence of colour.