Handdyed: A green universe of colours

By Signe Hansen | Photos: Handdyed

Among the first to introduce hand-dyed yarn to a wider knitting community in Denmark, Charlotte Spagner and her business Handdyed continue to set the bar high. From her workshop in northern Jutland, Spagner produces yarn dyed in small batches, powered partly by solar energy and centred on untreated and, when possible, organic wool. Soon, knitting enthusiasts will be able to follow in her footsteps as her new book, a guide to hand dyeing, is landing in bookstores this month.

Having begun as experiments with colouring for Spagner’s own weaving projects, today Handdyed.dk ships hand-dyed yarn to customers across Scandinavia and beyond. The business now includes knitting patterns, yarn kits and books, but colour and a love for natural materials and quality remain the heart of the business. “In everything creative I’ve done, colours have been the most important part,” Spagner says. “But I am also passionate about sustainability and organic production – it saturates everything we do here on the farmstead and, of course, also the hand-dyeing.”

Today Handdyed.dk offers around 170 colours across a range of yarn qualities, many of them organic and made to order to avoid waste. However, customers need not worry about waiting to get started on their new knitting project, as made-to-order products are made on the day of order and shipped the next day.

Handdyed: A green universe of colours

From medicine to yarn dyeing

That Spagner would open a yarn business might have seemed unlikely to most who met her during her previous career. Trained as a medical doctor, she worked in healthcare for ten years while raising four children. Alongside her profession, she continued knitting and weaving, exploring different textile techniques whenever she had time. “I was always creative,” she explains. “I just couldn’t quite work out what that creativity should become.”

Then, more than a decade ago, she took leave from her medical work to spend more time with her children. During that period, she began experimenting more seriously with weaving. In order to achieve the colours she wanted for her projects, she started dyeing her own yarn with plant colours. “I imagined weaving large wall hangings,” she says. “So, I started dyeing my own yarn for those weaving projects and experimenting with textile dyes.”

Handdyed: A green universe of colours

At first, the yarn was only used for her own work. Soon, friends began asking for skeins, followed by friends of friends. Around the same time, hand-dyed yarn was beginning to appear in Denmark, inspired partly by developments abroad. “There were only a few of us then,” Spagner says. “It was something quite new in Denmark.”

Though Spagner initially opened a physical store in Aalborg, the company today sells primarily through its web shop and supplies yarn to shops in Denmark and abroad, including Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands.

Charlotte Spagner in her workshop.

Staying true to craft

As interest developed, Spagner moved from plant colours to traditional colours. but maintained the focus on a sustainable and ethical production.

From the beginning, she chose to dye only untreated wool rather than superwash-treated yarn. “We decided early on that we would only dye untreated wool,” she says. “It’s technically more difficult, so we had to learn other ways of dyeing.”
Sustainability also shapes how the workshop operates. The dye studio runs partly on solar energy from its own solar panels, and dye processes are designed so that the yarn absorbs almost all of the pigment. “When we finish dyeing, the water is almost completely clear,” Spagner explains. “We spend a lot of time developing the colours, so the yarn absorbs the dye.”

A life of knitting and colour

Alongside yarn production, Handdyed.dk now includes knitting patterns, yarn kits and workshops. For Spagner, designing and knitting have gradually become the bulk part of her work. “What I mainly do now is knit and design,” she says. “I feel very privileged that I’ve been able to make time to do that.”

Another dream that Spagner recently fulfilled was the creation of her first book, Garnfarvning med syrefarver (Yarn colouring with acid-based colours) published by Bogoo 29 April, 2026. The book opens up the universe of hand-dyeing to the reader, and if it is up to Spagner, it will soon be followed by another.

Charlotte Spagner’s first book, Garnfarvning med syrefarver (Yarn colouring with acid-based colours), published by Bogoo, will hit bookstores 29 April, 2026.

Web: www.handdyed.dk

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