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Helpful info about our yarns, our services, and us
New to Colourmart? for key points click here
LUXURY MILL END YARNS SINCE 2005.
We are a small company with only a couple of staff members, which helps us to work with our customers to meet their needs. ColourMart is one of the top online supplier of remainder luxury yarns, particularly cashmere, silk and extra fine merino. We ethically source our yarns from the best Scottish and Italian mills, and then package them to suit the needs of hand and machine knitters, crocheters, weavers, hand dyers, and even spinners.
We've been supplying luxury yarn worldwide for almost 20 years, and pride ourselves in our customer service. Our loyal customers have even created a very active Ravelry group dedicated to our yarn (click here to see).
We are a small company with only a couple of staff members, which helps us to work with our customers to meet their needs. ColourMart is one of the top online supplier of remainder luxury yarns, particularly cashmere, silk and extra fine merino. We ethically source our yarns from the best Scottish and Italian mills, and then package them to suit the needs of hand and machine knitters, crocheters, weavers, hand dyers, and even spinners.
We've been supplying luxury yarn worldwide for almost 20 years, and pride ourselves in our customer service. Our loyal customers have even created a very active Ravelry group dedicated to our yarn (click here to see).
We offer twisting together multiple plies of any yarn (of the same color or different colors, indeed of different fibers too if you wish). To arrange for this, please tick the relevant options in your basket against the yarn (if options are not shown, we will not twist that yarn).
Note that we attempt to get a balanced yarn but twisting is a craft process and we can not guarantee a perfect result.
Twisting should always work with singles yarns (eg 1 13NM yarn) because a balanced final result is possible with singles yarn input. We can twist up multiple ends of already twisted (eg 2 28NM) yarns but the final result will be twisty EXCEPT if you want lots of plies, say 4 plies of lace weight to make a dk - then we can double twist the plies (for example 2 plies twisted one way then two lots of the result twisted together the other way, called a 2x2 twist) when we can still aim for a balanced result. Sometimes it is also possible to relax the twist in a twisty resultant yarn by skein winding and soaking - we will do the skein winding for free but soaking / washing incurs a charge so you may wish to do that yourself.
An alternative to twisting is to just choose to have multiple plies of yarn wound together on one cone. This is free and the end result is rather like knitting from multiple cones at once (which some customers do, often). Note that if you ask for say 3 cones of yarn wound 4 strands together you will still get 3 cones, with the multiple stranded wound yarn on each cone - if you want them all on one cone please tick the "larger cone" option in your basket. Note also, though, that we can not skein wind multiple wound yarns - as the individual strands are just parallel the whole thing ends up a big mess...
And talking about skein winding, we offer this for many yarns, with or without washing. The skeins are one yard length.
NOTE the twisting, winding and skein winding options usually delay the shipment of your order - it is safe to assume by 2-3 working days. OUR WORKING WEEK is Monday to Friday, with Friday being a short day.
If you are unsure about how many strands you need to be wound/plied the easiest way to work it out is to divide the starting yardage with the yardage you require for example lace weight yarn has approx 2070mtrs per 150gm cone if you require a yarn with 800mtrs per 150gm 2070/800=2.58 so we would round up and advise 3 strands. If in doubt please just ask us :-)
Note that we attempt to get a balanced yarn but twisting is a craft process and we can not guarantee a perfect result.
Twisting should always work with singles yarns (eg 1 13NM yarn) because a balanced final result is possible with singles yarn input. We can twist up multiple ends of already twisted (eg 2 28NM) yarns but the final result will be twisty EXCEPT if you want lots of plies, say 4 plies of lace weight to make a dk - then we can double twist the plies (for example 2 plies twisted one way then two lots of the result twisted together the other way, called a 2x2 twist) when we can still aim for a balanced result. Sometimes it is also possible to relax the twist in a twisty resultant yarn by skein winding and soaking - we will do the skein winding for free but soaking / washing incurs a charge so you may wish to do that yourself.
