About Auridon Yarns: Hand-Dyed Color from Haarlem

The world is getting beige. I'm doing something about it.

Beige clothes, beige cars, beige houses. Somewhere along the way, everything got tasteful and nothing got fun. Auridon Yarns exists because I believe your knitting deserves better: strawberries, pumpkins, rainbows, and colors that make you smile every time you pick up your needles.

It started with a soft drink

A few years ago, a friend invited me over for what was supposed to be a regular afternoon. We ended up dyeing wool with Kool-Aid at her kitchen table. I had admired hand-dyed yarn at fiber markets for years, always wondering the same thing: could I make this myself? I'm too curious by nature to leave a question like that alone.

So I ordered proper dyes and started experimenting in my kitchen, with regular pots and household tools (kept strictly separate from the cooking ones, don't worry). I had long been fascinated by assigned pooling, inspired by the cluster stitch work of Dawn Barker, and one thought kept nagging at me: if a skein can be dyed to knit a cluster stitch, why not a little figure? Is that even possible?

I measured, calculated how much yarn a single stitch would need, and dyed a skein designed to knit strawberries.

Then, honestly, I forgot about it. Life happened, other colors happened. Months later I picked the strawberry skein back up, filmed a small tutorial for YouTube, and posted one picture on Reddit. I put my phone away and sat talking with my family, when I suddenly heard it: ka-ching. Then again. My first two sales, ever. It has never really stopped since.

A tiny studio in Haarlem

Today every skein is dyed in my own small studio in Haarlem, all thirty square meters of it. Small means I have to be thoughtful: small batches, limited stock, and dyeing to order rather than piling up inventory. Every skein that leaves here was dyed by my hands, usually while the sun does the heavy lifting.

Dyeing with sunshine (honestly)

My dye heaters run on electricity from solar panels, and since I dye during the day, sunlight covers most of my energy needs. Not always, and I won't pretend otherwise, but most of the time my colors are quite literally powered by the sun.

Sustainability here is a practice, not a slogan:

• Exhausted dye baths. I dye until the water runs clear, so the dye ends up in your yarn, not down the drain.
• Small batches and dye-to-order. No mountains of unsold stock.
• Second Chance Skeins. When a batch turns out different than planned, it gets a discount and a loving home instead of going to waste.
• Mulesing-free merino. My sock base is ultrafine mulesing-free merino wool.
• Honest packaging. Your yarn ships in a cardboard box with one protective inner layer. I've weighed skipping that layer, but a skein damaged in transit and shipped twice costs the planet more than the wrapper that protects it.
• Waste separation in the studio, always.

And the most sustainable part of all? What you make with it. A hand-knitted garment lasts years and often gets passed on. Slow craft is the opposite of fast fashion.

Who's behind the dye pots?

I'm Sophie: mom, knitter of twenty years (seriously hooked since I started knitting for my kids), and a self-confessed nerd. The name Auridon comes from one of the most beautiful islands in a game world I spent many happy hours wandering through. I wanted a name rich in color and creativity, and that island felt exactly right. I also crochet, badly, by my own admission. Knitting is home.

What I hope you feel

Comfort. Joy. A grin when the strawberries appear under your needles. If my yarn adds a little color and fun to your life in a world that keeps choosing beige, then it did exactly what I dyed it to do.