The Indie Untangled Guide To VKL NYC 2020

By Lisa | January 16, 2020

New York City is what I like to think of as a big little town, where it’s not that surprising to run into people you know in the most random places. This weekend, you can think of Times Square as a big little fiber festival, as fiber folks will be taking over the area for the 10th anniversary of Vogue Knitting Live NYC.

To help you prepare for the marketplace, which is so epic that it spills outside of the hotel’s two ballrooms, here’s a guide to several Indie Untangled vendors and a sneak peek at what they’ll be bringing.

Asylum Fibers

Fifth floor, Booth 411-413

Asylum Fibers brings you versatile and luxurious yarns, hand dyed in New York City. The brand is best known for bold, unapologetic colorways and tongue-in-cheek inspiration. For 2020, AF is bringing 20 brand new colors and a batch of handmade project bags created by the dyer’s mother. Progress keepers by Samantha Decarlo and a new sweater pattern by Casapinka will also be featured. This year, the entire booth is inspired by Wonderland.

Birch Hollow Fibers

Fifth Floor, Launch Pad Booth

Birch Hollow Fibers is a small batch hand dyed yarn company located in the Hudson Valley region of New York. Our yarn is inspired by nature, books and the whimsical moments in life.

Pictured are the colorways Moss Matched, San’layn, Dahlia and Dryad.

Birdie Parker Designs

Fifth Floor, Booth 118

Birdie Parker Designs offers knit and crochet inspired jewelry and accessories to complement handcrafted garments. Our items are small and they aren’t yarn, so they don’t count as stash!

Destination Yarn

Fifth floor, Booth 214

Destination Yarn is an independent, hand dyed yarn company located in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded by a former architect, we believe in the power of place to inspire creativity in all forms. Through a passion for travel, color, and the fiber arts we create unique & vibrant colorways just for you.

For our third year at Vogue Knitting Live we will be bringing our brand new Italy Collection – 5 tonals, and 4 variegated colorways designed to work together and inspired by Italy. We will also have with us our very popular New York colorways including last year’s huge hit Brooklyn, along with Grand Central Terminal.

Fully Spun

Fifth Floor, Booth 407

My mission with Fully Spun is to encourage and enable people to express themselves through color. We are featuring our new DK weight base, Sock Fingering and a sweater surprise!

Fuse Fiber Studio

Fifth Floor, Booth 120

Fuse Fiber Studio is all about creating colors to spark your creativity! We are a boutique yarn dyeing company focusing on carefully curated, ethically sourced bases and one-of-a-kind colors. I keep my batches small so that I can explore unique and unexpected color combinations and treat each skein of yarn like its own work of art. You can count on every skein being dyed with care and attention to detail from start to finish My goal as a dyer is to create wearable colors that look as beautiful in the skein as they do in your finished projects.

My VKL 2020 collection is one big love letter to New York City! I’ve created tons of new colorways celebrating the city and all of its glorious contradictions, from elegant tonals on luxury bases to the more complex and moody speckles. Don’t miss our signature event colorway — Central Park and our new Comfort DK, locally sourced and spun New York state!

Fuzz Family by KraeO

Fifth Floor, Booth 1000

KraeO’s Fuzz Family is a line of yarn hand dyed with love, in Chicago. They create beautiful colorways with complex neutrals and a color pallet that is both vivid and wearable.

Hellomello Handspun

Sixth Floor, Booth 1015

Hellomello Handspun’s limited-edition, small batch mill spun yarns are created seasonally using the highest quality hand-selected fine wool fleeces. Cleaning, carding and spinning is done at a family owned and operated mill located in New York State. Each skein is lovingly dyed by hand at our studio in Brooklyn, NY.

In addition to Hellomello Handspun’s signature neon colorways and seasonal mill-spun yarns, our first booth at VKL will feature beautiful Shibori and eco-dyed silk scarves, mending kits and luxury handspun.

Shoppers can help us raise money for those affected by the bushfires in Austrailia. For every skein of undyed “naked sheep” yarn or preorder of our Kangas and Koalas colorway purchased during the event, we will donate $10 to @blazeaid (an organization that helps Australian farmers recover from natural disaster) or @wildlifevictoria (a non-profit wildlife emergency response organization based in Victoria, AU).

