Ordering Black!

Pearl cotton sample card with my choices pulled over to the left: black, two shades of dark brown, burgundy, wine, navy, dark green.

For the first year and a half of running this weaving business, I've only been able to afford mill ends. It's worked out fine, really. I just tailor my colors to whatever thread I can get ahold of.

There is, however, one consistent request that I've been unable to meet: black garments. You know, the classic color that goes with everything?

The trouble is that mills don't release black very often because they can always use it. Much of the black that is released is overdyed and turned out too weak for them to use. Well, I won't use it, either. Weak threads make bad cloth.

After adding another dozen people to my "I'd like black" mailing list, I decided to invest in some black yarn. It's WAY more expensive than mill ends, and will probably cause the black cloth to cost more, but I think people will be OK with that.

The cloth I have in mind is going to be rich. It will be mostly pure flat black, but like all of my cloth, there will be some surprises. I'll be adding single shiny strands of the other colors, plied with shiny black, across the whole width of the cloth. By making sure that warm colors are next to cool colors, the overall effect should be a luxurious neutral black.

It'll be a while before this cloth is even started, but I decided to buy the yarn now because I've never bought wholesale before and have no idea how long it takes them to source and ship. One wholesaler gave a delivery date of mid-April if I order now. So I'm ordering now.