An alternative to twisting is to just choose to have multiple plies of yarn wound together on one cone. This is free and the end result is rather like knitting from multiple cones at once (which some customers do, often). Note that if you ask for say 3 cones of yarn wound 4 strands together you will still get 3 cones, with the multiple stranded wound yarn on each cone - if you want them all on one cone please tick the "larger cone" option in your basket. Note also, though, that we can not skein wind multiple wound yarns - as the individual strands are just parallel the whole thing ends up a big mess...
And talking about skein winding, we offer this for many yarns, with or without washing. The skeins are one yard length.
NOTE the twisting, winding and skein winding options usually delay the shipment of your order - it is safe to assume by 2-3 working days. OUR WORKING WEEK is Monday to Friday, with Friday being a short day.
If you are unsure about how many strands you need to be wound/plied the easiest way to work it out is to divide the starting yardage with the yardage you require for example lace weight yarn has approx 2070mtrs per 150gm cone if you require a yarn with 800mtrs per 150gm 2070/800=2.58 so we would round up and advise 3 strands. If in doubt please just ask us :-)
Please feel free to contact us if you have any problems with your order. We accept returns for any reason up to 3 years after purchase, and will generally offer you a choice of a full refund, basket credit or replacement if possible for any yarn purchased in the previous 12 months. Between 12 months and 3 years after purchase we will offer you the choice of a replacement if possible, or a basket credit. We do not pay for return shipping costs. If the yarn is not returned in its original condition, or we have processed it for you (eg twisting or skein winding) these items will be refunded/credited minus 20% (options charge not refunded/credited).
The prices you see are the prices you pay and include postage. We ship worldwide via priority air mail which means packages usually arrive within 7-10 days, often less, but they are not officially late until 3 weeks has passed, and (although they typically leave UK the same day or next day) a few do take this long or longer, depending on the receiving country (Canada can be particularly slow).
August 2020 update. Royal Mail have now been charging very high surcharges so we are having to pass some of this on to customers in some countries.
Normal air mail charges are still included for free although for some countries a surcharge is payable by weight so will vary from order to order (we cover this for new US customers as we do Tracking for any orders placed in 1st month after account has been activated).
Sept 2020 update. USPS latest prices to international shippers to the US now price untracked parcels at the same level as tracked, which is much higher than we previously included for free. So we have now made tracking required for US orders, and we are asking US customer to pay $8 per parcel contribution to the tracking part, whilst we are still including the per kg postage part for free (one parcel can include up to 9 of our standard 150g cones).
EU / Brexit VAT update. We are registered for the IOSS scheme which means we pay the full VAT on all orders to EU countries, so EU customers should not have to pay VAT or handling charges. Our IOSS number is IM2500013220 and our UK VAT number is 881377689.
The requirements for small parcel air mail mean that orders greater than 1.9kg (including cones and packaging) need to be split into two or more parcels. Although we usually ship them at the same time (unless you ask us not to), they may arrive on separate days.
Postage within the UK is at First Class rates.
For NON-US customers, normal air mail has no tracking, but we do offer tracking, signed for, or both depending on what Royal Mail offers to any given country. Again for this we charge $8 per parcel. If you wish to add this please select the appropriate option when checking out (after confirming shipping address). We can also ship large orders in one package by courier if required, for an extra fee.
August 2020 update. Royal Mail have now been charging very high surcharges so we are having to pass some of this on to customers in some countries.
Normal air mail charges are still included for free although for some countries a surcharge is payable by weight so will vary from order to order (we cover this for new US customers as we do Tracking for any orders placed in 1st month after account has been activated).
Sept 2020 update. USPS latest prices to international shippers to the US now price untracked parcels at the same level as tracked, which is much higher than we previously included for free. So we have now made tracking required for US orders, and we are asking US customer to pay $8 per parcel contribution to the tracking part, whilst we are still including the per kg postage part for free (one parcel can include up to 9 of our standard 150g cones).
EU / Brexit VAT update. We are registered for the IOSS scheme which means we pay the full VAT on all orders to EU countries, so EU customers should not have to pay VAT or handling charges. Our IOSS number is IM2500013220 and our UK VAT number is 881377689.