Katrinkles

Fifth Floor, Booth 100

Katrinkles makes buttons, wearable accessories, and tools for fiber artists out of durable and sustainable wood. Each piece is lovingly designed, carefully crafted and hand-finished in Providence, RI. Our products are made in house on our studio’s four laser-cutting machines. Katrinkles makes tools for knitting, crocheting, spinning, weaving, embroidery and needlepoint as well as stitchable ornaments and buttons to decorate your work. Pictured are our new Adjustable Mitten Blockers and some items from our Vogue Exclusive collection.

Knit Collage

Fifth Floor, Booth 527

Here at Knit Collage, we create unique yarns to inspire your creativity and to get your needles humming!

After about seven months in the making, finally we releasing the Shakespeare in the Park pattern, here at Knit Collage. This design is a dramatic yet easy to knit colorwork sweater, designed by one of our most favorite designers, Park Williams. Check out the kits in our booth at Vogue Knitting Live! The pattern comes free with yarn purchase through VKL weekend only.

Little Fox Yarn

5th Floor, Booth 522

Aimee and Brian are the dyers of Little Fox Yarn, based just outside of Richmond, Virginia. Their beautiful, wearable colorways are inspired by the Blue Ridge Mountains where Aimee grew up.

We will have our usual favorites: Little Mo (lace), Vixen (fingering), Linea (sport), Bōsa and Vulpine (DK). We will also be introducing our new Bulky Base, Tod, and we will have new buttons and shawl pins (in wood, clay and antler) by Idlewild Pottery & Notions.

mYak

Sixth Floor, Booths 1009-1013

A natural fiber unique in the world. Born in one of the world’s most extreme locations. Made with Italian artisanal quality. This is mYak: Born in Tibet, Crafted in Italy.

This year, we will bring our new Tibetan Cloud DK line as well as our Baby Yak with many new wonderful designs, kits and bundles.

We are thrilled to host Jonna and Sini of Laine magazine, Jennifer Steingass, Olga Buraya Kefelian, Kirsten Kapur, Thea Colman and Susanne Sommers at our booth throughout the weekend.

Portnerness, with her amazing line of jewelry, will joining us as a guest brand and for the first time we will bring an incredible selection of Temaricious embroidery and crafting floss, naturally dyed in Japan. We will also offer Laine magazine’s Knitting Journal and pins, and Indie Untangled Fiber Friends pins.

Sweater Sisters

Fifth Floor, Booth 208

Sweater Sisters out of Alta, Wyoming offers kits, yarns hand-dyed in the Tetons and professional Landscape Dyes from Australia. They’re dedicated to offering luxury fibers to elevate your crafting experience.

Pictured are the Crystal Meadows Shawl and Ramalina by Susanne Visch.

TreLiz

Fifth Floor, Booth 111

TreLiz hand-dyed yarns are here to remind you that: Color is Power, Fiber is our Weapon.

The Wandering Flock

Sixth Floor, Booth 1101-1103

Drawing from my experience in fashion, I approach dyeing with a lot of intention, and focus on the final product your creations. While a skein of yarn is where my process ends, I think about what you will make with it. My hope is to create a line of yarn and classic, yet contemporary, knitwear patterns that will fit into your everyday wardrobe.

I will be presenting my line of yarn and patterns, including the Arete sweater I designed for Pom Pom Quarterly’s Winter 2019 issue.

Zen Yarn Garden

Sixth Floor, Booth 1006

Zen Yarn Garden’s dye studio is based is Ontario, Canada. Our yarn is special. We take pride in providing the most luxurious fibres and dyeing them in a range of beautiful semi-solid, splatter and one-of-a-kind colourways.

Our booth will be filled with NY-themed colourways available exclusively at Vogue NY. We will also have hand-dyed, ready-to-wear scarves in our custom colours.

Food guide

When you find time to tear yourself away from the marketplace, or if you need sustenance between classes, here are a few of my favorite food recommendations in the Times Square area.

If you want…

A quick bite, head to City Kitchen, a gourmet food court with a selection that includes Luke’s Lobster and Dough donuts.

To relax with a pint, try Beer Culture, a cozy bar with a rotating selection of craft beers on tap and fridges filled with microbrews. They also serve wine and whiskey if beer’s not your thing, along with a menu of creative pub food.

Dinner with a small group of friends, I highly recommend The Marshal, a farm-to-table restaurant with a brick oven.

A bistro brunch, hit up BXL Cafe, a low-key place with great egg dishes and delicious Belgian waffles.

What to stash this week: winter mystery

By Lisa | January 3, 2020

If you’re in a casting on state of mind, and also want to enter to win some free yarn, join in on Mona Zillah’s Crystalline Snowdrop MKAL for February.

