New colorways drop every Saturday @ 3pm EST
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FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OF $75+
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New colorways drop every Saturday @ 3pm EST 💜 FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OF $75+ 🚚
Hand-dyed Yarn for Knitters & Crocheters
Soft, vibrant, and released in limited weekly drops.
The Wooly Caterpillar creates vibrant indie dyed yarn inspired by Vermont landscapes & critters, maximalist colors, vintage moods, and cozy creativity. Explore variegated and tonal colorways on soft merino yarn bases that are perfect for knitting, crochet, and fiber arts.
This weeks featured colorways - More options on our SHOP page.
🌅 Melancholy. Windswept. Reflective. — Waiting captures the quiet patience of a sailboat resting alone at the dock as the last light slips beneath the horizon. Shades of weathered blue and gentle mauve drift together like ripples across still water, creating a colorway that feels both peaceful and full of longing.
Inspired by evenings spent watching the harbor settle into silence, Waiting evokes salt air, creaking ropes, and the promise of journeys not yet taken. Every skein pools and shifts, much like the changing sky at dusk, making it perfect for soulful shawls, cozy sweaters, and projects that deserve a little atmosphere.
This is the yarn equivalent of standing on the dock long after everyone else has gone home.
Pairs well with: Vintage Port and Magic at Midnight
Lonely boat-inspired colorway
☀️No two skeins are exactly alike
🧶Hand-dyed in small batches
🕶️Beautifully variegated
Sockity-Sock Select (Sock/Fingering Weight)
75% Fine Superwash Merino, 25% Recycled Nylon
100g
400 meters or 437 yards
4 ply
Knit gauge in stockinette: 27-32 stitches in 4”
Needle size: US 1-3 (2.25-3.25mm)
Crochet gauge in single crochet: 21-32 stitches in 4”
Hook size: B-1 to E-4 (2.25-3.5mm)
(Worsted Select Weight)
100% Fine Superwash Merino
100g
200 meters or 219 yards
4 ply
Knit gauge in stockinette: 16-20 stitches in 4”
Needle size: US 7-9 (4.5-5.5mm)
Crochet gauge in single crochet: 11-14 stitches in 4”
Hook size: I-9 to K-10 ½ (5.5-6.5mm)
🍷 Rich. Velvety. Sophisticated. — Vintage Port is a deep tonal wine shade inspired by the glow of aged port swirling in crystal glasses beside flickering candlelight. Layers of burgundy, plum, and dark mulberry create a colorway with incredible depth, shifting subtly like vintage velvet in low evening light.
Elegant on its own and absolutely stunning paired with Waiting, Vintage Port draws out the faded mauves and dusky blues of its companion colorway, creating a combination that feels like sunset at the marina after the storm has passed. Together, they tell a story of weathered docks, quiet water, and lingering conversations long after nightfall.
Perfect for moody sweaters, dramatic shawls, and richly textured accessories, Vintage Port brings warmth, romance, and just a touch of old-world decadence to every stitch.
Pairs well with: Waiting
🍷Port Wine-inspired colorway
☀️No two skeins are exactly alike
🧶Hand-dyed in small batches
🕶️Beautifully tonal
Sockity-Sock Select (Sock/Fingering Weight):
75% Fine Superwash Merino, 25% Recycled Nylon
100g
400 meters or 437 yards
4 ply
Knit gauge in stockinette: 27-32 stitches in 4”
Needle size: US 1-3 (2.25-3.25mm)
Crochet gauge in single crochet: 21-32 stitches in 4”
Hook size: B-1 to E-4 (2.25-3.5mm)
Snuggle-Buggle Select (Worsted Select Weight):
100% Fine Superwash Merino
100g
200 meters or 219 yards
4 ply
Knit gauge in stockinette: 16-20 stitches in 4”
Needle size: US 7-9 (4.5-5.5mm)
Crochet gauge in single crochet: 11-14 stitches in 4”
Hook size: I-9 to K-10 ½ (5.5-6.5mm)
Are you feeling up for a surprise? Would you like a little mystery in your life? Choose a Mystery Skein! We’ll select a skein for you, so you won’t know the colorway until it arrives…we’re so excited for you!
Do you need your skeins wound into a cake? Select this service and we’ll take care of it for you! Price is per skein wound into a cake.
Indie dyed yarns created in stunning colorways on sumptuous yarns that are fairly priced - ensuring that fiber arts are accessible to as many people as possible.
What our customers are saying:
We put color in yarn
The Wooly Caterpillar is a small, family run indie dyed yarn business that launched in December 2025. All our yarns are dyed by Vicky, our Founder & Chief Creative Officer. Brian, Vicky’s husband, is our go-to person for just about everything else. We have also enlisted Vicky’s mom, Marion - (she puts all those labels on each and every skein!), Abbie helps with social media and marketing, and Evan helps out with tech questions when they come up. Thanks for buying from our little company and helping to support turning this dream into reality!
The Wooly Caterpillar is the exclusive home of Fox & Owl Dye Lab - our own private label yarns. Our bases are sourced from trusted suppliers who use mulesing free wool in their yarn production. These yarn bases are amazingly soft, provide excellent stitch definition, and work up into garments that you will reach for again and again. Our color inspiration comes from the Vermont landscape and it’s critters, the personalities we encounter, and causes we stand for.
We strive to ensure that our yarn meets your standards - no bleeding of colors, carefully crafted dye recipes to provide consistency across dye lots, and a company that stands behind it’s product. If you encounter a problem with our yarn, please reach out to Vicky or Brian for a solution. We want nothing more than to make you happy with the yarn you purchase from us!
Thank your for supporting our small business!
Vicky & Brian
Working with fiber is good for the soul - it grounds us and provides an avenue for meditative healing.
- Victoria Collingwood, Founder & Chief Creative Officer