The requirements for small parcel air mail mean that orders greater than 1.9kg (including cones and packaging) need to be split into two or more parcels. Although we usually ship them at the same time (unless you ask us not to), they may arrive on separate days.
Postage within the UK is at First Class rates.
For NON-US customers, normal air mail has no tracking, but we do offer tracking, signed for, or both depending on what Royal Mail offers to any given country. Again for this we charge $8 per parcel. If you wish to add this please select the appropriate option when checking out (after confirming shipping address). We can also ship large orders in one package by courier if required, for an extra fee.
We will happily try to match any samples sent to us. We will also send
small free skeins of up to 6 yarns (even if you are not ordering) as
long as you have them in your shopping basket on the site, just email us
directly at colourmartcashmere@gmail.com or add a request to your order
when checking out if you are ordering at the same time. We charge US$0.50 each for any samples above 6, and we also charge if you ask for more than one samples shipment between orders.
We also sell a sample pack ( click here to see it), which includes a selection of small skeins showing most of our yarn counts, and a washed skein to show how the yarns may bloom after washing. Sample packs are pre-made and cannot be tailored.
We also sell a sample pack ( click here to see it), which includes a selection of small skeins showing most of our yarn counts, and a washed skein to show how the yarns may bloom after washing. Sample packs are pre-made and cannot be tailored.
We only share your personal information with other organizations if it is necessary to provide you with yarns (eg with postage / courier companies).
All your information is encrypted before storage on our website.
All of the financial part of your purchasing, whether by Paypal account or by card, is handled by Paypal directly. We do not have access to any of the details you use to pay us
to see our detailed privacy policy, click here: privacy policy
All your information is encrypted before storage on our website.
All of the financial part of your purchasing, whether by Paypal account or by card, is handled by Paypal directly. We do not have access to any of the details you use to pay us
to see our detailed privacy policy, click here: privacy policy
Our prices are pretty competitive anyway. We do have additional discounts but please note these do not stack so the site will work out the best discount and automatically add it for you:-) :
- new to us customers get a 20% discount on yarns that have discounts allowed on them and where applicable free tracking for 28 days, sets and some non mill end yarns will not be discounted
- if you buy 6 or more 150g cones of one color of one yarn type you can tick the box for "kg cone discount" in your basket against that yarn / color. This will reduce the price, usually by more than 20%, more if the item is on KONE SALE!, occasionally less. Ticking this box means you are agreeing to have the yarn sent on larger cones than 150g, typically on cones of around 900g but sometimes a mix of cone sizes.
- if you buy 6 or more 150g cones of more than one color of one yarn type you will automatically get a discount on all the cones, typically 15% but can be more on sale items... a similar deal works for 50g cones of some yarns..
- all customers build up a 5% credit for all purchases on our website, which is added to their baskets at the end of each month.
-we also give our customers a monthly "thank you" bonus, on the 1st of each month we will add a credit to your basket for 5% of the previous months order value. These and all credits that are added to baskets are valid for 6 months and after that they will expire
- new to us customers get a 20% discount on yarns that have discounts allowed on them and where applicable free tracking for 28 days, sets and some non mill end yarns will not be discounted
- if you buy 6 or more 150g cones of one color of one yarn type you can tick the box for "kg cone discount" in your basket against that yarn / color. This will reduce the price, usually by more than 20%, more if the item is on KONE SALE!, occasionally less. Ticking this box means you are agreeing to have the yarn sent on larger cones than 150g, typically on cones of around 900g but sometimes a mix of cone sizes.
- if you buy 6 or more 150g cones of more than one color of one yarn type you will automatically get a discount on all the cones, typically 15% but can be more on sale items... a similar deal works for 50g cones of some yarns..
- all customers build up a 5% credit for all purchases on our website, which is added to their baskets at the end of each month.