Crystalline Snowdrop is a semicircular shawl featuring a lace and mesh motif. It can be knit in two sizes with one or two skeins — the mystery samples use Lunaris, a sparkly Merino/Cashmere/Stellina yarn from Anzula Luxury Fibers. If you join the KAL and post your FO on Instagram or Ravelry, you can enter to win Anzula yarn!

Meg of Nutmeg Fibers is launching the DyeSigner Alliance, a tri-annual collaboration between her, a dyer and a designer. Session 1, which ships in April, features Nashville dyer Silbia Ro of Camellia Fiber Co. and Denver-based designer Dawn Henderson, who goes by dawn.landix on Ravelry and Instagram.

What to stash this week: Places you can knit

By Lisa | November 22, 2019

I’m thrilled to open sign-ups today for Where We Knit 2020. This quarterly club, which will begin shipping in February, brings together four dyer/designer dream teams: Wobble Gobble Yarn and Veera Välimäki, bleu poussière and Paula Pereira, Earl Grey Fiber Co. and Vanessa Smith, and Indie Untangled X The Wandering Flock and Geraldine Yang.

Each pair will collaborate on an exclusive colorway and an accompanying accessory design inspired by their favorite spots to whip out their WIPs. Their inspiration photos are shown in the image above, clockwise from top left.

Aside from the yarn and pattern, each shipment will include a surprise gift from a third artisan. You have the option of a one-time payment for a discounted price or payment each quarter. Spots are limited and sign-ups run through Dec. 31, 2019, or when the subscriber cap is reached.

I hope you join us on this journey next year to get a small sampling of all the indie goodness out there!

Meet and get to know IU newcomer Christy of Les Belles Lainages and her bright, bold colorways with pops of earth tones, and snag one of her sock kits.

Elisabeth of Wolle’s Yarn Creations has fingering weight cotton/silk yarns with a tweedy look.

Julia of Pandia’s Jewels has created some kits for her Winter’s Moon shawl with her Delight DK base in four colors (she will also take custom orders).

Untangling Tamy Gore of Narrow Path Designs

By Lisa | November 19, 2019

Tamy Gore of Narrow Path Designs

Earlier this year, I had the honor of collaborating with Tamy Gore of Narrow Path Designs — along with Sarah of The Dye Project and Thao of Nerd Bird Makery — on the Rosé and Rambouillet kit.

Tamy published her first design, the Out of Winter shawl, on Ravelry in May 2016, and it shows off her skill at combining speckled and semisolid colorways of hand-dyed yarn. She also creates lovely garments with just semisolids. Her Dusky Rose shawl, which is now available individually as well as with the kit (of which there are only a few left), is one of those stunning shawl designs, and uniquely combines garter, brioche, short rows and slipped stitches in an elegant garment.

How did you decide to become a knitwear designer?

I really just decided to try my hand at it. I had modified a few cowls before but never really designed anything on my own, and so I figured I take the plunge and I haven’t stopped since.

How did you come up with Narrow Path Designs and why do you use it as your business name?

The name was actually chosen by my husband and it stems from Jesus’ words in the Bible in regards to entering by the narrow gate, meaning that He is the only way to salvation and so calling all people to come to Him. I love and am thankful for that and so I kept the name and added Designs to it.

Tami’s Dusky Rose shawl for the Rosé and Rambouillet collaboration.

When and how did you learn to knit?

I was taught in 2013 by my goddaughter and her siblings. I smile each time I think of those days and the many mistakes I made and how extremely patient these children were with me. 🙂 It took a while for me to understand (especially purling!), but I finally got it.

Do you do any crafts other than knitting?

Not at this moment, but I would like to start using my sewing machine. I got a vintage machine from a sweet friend, but haven’t really buckled down to use it yet.

Tell me about what inspires your designs.

Nature. Birds and other animals, plants and changing seasons. I love playing with different colors, and yet there are a few colors that always seem to end up in most of my designs.

What’s the first thing you do when you start designing a pattern?

I draw. Sometimes that means I’m drawing on a napkin if we’re out for dinner, or I have my handy notepad and pencil with me. 🙂 The design starts to form in my mind and then I start playing around with it on paper. I usually change the design as I’m knitting it and rarely ever stick to the original idea.

Tamy’s Milu shawl.

Do you think you’ll ever design sweaters or will you stick to accessories?

It’s definitely in the plan, but we’ll see what happens. 🙂

What are your favorite colors and have they changed at all since you started designing?

