I’ve recently received an email from a customer concerned about the number of breaks in her skein of Blue Brick yarn. We are also concerned about it, but at the moment, with our current system and suppliers, up to three breaks is possible. I thought I’d share my response here, and as always I invite your thoughts if you’d like to share them!

Hi (customer!)

Thanks for your note, I appreciate that knots are annoying, however up to three per skein is definitely possible in Blue Brick yarns. There are two reasons;

1) Blue Brick skeins are custom oversized, at 500 yards. We wind these off ourselves, from 1200 yard cones, and we do end up having to go over two cones sometimes. I am actively searching for a supplier who can sell me larger cones at a workable price so I can fix this. Because we do wind off our own skeins by hand, some variation in yardage is possible, though we do use a yardage counter and weigh our yarns.

2) Dyeing ombre is quite different from dyeing solid, or variegated yarn. Our process creates at least one knot every time, usually right in the middle of the skein.

I can definitely relate to the feeling about knots, and the problems they create, but I hope this helps explain why they happen. I hope you love the yarn enough to see past the ‘knotty bits’ and I’m happy to hear about your beautiful projects!

Please do write again if I can be of assistance,
Best,
Shireen