A Basin's Dozen

Back in January, I started talking with the nice folks over at Bijou Basin Ranch, Carl and Eileen. They have a yak ranch out in Colorado that has been around since 2005 and they produce a line of yarn called Bijou Spun.

I'd been intrigued by their yak and yak blend yarns for awhile. Yak has a really low micron count, around 14-16. That makes it comparable to cashmere and camel. Nice stuff. I'd often wondered how it would dye up. Well, after a couple of conversations over the course of late winter and early spring, we decided to find out.

Carl and I spent quite some time discussing color possibilities. They knew that they wanted us to create nearly solids for them and that they wanted warm and earthy. Aside from that they let us do our thing. We just love it when that happens!

The original plan was for Lorna's Laces to dye two of their yarns in a dozen colors. It's turns out we're just a little bit of an overachieving crowd and ended up doing three yarns in thirteen colors. Fifteen if you count the natural white and brown.

We dye a pretty broad spectrum of fibers here. Some of them can be a little fussy. The yak was a real pleasure to work with. It grabbed the dye like a dream and we were able to produce rich, complex shades.

Right now we're waiting for a delivery of their Fingering Weight 100% Yak, Bijou Bliss 50/50 Yak/Cormo Wool, and Lhasa Wilderness 75/25 Yak/Bamboo. Once it arrives we'll be transforming it from it's natural white to Cadet, Steel, Sky, Blueberry, Teal, Regal, Amethyst, Ruby, Blush, Hunter, Sage, Salmonberry, and Goldenrod. I have to admit that there were a couple of these colors that I was tempted to keep for our own line. I'm a sucker for a good orange and the Salmonberry is pretty fantastic. I'm kind of partial to the Ruby too.

Keep an eye out for it. It should be shipping out to your local yarn shops from BBR in September.

Oh. My.