My favorite colors are yellow, rusty orange and shades of pink and peaches. They haven’t really changed since I first started and I would be surprised if they did, but you never know. 🙂

Post-Rhinebeck Untangling: Heather Love of Hellomello

By Lisa | October 23, 2019

This is the 14th in a series of blog posts featuring the fabulous sponsors of the 2019 Rhinebeck Trunk Show.

Hellomello Handspun is a Brooklyn hipster indie yarn company: dyer Heather Love was using farm-fresh yarn before it was cool.

Heather starting out selling handspun, hence the name, and then fell down the rabbit hole of sourcing local wool, like the super springy and soft Cormo she offers on a range of hand-dyed colorways (designer Paula Pereira used it for Yullana, a sweater that’s part of a collection she launched this past weekend at Indie Untangled and the New York Sheep and Wool Festival).

Tell me about how you got started dyeing yarn.

I’ve always been a bit of a textile nerd, so by the time I made it to art school I was a pretty experienced seamstress and had a regular side hustle “restyling” vintage clothing and stitching for a few local designers. Because of this, I made an effort to spend most of my studio time exploring other artistic avenues, including glass and photography. With the exception of a few bookbinding classes, my only textile class was a year-long African Dye Resist intensive that I took for fun.

Really and truly, hand-spinning was what got me started down the rabbit hole though. I took a class 10 or 12 years ago and got hooked. Fleeces were purchased. There was a lot of experimentation with carding and dyeing. Pretty soon, I had “too much” handspun and started selling it. It’s funny how things circle back around sometimes.

How did you come to source local yarn blends and how challenging is it to do this?

At a certain point, I realized that I couldn’t keep up spinning everything by hand — most people seemed more interested in my dye work, anyway. The problem for me was that I really wasn’t inspired by the idea of using a standard Superwash wool. Like most hand-spinners, I crave the tactile spring and softness of lanolin-rich wools. So in 2010, I decided to try sending a few fleeces to the mill for processing and had a small batch of my own yarn made. What I got back changed everything.

There are a lot of challenges in manufacturing. Sourcing fleece is just the start. Everything about milling takes time, a long time, and a lot can go wrong along the way. Prices climb higher with every season, but, in the end, I know it’s a worthwhile endeavor and I love being able to create amazing yarns that no one else has. My runs are very limited but that’s what keeps it interesting. Every batch is a little different and, with hand dyeing, every skein is uniquely beautiful.

What inspires your colorways and your colorway names?

Brooklyn by way of Boston. The city is ever changing, sometimes exhausting, always inspiring: music, fashion, traffic and graffiti. There is always something new to photograph and explore. I am lucky to have lived in such vibrant cities and have met so many wonderful people along the way.

Do you have a favorite color or colors, and have they changed since you became a dyer?

I don’t have a favorite, I need the whole box of crayons. For me, it is all about the interaction and influence of colors on one another. I love how a color changes based on what it is paired with. The more vibration, the better I like it.

Is there a color that you would love to dye, but that is challenging to create?

At the moment, I’m obsessed with super-saturated neons. I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with layering color and over dyeing these lately and there are a couple of surprises in the works for VKL in January.

Paula Pereira’s Yullana sweater in Hellomello Cormo.

When and how did you learn to knit?

My grandmother taught me to knit and crochet when I was young. As a kid I spent a lot of time stitching intricate little acrylic outfits for my army of Barbies. I favored crochet for its quicker finish until I started knitting garments for myself in high school. These days, I can knit much more quickly than I crochet.

Do you enjoy any other crafts in addition to knitting?

Sewing is my other craft job. I wrote book called 30 Minute Sewing a few years back. I’ve also worked as an on-set tailor, stylist, costume designer and sewing instructor. I especially love the quiet pleasure of hand sewing techniques like embroidery, Sashiko and quilting.

What are some of your favorite FOs you or your customers have made with your yarn?

I was floored when my friend told me that Stephen West used my yarn in his Amazing Technicolor Dream Sweater and featured it in one of his sweater books — I had no idea.

Recently, there was also a really beautiful Soldotna by Pia Cooperman.

Melissa Fitzpatrick made a killer Tecumseh.

But, one of my all-time favorite neons is the Maria Sweater by Yamil Anglada. It’s like bottled sunshine.

