Astronomers who are not devotees of the fibre arts or might be surprised to learn that there are many, many yarns named after things astronomical. Why, you say?

There are a huge number of craftspeople who produce hand-dyed yarns for knitters, crocheters, and weavers, including my town’s own Sheepspot among others. These folks need to distinguish their different colourways (the result of all of the dyes applied to one particular yarn, could include many colours) and bases (the type of yarn being dyed, distinguished for example by thickness and type of fiber such as wool, silk, or cotton). Some colourways have names which just describe the colours, but many others are inspired by something else: superheroes, birds, Doctor Who characters, Sherlock or Firefly quotes, you name it.

Hence, astronomy-themed yarns. Here is a round-up of a few different places to find them; this is by no means exhaustive!

The list so far has focused on independent dyers with a heavy astronomy focus, but there are many larger yarn companies with some astro-themed yarns like Berroco’s Quasar and Prism’s Galaxy plus plenty of one-off colourways like Blue Moon’s Stardust. As most yarn fanatics know, Ravelry’s databse is your friend, although as far as I know you can only search it by yarn name and not colourway name.

What are your favorites? Send them to me and I’ll start a list!