Where can I get a really good range of colours for crocheting?

[BaaHumbug]

I have just learned to crochet [openly smug] and I am planning impossibly grand future projects. My usual craft is quilting, and the choice of colours and fabrics is practically endless so I'm a bit stymied by the poor range of colours in yarns. The best that I have found so far is Drops Paris Light and a Rico range, but both of those are cotton/acrylic and I would rather work with a wool mix. I guess it's because most yarn sold is for making into something you would wear, so most colours are muted or muddy to suit skin tones. I would really like to have some clear, bright, vivid tones (not lurid). I've found that colours like green and orange are especially lacking, pinks and blues aren't too bad.

Any recommendations?

Rowan Pure Wool has lots of lovely shades. Here

They are lovely colours TWW, but they are quite muted. The greens, especially, are quite mossy.

I own a craft shop so look at different yarn colours every day..it does tend to be the cotton based yarns that have the clearest brightest colours, and of course they are really popular for crochet as it has such good stitch definition.
Drops have some nice colours in wool based yarn , have a look at merino extra fine and big merino, also alpaca for a beautiful 4 ply.
Rowan are just releasing a new pure wool worsted range though, and it has a fantastic range of colours, better than any other range I've seen.

The worsted range will be in the shops on the 14th btw

Debbie Bliss Rialto - there is a nice orange, a bright green and a scarlet red. Here

I'll keep looking...

The Rialto looks good, I like a couple of the greens. The orange isn't really orange though, it's slightly to pinky/corally for me. Although it's hard to tell an exact shade on a computer anyway.

Big Marino has some good colours, but not enough.

There are a lot of ranges out there that have some colours that I like, but none of them really have enough in one range and I'm not sure about mixing different brands/ranges because I'm not all that experienced.

Is there a link to the new range yet Ingles2?

Oh, and as a drip feed, I can't have anything with mohair or other floaty fibres in it as I'm allergic (endless sneezing while working with it, and a rash if I dare to wear it). I guess alpaca would be ok as they are quite sheep like, but angora probably wouldn't be.

Drops Nepal might be worth a try, they have a lovely deep olive green, and a nice orange, although the other two greens are a bit too muted.

Do you think I could buy a load of white/cream and dye them myself, or would that be horribly messy?

On the we love Lucy group of Ravelry there has been a huge discussion (which Lucy who runs Attic 24 blog has contributed to) and Stylecraft special DK is very, very popular with them. The colours are gorgeous and I will try it for my next project.
I also like Debbie Bliss Baby cashmerio, but it is pricing for a whole blanket.

I second the Stylecraft recommendation. There is a good choice of colours in most of their yarns and they are very reasonably priced too.

Dying your own yarn could be messy but it might also be expensive as I would guess that the cheaper, mostly acrylic yarns probably wouldn't take a dye very well so you would need to buy more expensive yarn made from natural fibres.
I'm only guessing though so hopefully someone with experience may be along to say otherwise.

I've looked at Special DK, and it's probably what I'll end up using while I improve my skills, and it does have bright colours but very few of them are rich or interesting. And I don't like any of the greens.

Sorry for sounding like a completely obsessive whinger about green, maybe it's because I'm Irish and need to have a choice of 40 shades.

Lucy of Attic24 is completely amazing, isn't she? It was reading that blog that made me think I should learn to crochet. I love everything that she's made, but I don't want to recreate her colour palate as it's not my colour palate.

I would have a go at dying your own yarn. You can get dyes that you can do in fairly small amounts in the microwave - I haven't done it myself, but I have friends who have, and I will be seeing them on Monday, at knitting group, so I will ask them if you need a particular dye or if any brand will do.

You can use food dyes this way - that much I do remember.

I crochet with this. www.jamiesonsofshetland.co.uk/spindrift-and-double-knitting-nproducts1curpage-2-1-c.asp

There is a huge range of colours.

Stylecraft is cheap and cheerful. They do have a rubbish selection of greens though. Meadow and teal are nice, the others are rubbish.

I've made this using purples pinks and blues and this using about thirty different Stylecraft shades.

Thanks SDTG.

Cheese I am lucky enough to have been to the shop a true emporium of wool.

I use rico dk. it is cotton and comes in lovely bright colours and reasonably pricee.

Thanks Cheese, I might order their test swatches so I can see what they're like in RL. I really like some of the greens (hurrah) but I'm not keen on the oranges or purples. They have some amazing pinks and reds though.

Thistledown those are amazing, I'm so envious impressed by them. I am hoping to build up to a gorgeous blanket but have decided to do a few cushion covers first to see which style of stitch would work best, and to see if I have what it takes to do a full blanket. It would be a bit of a commitment for a beginner and I have a few more important things to be getting on with this year (which is obviously why I am procrastinating by happily noodling around with pretty wool).

Thistledown - that blanket with the colourful circles is gorgeous. Might have to have a go at that one!

Is it your blog? Or did you do a bit of trial and error with the pattern?

Thank you.
It is my blog. I've made th circle pattern a few times. Somewhere on the blog I've written it up.
I've done multi coloured circles, random single coloured circles and then that one was a bit more coordinated with a planned colour palette.

You can dye yarn quite easily with kool aid. It's a disgusting soft drink mix from the states but you can buy it on amazon. It makes great bright colours and acts as its own fixative. It's pretty straight forward and quite effective.

Also madelinetosh yarns are lovely colours. Pricey and a bit emperors new clothes but the colours are beautiful and varied.

And another vote for Rico cotton aran for great colours. Not sure what you're looking for with greens but they have a few available.

Rico, yes a nice bright green and their pistachio shades are lovely.

Rico cotton aran are lovely colours, and I would use that if I was making toys or maybe a hat but I wouldn't make a blanket out of cotton. It just wouldn't have enough snuggle factor.

While looking at Madelinetosh I also found BC Garn, which has great colours in their aran weight which would be a bit quicker to make up than DK. I'll keep Madelinetosh in mind for the future when I'm good enough to pay big money for wool and not feel that it's wasted on someone with my ability.