What to stash this week at Indie or not

By Lisa | October 18, 2019

One of my favorite parts of the Indie Untangled Rhinebeck Trunk Show is getting to see indie yarn in action with the beautiful samples on display. I’m particularly excited to see designer Paula Pereira’s capsule collection that’s debuting at the show. This collaboration between Paula and two indie dyers from my hometown of New York City — Debbie of Murky Depths Dyeworks and Heather of Hellomello Handspun — is a sophisticated and fun set of designs. It includes three sweaters, a triangular shawl knit with a textured fabric and a pair of socks with a geometric stitch motif.

If you’ll be at Indie Untangled today, you’ll also get to see Kate and Nancye of Dragonfly Fibers’ Petrified Forest colorway, inspired by Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, in person. It is available to preorder online until next Friday, October 25. As always, 10% of sales will be donated to the National Park Foundation.

Is your mother a hamster? Does your father smell of elderberries? Or do you just need a shrubbery? Then you’ll want to preorder this Monty Python Advent Calendar from Fairy Tale Yarn Co.

Laura’s Hocus Pocus-inspired Bag of the Month collection shipped out early, so you can get the extras in time for Halloween. Pounce like a black cat today at 9 a.m. Pacific.

Fall definitely requires a light layer of warmth, so check out this new lace wrap from White Lies Designs.

Pre-Rhinebeck Untangling: Candice English of The Farmer’s Daughter Fibers

By Lisa | October 16, 2019

This is the 13th in a series of blog posts featuring the fabulous sponsors of the 2019 Rhinebeck Trunk Show.

The Farmer’s Daughter Fibers first caught my eye when I was at The Knot House for the 2017 Maryland Sheep & Wool indie pop-up. I was intrigued by dyer Candice’s subtle palette that was comprised of many of my favorite colors: berry pinks, steely grays and watery blues.

In the last few years, Candice, whose home state of Montana infuses her brand, has become involved in Indie Untangled and this year I’m excited for her to debut a new concept at the Rhinebeck Trunk Show — she will be taking over part of the lounge at the Saugerties Performing Arts Factory with her Sisters United initiative, a massive fundraiser that benefits organizations that are dedicated to supporting Native American women.

At the show she will be collaborating with another IU veteran, Rochelle of Home Row Fiber Co., to offer her October initiative with custom Sisters United bag, a skein of a custom FDF colorway and a pattern. All proceeds from this collaboration are donated to the initiative.

How would you say your heritage has informed the story of The Farmer’s Daughter Fibers?

When I first started our company, I was going through all of the first initial steps anyone does; brainstorming about branding, what story we wanted to tell, who was our target audience, etc. It first started with knowing that a lot of people I would run into in Portland and Seattle would be totally enamored with the fact I was from Montana. I thought a lot about that and realized a lot people are seeking from this slower-paced, easygoing, hard-working lifestyle. Then came a naming of The Farmer’s Daughter Fibers from a song my cousin sings me by Merle Haggard. Something clicked once we named it and our heritage became the focus and center around the culture and art of FDF.

What inspired you to launch the Sisters United Initiative?

In June of 2017 a young girl named Ashley Heavyrunner Loring went missing on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The way her case was handled was messed up, and I knew that if she was a white girl things would have went a lot differently. I didn’t know Ashley personally but something about her going missing touched a nerve that had been brewing for sometime. I see all of these issues every single day that effect American Indians and at a certain point it becomes too much. The anxiety was really eating at me and it felt like I would explode if I didn’t try to help. By January 2019, FDF had that ability.

Tell us about the organizations that benefit from the initiative.

This changes all the time and you can find a list on the Sister’s United page of our website. Recently we set up a $5,000 college scholarship for a Native American student and our next project we will be putting together healing bundles for trauma survivors. I am doing some of the ground work with our local human trafficking and MMIP (Murdered and Missing Indigenous People) task force, so this helps steer us to see where we are needed.

How do you decide on the artisans to work with for the project?

This year everyone has reached out to me, which has been amazing! At this point I could honestly make Sister’s United my full time job. So without the help of my fellow makers I could not pull this off. I ask them to have creative control on what they are contributing and we follow their lead, it makes it manageable for me.

Tell me about how you got started dyeing yarn.

I first started doing a lot of natural dying — my mom practices traditional plant medicine — and I wanted to bring my love of fiber together with her love of plants. Three years later and I was in a job where I was working 60-plus hours a week and really unhappy in general. I knew I wanted to do something within the knitting industry, but plant dying was too spiritual for me to want to sell out. So I tried using acid dyes and fell in love with the process.

Crow Camp

Which of your colorways are you most proud of?

