Farbabstimmung und Pantone-Lab-Dip

You supply a Pantone or physical standard; the mill dyes a lab dip for your approval; then bulk yarn is dyed to the approved lab dip. Stock colours skip dyeing.

Often 1-2 rounds to hit the standard; unusual shades may need more.

Yes - a small-lot dyeing surcharge below 100-300 pieces per colour, and 7-15 extra days for the lab dip. The MOQ stays at 30 pieces per colour; in-stock colours keep cost and lead time lowest.

A physical yarn or fabric swatch is the most reliable, TCX next, TPG last - not because TPG is wrong, but because it is a paper standard and paper and spun yarn reflect light differently, so a match that looks right on a chip can read a half-tone off in a knitted panel. Most seasonal colour cards quote TPG, so send it anyway: we convert it, tell you where the risk sits, and confirm on the first lab dip. Standard is 3 lab-dip rounds, checked in a D65 light box to a deltaE under 1.5.

Less than you expect. Mid-tone warm neutrals - oatmeal, ecru, turtledove grey, camel - let cable, rib, pointelle and jacquard read clearly because the shadow inside the stitch has somewhere to fall. Very dark navy, charcoal and black flatten the same structure; at two metres a cable that reads beautifully in oatmeal can disappear in black. If the colourway has to be dark, we usually go a gauge heavier, deepen the cable, or add a contrast trim. Decide the structure and the shade together rather than in sequence.

Not by lab dip. A melange or marl is blended before spinning, so you approve the yarn itself and the approval sample must be knitted rather than wound on a card - the blend only resolves at fabric scale. Yarn-dyed stripes are approved colour by colour and then again as a knitted repeat, because the proportion changes how each colour reads. Allow one extra approval round in the schedule for either.