VK Local Hand-dyed Indigo Yarns

What do you know about Indigo?

Eliza Lucas Pinckney was an American farmer who transformed agriculture in colonial South Carolina, where she developed indigo as one of its most important cash crops. Its cultivation and processing as dye produced one-third the total value of the colony's exports before the Revolutionary War, second only to rice, from the 1740s to the 1790s.  Indigo was a key part of the Atlantic economy, and its profits surpassed those of sugar and cotton. Indigo textiles were used to make the first U.S. flag, and indigo cakes were used as currency during the Revolutionary War.

Today, we still dye using indigo in vats.  Yarn is dipped into the vat, and as it comes out, the greenish color oxidizes into striking shades of blue.  These worsted weight yarns are spun in New Hampshire at a woman-owned mill, and hand-dyed here on Martha's Vineyard.  The blend of 70% fine US-grown alpaca, 15% tussah silk, and 15% US-grown merino make it an exquisite yarn for any project.