Crow Camp is probably up there, one of my favorite artists Kevin Red Star sent me a Christmas card one year (btw this was one of those mailing list type cards, but that didn’t stop me from being a dorky fan girl!) and I replicated his colors on Crow Camp. I sent it to him and he thought is was pretty cool!

Do you have a favorite color or colors, and have they changed since you became a dyer?

Anything blush colored, pinks, purples, raspberry. Always and forever!

How did you learn to knit?

I was using one of those Kniffty Knitter looms and my husband encouraged me to ask my friend Brooke to teach me how to “really” knit. I always say those were his famous last words! Poor guy just wanted me to make him some hats and now we have family business based off the industry!

Ode to Autumn

Do you enjoy any other crafts in addition to knitting?

I am getting back into traditional beading! I love to do any new fun craft with my daughter too.

What advice would you have for people just getting started in the industry?

Don’t focus on what everyone else is doing. Listen to your inner creative spirit and let that be your driving force to how you want to run your business. I remember it being really difficult for me at first to decide where and how I wanted to grow Farmer’s Daughter, as there are so many different routes you can go. First, make sure it makes you happy when you are doing it, and second it will eventually make you some money because it matters more than you think in the beginning. Burnout is real, but having financial stability is a good cure.

Pre-Rhinebeck Untangling: Stacie Dawson of Must Stash Yarn

By Lisa | October 8, 2019

This is the 12th in a series of blog posts featuring the fabulous sponsors of the 2019 Rhinebeck Trunk Show.

It’s not very hard to find indie dyers who carry semisolid, variegated and (the ubiquitous) speckled yarn. Self-striping skeins, on the other hand, aren’t as common, with only a few companies specializing in it. Stacie Dawson of Must Stash Yarn is one of those indies who is synonymous with stripes. Here’s how she decided to go down that path.

Tell me about how you got started dyeing yarn.

I have my friend Claire to thank for that. She hosted a “Dye Your Own Skein” party using Kool-Aid and I was hooked.

I have always been creative so, over the years, I tried lots of different ways of expressing my creativity… with music, acting, decoration, stenciling/embossing/calligraphy, cross stitch, sewing, painting and the fiber arts of crochet, knitting, spinning and weaving. It was the fiber arts that spoke loudest to me and so learning yet another way of manipulating fiber was a natural progression for me. Like knitting, I obsessively gobbled up every dyeing resource I hold lay my hands/eyes on! Took classes with professional hand dyers, bought books, did workshops and practiced, practiced, practiced.

Why did you decide to focus on self-striping yarn?

Self striping was the second thing that I dyed, ever. If you have ever met me then you may have heard me joke that I am like the “Hair Club for Men” owner… I am not just the president, I am also a client. I just love knitting with self-striping sock yarn so much and when I first started dyeing, there were not a lot of options in the market; I felt like there was a niche that I could help to fill.

Originally, I didn’t want to be known as a one trick pony and so I dyed tonals as much as self striping. After about two years of always running behind, I realized that I needed to focus in order to realize my goals. Now we produce self striping on only four bases, limited tonals and so can have a steady stream of skeins available in the shop each week.

What did you do before you started Must Stash and how does it inform your business?

I was a medical office administrator. I handled their books, hiring, staff management, training, supplies ordering, new equipment acquisition/maintenance, billing, etc. If it had something to do with running the business, I handled it! Yes, running a business, even one as different from being an indie as a medical office, was extremely beneficial to starting my own business. I was already familiar with setting up and reconciling books, paying taxes and being fiscally responsible and in this gig, I get to play with yarn almost everyday!

What inspires your colorways and your colorway names?

Inspiration comes from all around me! If you are familiar with Must Stash, then you have probably noticed that we have quite a few pop culture-inspired colorways. The names are usually drawn directly from the inspiration… we aren’t subtle. Some names pop into my head while designing/dyeing and some from my family, like Martian Rainbow, was suggested by my husband.

Do you have a favorite color or colors, and have they changed since you became a dyer?

If I had to pick just one, it would be grey. I am a sucker for neutrals like brown and grey and don’t even get me started about that place where gold and silver meet… absolutely divine. I wouldn’t say my color preferences have changed a great deal since becoming a dyer but I would say that my palette has expanded substantially. For example, I wasn’t much for pastels or for garishly loud colors, either, but now, I have an appreciation for almost everything from sunglasses bright down to barely there… there is beauty in color, period.

Is there a color that you would love to dye, but that is challenging to create?

