Welcome to my website! Stitch Noir is based just outside of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and is run by one person, Me!
My name is Amanda and I personally dye all the yarn and fibre you see on this website, in my home studio.
By purchasing yarns and fibre from Stitch Noir, you are supporting a small local artisan who creates for the love of creating!
I have been interested in fibre and yarn since 2011, which is when I learned to crochet my first granny square. Crochet made sense…numbers, stitches, patterns…. My skills grew from there and soon I was selling finished items online (especially Skull Shawls….lots and lots of skull shawls!)
Soon I taught myself to knit and then a friend sat me down at her Ashford Traditional to try spinning and I was immediately hooked on that as well! As I write this in 2023, I have four spinning wheels…all for spinning different kinds of yarns!
Effectively, I was following the fibre trail but moving backwards in the process. My brother-in-law has sheep…which gave me access to raw fleece…..
Learning to dye was just a matter of time!
I started dyeing small batches of handpainted, heavily speckled and saturated yarns in 2018 and years later, I still have so much fun in my dye lab. I love dark and saturated colours….sometimes you’ll find some pastels in the mix….but be sure, they were accidents! Lol
I specialize in unique OOAK gradient sets in a variety of bases, weights and yardage. Due to the technique, every gradient is a one of a kind creation, even when dyed using the same colours.
I like to keep my colourways quirky and fun and I approach each dye pan and undyed skein as a work of art.
The good thing about that approach is that I get all sorts of interesting colour combinations, sometimes with little help from me at all! The pans take on a life of their own and there’s a freedom in playing while I work that I really enjoy!
The down side to this approach is that although I keep notes about how I create colourways, my measurements aren’t exact and batch to batch, the colourway may shift slightly. My dyeing is my creative outlet and if I bring in numbers and percentages, I will get lost in the math and lose the fun quirkiness that I really enjoy!
Does that mean you can’t buy sweater amounts?
Nope, SWEATER AMOUNTS are available. I recommend buying the amount of yarn you need plus a bit for any project because I can’t guarantee 100% matching from batch to batch. If you need three or more skeins, and I don’t have the skeins from the same batch number available, I will dye them to order to ensure they match as closely as possible. I say match but as with any hand-dyed yarn, one can expect some slight variation from skein to skein. Alternating skeins in a project is highly recommended.
What about custom colours?
When I have the time and the energy, I love discussing a custom project with a customer. I ask a lot of questions and even request reference photos to ensure what I am envisioning is what you are envisioning. Sometimes there is a small additional fee, depending on the project and the amount of yarn involved, as well as a required deposit.