Yarn for dying?

[Trinket]

At the moment, my interest in dying is only a curiosity. I'm not really sure if this is something I would want to do, but I wouldn't mind trying it once just to see what it's like. I figure I could find some resources for information on how to dye yarn in general, but my question is more about the yarn itself and not the process.

 

Where might one find wool yarn for dying? I do have a skein of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool lying around, but it doesn't seem like it would really be suitable because it's already a yellowish, sort of cream color. I would want something a bit more white. I confess I haven't done much internet research as of yet (we have a very poor dial-up connection that makes surfing very frustrating and time consuming), but... is there a resource somewhere in which one could get some reasonably priced wool for the purpose of dying?

 

Thanks for your time.

[losingmymind2]

Natural color wool is not pure white, to get the white white they bleach the wool and that can make it more difficult to dye. Some wools I've used are from http://www.knitpicks.com called their 'bare' line. I've also dyed Paton's wool very nicely.

[k and c]

Shameless self-promotion here, but we will be doing a dye-ing to crochet article in the October issue of Crochet World. For this article we used Bartlettyarns Fisherman Wool in both the sport (a new put up for them) and their regular worsted. We used the natural sheeps white, which you're right is not a true white, but we also used some varying shades of sheeps grey with the dye creating sort of coordinating colors though the base of the yarn was different. It was very fun and extremely satisfying. Yarn, color, and you get to crochet with it afterwards (there will be patterns too)

[smokeyp81]

I have dyed the fisherman's wool with kool aide and had great results...I have also used paton's classic merino in both of their natural colors and they worked fine also. I have some of the knit picks bare, but haven't tried it yet. I'm sure it will work fine also. You can also dye any light color (pale pink, pale blue) and over-dye it.

[sammimag]

You don't have to dye "white" wool. You can dye light grays and oatmeal colors. It can actually tone down the colors and make them more muted

[tekronhoye]

When you soak the yarn long enough, remove it from the water and gently squeeze it dry; has a convenient towel and remove excess water. You are ready to move to the surface. The lack of mention of any part of that color yarn dyed and spray.