FAQs
Where is your physical shop? Can I visit your workshop?
No, I don't own a physical shop, and no, I don't accept visits in my workshop.
Although it may seem idyllic to you to see a craftswoman do her work, for me it is not comfortable or safe, since I work with very large pots and at high temperatures, and the dyes are delicate and volatile.
In addition, the stock of yarns that I have for sale is designed to be easy to see on the web, for my daily work it is enough to know where everything is. I haven't any yarn display!
SHIPPING
Which is the shipping cost?
Shipping is automatically calculated at the cart. You just have to enter the country, the region and a postal code (I can’t see this data, so you will remain anonymous until you proceed to checkout).
From certain amount you can choose to pay shipping or not. Shipping is never free if you don't pay it I will, that's why you can choose!
When will I receive my yarn?
I ship orders once a week, usually on wednesdays. If you placed an order of yarn ready to ship it will leave my workshop on the next shipping day. If you chose a dyed to order yarn I will have to dye it and will ship in two-four weeks time. If you have both kind of yarns I’ll ship the order when I have dyed the dyed to order skeins.
When your yarn is ready to ship you’ll receive a confirmation email.
Once your parcel leaves my door it usually takes from one to three days (usually no more than two) if you live in Spain, Portugal or Andorra. International shipping times and shipping to the islands are harder to predict, but usually don’t take more than one week.
If you have any doubt or are in a hurry do not hesitate to contact me before placing the order.
I need to change my the address!
If your yarn hasn’t been sent yet there will be no problem, just send me an email with your order number and the new address, I will take care of the change (answering the email with the order confirmation is perfect!).
If the parcel has been shipped please do not wait a minute to send me an email, I’ll call the courier office and see what can be done.
If the parcel is already in route there might be extra charges.
Where can you ship?
I can send yarn to the Peninsula (including Portugal), to Balear Islands and to Europe (excluding Andorra and Switzerland).
Which courier service do you use?
Si vives en la Península Ibérica seguramente usaré MRW, pero a veces también puede ser UPS. Si vives en cualquier otro sitio de Europa irá con UPS.
Vivo en un sitio donde llegan pocos mensajeros…
So do I! Just tell me and we’ll find the best solution for you.
Where is my tracking number?
If your parcel comes with MRW or UPS you'r receive a message with your shipping info. With the tracking number you'll be able to see where your yarn is. If you see any problem please contact me.
If you live in Andorra, Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla, your parcel will come with Correos in a tracked package. I will have your tracking number, but I can't ship it automatically. If the package is delayed too much, contact me and we will find a solution.
And if I'm not at home when the courier arrives? Can they delivery at a specific time?
Normally, if there is no one at home, they will call you and you will agree on a new delivery.
If in 15 days the courier couldn’t find you at the delivery address or couldn’t agree with you a new delivery, the parcel will come back to me and I will return the amount payed except for the shipping.
I can't ask the courier to deliver in a specific time slot, the shipping price would go up a lot and neither you nor I want that!
PAYMENTS
Which payment methods do you accept?
Payment methods are credit or debit card, or Bizum.
I don't accept bank transfers.
ONLINE SHOP
I can't find the color I want!
Not all the colors can be dyed one by one, so some of them can't be purchased dyed to order. You can contact me and ask when are they expected to be available on the online shop.
Do you make discounts?
Usually not. I try to keep my yarns at the lowest price I can throughout the year. I don't believe in sales or this type of discount, although very occasionally I make an offer to for the yarns that are too bored in my store.
What can I do if I change my mind?
First of all contact me! If it has been a custom order I’m not going to refund, but we’ll talk about the possibilities. If you received your yarn and it doesn’t make you happy anymore contact me before 14 days to send it back and I’ll refund the cost of the yarn (not the shipping, sorry, I’ve had to pay for it already!).
No he comprado suficiente lana para mi proyecto…
If I dyed it for you, surely there will be no more skeins than the ones I made for you. If not, write me and I'll tell you if I have any loose skeins left, you could be lucky!
You can also use a different dye lot, but I can’t guarantee it will invisibly blend with the other skeins. I do my best to avoid big differences, but they exist. So please, get enough yarn for your project!!!
What I usually recommend when something like this happens is to add a touch of a different color. Better to make this difference bigger than regretting that skein you didn’t bought at the right time!
I see the photos and I'm not sure if that combo will work...
Did you take a look at my combo page? You'll find a lot of inspiration there. Anyway, if I have the colors you are thinking of in stock I can take a quick and dirty photo of them so you can be sure, just contact me!
I have a yarn shop, do you wholesale?
Yes I do, email me at laia@socunatroca.cat and we’ll talk about prices and conditions. Please don't leave a message on social media, they easily get lost there!
