Captivating Gradients: Freia Fine Handpaints

As a photography student back in the 1980s, Tina Whitmore discovered an insatiable appetite for color experimentation.

- Tabetha Hedrick

Spending hours in the darkroom color-correcting photos by tinkering with filters and exposure time to achieve the perfect saturation and hues in her prints was an addictive process that she couldn’t quite get enough of.

Years later, Tina is still exploring her love of color alteration, but now she’s working with yarn and fiber dyeing. She’s applying that same drive to achieve the perfect color by altering pigment percentages and solution strength in order to develop her yarn colors and depths of shade.

Tina has long been fascinated by self-striping yarns, delighting in their constantly changing colors. The commercial yarns she had been using in her knit designs were fun, but she felt as though something was missing. In 2010, she decided to dye her own yarns in order to fill the void.

Early in her business venture, Tina offered a small selection of yarn at a craft show. It was so well received that she sold out. Someone even bought a swatch right off her needles! Her dyeing techniques are unique, from using multiple dyeing methods for one skein of yarn to inventing and building her own equipment. But it’s the end result that captivates knitters everywhere— unbelievably rich color in long, luxurious stretches that offer captivating gradients. 

Tina took the time to share some of her unique methods with me:

TH: What’s the process like for dyeing your yarns? Are there any unusual techniques?