The perfect amber. A liquid gold that has life and vitality and practically flows as you knit it. Other than a certain color, I would love to create a true self striping that does not repeat for an entire sock… that would be an amazing thing!

When and how did you learn to knit?

My mom taught me to knit when I was 9. She was an avid crafter and enjoyed creating beautiful and practical things. That winter she was knitting matching dress for us to wear for Easter. I was so intrigued by it that I begged her to teach me the mechanics of the stitches. I knit a rectangle about three inches wide and 10 inches long and it was a struggle for every inch!

I soon gave it up and put my supplies away and there they stayed for several years. However, every now and again, I would get a longing and so the bag of supplies would come out of the closet and we would sit down to learn again and after knitting a rectangle it would go back into the bag and back into the closet. This cycle repeated until 2010 when I pulled that bag out again, used YouTube tutorials and never stopped knitting.

Do you enjoy any other crafts in addition to knitting?

Not really. I have enjoyed crocheting, spinning, cross stitch and weaving but none of them has captivated me like knitting.

What are some of your favorite FOs you or your customers have made with your yarn?

I have a Tailwind that I knit with one of my Affirmation color ways and a natural skein that I find myself using a lot when the weather cools down and I would love to knit a Color Affection with two solids and a self striping but I need to decide on the colors.

You cannot imagine how much I enjoy seeing what my customers make with Must Stash! Of course, there are lots and lots of socks that are so well knit that they inspire me to make myself another pair but it’s the shawls and sweaters that really make me drool. Recently an IGer showed off her Strange Brew color work sweater she is knitting with one of my rainbow self striping in the yoke… so beautiful and fantastic.

Pre-Rhinebeck Untangling: Shannon Steinberg of Woodsy & Wild

By Lisa | October 1, 2019

This is the 10th in a series of blog posts featuring the fabulous sponsors of the 2019 Rhinebeck Trunk Show.

Zippered project bags have a pretty standard look, but Shannon of Woodsy and Wild has managed to elevate the simplest of shapes, with roomy pockets, functional handles and fashionable fabrics. Her Birch bag is one of my favorites, as it’s small enough to stash in a large tote, but big enough to stuff full and use as a primary carry-all.

Tell me about how you started a project bag business?

I took a break from my academic career a few years ago when I was pregnant with my second son to spend more time with my kids, but I realized pretty quickly that being a full-time, stay-at-home mother was also leaving me feeling unfulfilled. I had started sewing a few years earlier, and decided on a bit of a whim to give opening a small business a try. I couldn’t quite find the exact project bag I wanted, that gave me the same joy as the beautiful, lovingly hand-dyed yarns I was knitting with, but I knew I could make it. So I spent a lot of nights in my sewing room after my son had gone to sleep playing with prototypes, and fine-tuning, and problem-solving, and that creative thinking and challenge really brought back something I had been missing.

Eventually I had enough confidence in what I what I was making, and my husband gave me some gentle encouragement to believe in myself and put my work out there, and I opened an Etsy shop. I love making beautiful things for other makers, and the creative challenge of designing new things and maintaining a growing business, and haven’t looked back!

What did you do before you launched Woodsy and Wild and how do you think it informs what you bring to the business?

I’m a scientist by training — I have a PhD in microbiology and immunology. I think my attention to detail comes from that background, and it helps me a lot with the product development process.

In science, one of the things that it really teaches you is to embrace failures and learn from them — day in and day out you are trying new things and a great many of your experiments don’t turn out the way you thought they would, but you can always learn something from them. When I’m designing a new item for the shop, it generally goes through a lot of iterations and prototypes before I’m truly happy with it (those sky-high standards also probably come from my scientific background!), which probably would frustrate a lot of people, but I really enjoy that fine-tuning!

And the other thing that a PhD-level training really instills in you is the ability to research, to figure out for yourself just about anything. I don’t have a background in business, or design, or manufacturing, but I do love to teach myself new things, and owning a small business is always throwing new challenges at you. Whenever I need to learn a new skill, whether it’s how to work with a new kind of hardware or how to build a new website, I really enjoy researching all the knitty gritty details, even if most people would probably just skim over a lot of it and get right to the creating. And I’m always confident that with enough time and research, I can figure anything out.

How did you decide on the types of bags to create?

I started Woodsy and Wild because I was having a hard time finding exactly what I wanted in a project bag. I have a natural, minimalist aesthetic, and if I’m going to carry something around with me everyday, and leave it sitting out in my house, which is what I do with my project bags and other knitting gear, I really want it to fit in with my style and my life. I find a lot of beauty in strong, well-made materials that will age well and evolve over the life of an item, which is why I only use natural fibers and solid metal zippers and hardware.