DYES
Which dyes do you use?
I only use acid dyes labeled as OEKO-tex and heavy metal free. The techniques I use make that no dye remains in the water once it is discharged to the water system.
Are these natural dyes?
Even though I have a long experience dyeing with natural dyes, now I’m not using them any more. As my business grew I realized that these made me waste too much water and that made me feel guilty, they are not as environmentally friendly as they might seem.
The dyes I use are acid (synthetic) but ecological.
Is there a lot of water waste?
I try to reduce it at the minimum. I store used water and reuse it a few times before disposing it. In fact, I use less water for dyeing full time than my husband for home brewing beer every once in a while!
How do you dispose water?
The process of dyeing wool needs an acid medium to bond the color to the fibers. I use food grade citric acid to get the right ph. At the end of this reaction water is still a little bit acid, and to neutralize it I just add washing soda (sodium carbonate).
Do you teach how to dye?
No I don’t. I’ve been a music teacher for lots of years and at this moment in my life just thinking of teaching any subject makes me sick, I am happy with how things are for now!
There are lots of resources out there, if you want to learn how to dye you just have to keep searching. I recommend the videos by Nicole from Hue Loco on YouTube and the book by Felicia Lo from Sweet Georgia Yarns.
Will my yarn bleed?
I would love to say “No, never!”, but it is impossible. Bleeding is one of the worst nightmares of a dyer. I make all what is in my hand to avoid it, I set the dyes with an extra bit of citric acid and leave them for long enough (24 hours at least) so that the fibers fully absorb all the color. Then I rinse the yarn until the water comes clear.
Some colors are more prone to bleed than others, like the yellow I use (which is beautiful, but oh, it causes a lot of headaches!). The more saturated the color or the heavier the speckles also make for more possibilities.
Non superwash yarns also tend to bleed, so take special care when combining colors.
If you are going to knit in a single color you don’t have to worry too much. When you wash the finished garment you can rinse the extra dye. If you are going for a high contrasted combo and want to be sure to avoid problems you should knit a swatch and wash it as you will do with the finished garment.
The yarn is staining my fingers!
No es normal, pero puede pasar. La mayoría de las veces eso se debe a una reacción entre tu sudor y los componentes de algunos tintes. Esto pasa especialmente con el color Clara’s dream y algún otro azul, aunque no todos. Es algo imposible de predecir, así que por favor, si te encuentras con esta situación contacta conmigo y veremos qué solución podemos encontrar!
YARN
I found a knot... This is unacceptable!
Calm down, please. Wool is a natural material, and it is impossible to produce an infinite thread.
According to industry standards, one or two knots in a 100g skein may be normal. I usually check all the skeins and most of them are knot free. Still, from time to time one can escape. The ONDINE, TERRA and SOCK bases are the ones that tend to have most often.
How do I wash my finished garment?
In cold water. Wait, I’ll repeat it just in case… IN COLD WATER!
Hot, or even lukewarm water can destroy the bond between the dye and the fibers, and it can lead to a disaster.
So please use only cold water!
I usually use shampoo. After all hair and wool are both protein fibers. You can use any mild detergent.
It is better not to use vinegar, at least on the first washes. Vinegar helps to fix the dyes to the fibers. Even though this seems desirable, bear in mind that you won’t be able to control where the dye sticks. If there is a small bleeding the color might get fixed where it shouldn’t! It is best to rinse with water until it becomes clear (hey, have you ever dyed your hair? it is the same!).
Where do you source your fibers?
My yarn bases come from different places, please take a look at the bases page, all of them are explained there.
All my bases are mulesing free, and always try to support sustainable sources.
Unfortunately, in our country the wool is very undervalued, so it isn’t easy to find local sources that can provide a continued supply of the same yarn base. But there are a few! ONDINE was my first local base, and then came TERRA and SOL. I hope to keep adding more!
What about superwash?
Superwash is a treatment of the fibers that prevents felting (and also makes them more prone to absorb dye). This treatment generates a residue which must be recycled. The yarns I use have been treated in the European Union, under heavily regulated water disposing laws in a plant with OEKO-Tex certification.
Are your yarns biodegradable?
With the exception of the nylon and polyamide portion in my sock bases, all the fibers I use are natural, and therefore biodegradable. Yarns that have superwash treatment are also completely biodegradable.
Do you dye cotton? And linen?
Not at this moment. Even though I’ve dyed vegetal fibers before (with natural dyes), at this moment I’m not into that. Dyes and dyeing techniques are completely different if you use fibers of vegetal or animal origin, and this is a big change I do not want to embrace right now.
If you are looking for fresher fibers than wool you can try SOL, which is 100% silk and is perfect for the whole year!