-we also give our customers a monthly "thank you" bonus, on the 1st of each month we will add a credit to your basket for 5% of the previous months order value. These and all credits that are added to baskets are valid for 6 months and after that they will expire
The first thing to say about the NM numbers we use (2/28NM, 3/10NM and so on) is that if you find them difficult to understand, you can ignore them (and use the gauges table here instead) :-). The next thing to say is that pretty much any factory spun yarn sold in the world will have been described by it's spinner in NM terms or equivalent, it's just that as we sell industrial cones which we buy with these numbers on, we use them - many craft yarn sellers leave them off.
So what do they mean? well the number before the "/" is how many strands the yarn has. The number after the "/" is how many meters you can get from each gram of each strand. So a 2/28NM yarn has 2 strands, each one giving 28 meters per gram. When you put two strands together, the weight per meter doubles... put another way when you double a strand the meters per gram halves. The same principle applies to more than two strands, so the rule is that to get the total meters per gram for a multi strand yarn you divided the number after the "/" by the number before it. So a 2/28NM yarn gives 14 meters per gram (28 divided by 2), whilst a 4/7NM yarn gives 1.75 meters per gram (7 divided by 4 = 1.75). What sometimes seems a bit odd about this resulting number is that the lower the number the thicker the yarn... a 2/28NM yarn will give 8 times as many meters from say 50g as a 4/7NM yarn ( 14 from above divided by 1.75 from above gives 8).
NOTE sometimes the manufacturers use a bigger NM number like "3000NM". That will be the total NM for the yarn, and should be divided by 1000. So a "3000NM" yarn will be 3NM total in terms of the explanation above, 3 meters per gram and could be a 1/3NM, a 2/6NM and so on, or most likely it will be a chainette style yarn.
Other useful tips about NM numbers:
- they work the same way as the more typical numbers on other supplier's yarns - if a 50g ball has 500 meters in it then the total NM number for that yarn will be 10 (500 divided by 50)
- if you multiply the NM number by about 500, you will get yards per pound (YPP)... so the 2/28NM mentioned above is about 7,000 YPP
So what do they mean? well the number before the "/" is how many strands the yarn has. The number after the "/" is how many meters you can get from each gram of each strand. So a 2/28NM yarn has 2 strands, each one giving 28 meters per gram. When you put two strands together, the weight per meter doubles... put another way when you double a strand the meters per gram halves. The same principle applies to more than two strands, so the rule is that to get the total meters per gram for a multi strand yarn you divided the number after the "/" by the number before it. So a 2/28NM yarn gives 14 meters per gram (28 divided by 2), whilst a 4/7NM yarn gives 1.75 meters per gram (7 divided by 4 = 1.75). What sometimes seems a bit odd about this resulting number is that the lower the number the thicker the yarn... a 2/28NM yarn will give 8 times as many meters from say 50g as a 4/7NM yarn ( 14 from above divided by 1.75 from above gives 8).
NOTE sometimes the manufacturers use a bigger NM number like "3000NM". That will be the total NM for the yarn, and should be divided by 1000. So a "3000NM" yarn will be 3NM total in terms of the explanation above, 3 meters per gram and could be a 1/3NM, a 2/6NM and so on, or most likely it will be a chainette style yarn.
Other useful tips about NM numbers:
- they work the same way as the more typical numbers on other supplier's yarns - if a 50g ball has 500 meters in it then the total NM number for that yarn will be 10 (500 divided by 50)
- if you multiply the NM number by about 500, you will get yards per pound (YPP)... so the 2/28NM mentioned above is about 7,000 YPP
Some of our best offers are "sets." Usually, these are 200g or 300g of the small bits off the cone that we have left after winding orders. Most customers who work with these sets use a pointy cone to wind the yarn onto, and we will supply a free cone with the sets if you ask for one during checkout in the comments section. For some sets on sale now, see here. See this Youtube video guide to working with our off cone sets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwOqsmkw7lo
Some of our sets are our end of lines and are therefore limited edition. Sets are not discounted but we do generally have some on cheapest free making them an even better deal
Some of our sets are our end of lines and are therefore limited edition. Sets are not discounted but we do generally have some on cheapest free making them an even better deal