It was also really important to me to design bags that would fit in with my daily life — I have two little boys, and we travel often. So, secure pockets and closures are designed into all of my bags because I need things to stay put when I toss my bag in the car or an airplane overheard compartment, and to keep little fingers from making off with my scissors and stitch markers.

I love the rustic elegance of linen, and I designed my signature line of project bags (the Birch Bag, Sapling and Maple Tote) to really celebrate that. They have the soft structure of a crisp linen, with clean design lines that show off the fabric while adding some features that make life easier for a knitter. And I love how they get softer and develop a lovely gentle rumpled texture the more you use and love them. They’re really my dream bags.

How do you find your unique fabrics?

I think a lot of that comes back to my love to research. I have a lot of patience for searching all the nooks and crannies of the internet for good sources! Most of my patterned fabrics come from various online fabric shops, and some of them are small-batch, digitally-printed fabrics from Spoonflower. There are so many indie surface pattern designers there creating beautiful designs, I can spend hours pouring over all the options!

The waxed canvas I use in the Maple Totes comes from a wonderful U.S.-based, woman-owned small business; they hand-wax every yard with the most gorgeous-smelling local beeswax. A gracious tip from a fellow project bag maker led me to them — I love how kind and collaborative our indie fiber business community is! I’m also very lucky that my LYS is also an amazing sewing and quilting shop, and the owner will often clue me in to new fabrics that she thinks I will like, and order extra for me of special fabrics (like all the lovely Rifle Paper Co. fabrics I love!) and she even helped me get in touch with and set up a wholesale account with my linen supplier.

When and how did you learn to knit?

My grandmother taught me when I was very young, probably 5 or 6 years old. She also taught me to crochet and hand sew around the same time, but the knitting is what really stuck! We lived pretty far away, but whenever we went to visit I remember her inviting me into her stash of yarns and fabrics and letting me take whatever I liked, and helping me get started with a new project. And then the next time we visited I would show her what I had made! It was a really special way to keep her close even though she was hours away.

I put knitting aside for quite a while as I got older, but I picked it back up when I was working on my PhD because I needed somewhere to channel my creative energy and help me manage the stress. That’s when I discovered Ravelry, YouTube knitting tutorials and knitting podcasts, and I spent the next few years teaching myself all the things! I still get to knit with my grandmother, and I’ve even been able to teach her a few things! I’m hoping we might get to teach my oldest son how to knit together in another year or two.

Do you enjoy any other crafts in addition to knitting and sewing?

In addition to making bags, I also do a lot of garment sewing. Sewing and knitting are really my only crafty hobbies, but I also love to cook and have an ongoing love affair with sourdough bread baking. And I am an enthusiastic, if not very skilled, gardener.

What are some of the best things you’ve learned running your fiber business?

I think running a fiber business has been like introvert therapy for me! I’m naturally very shy and reserved, but the fiber arts community is so engaging and it’s easier to get to know someone when you know going in that you have a shared love of craft! Owning a business has encouraged me to get involved and participate in conversations and actually get outside my comfort zone. And there are so many opportunities to meet and talk to new people, whether it’s on Instagram or Ravelry, at my local Sip ‘n’ Stitch, or at events.

Pre-Rhinebeck Untangling: Aimée Gille of La Bien Aimée

By Lisa | September 24, 2019

This is the eighth in a series of blog posts featuring the fabulous sponsors of the 2019 Rhinebeck Trunk Show.

I’ve been extremely pinch-me-I-must-be-dreaming lucky to have been able to work with the talented Paris-based Aimée Gille of La Bien Aimée since 2017, when I approached her about creating the first of three custom colorways for Indie Untangled. This year, I’m excited to welcome Aimée’s full range of bases and colorways courtesy of Brooklyn General Store, one of my local yarn shops that began carrying her yarns last year.

While they’re waiting to enter Indie Untangled in the morning, ticket holders will get to pretend they’re in Paris and enjoy a coffee and a croissant, courtesy of the La Bien Aimée coffee cart, which is new this year.

Aimée, an American expat living in France, founded her yarn and tea shop L’OisiveThé in 2008 and later opened a second shop, La Bien Aimée, which also houses her dye studio. Here’s a look inside her operation.

It must be challenging running two shops and a dye studio! How do you manage it all?

In the beginning year of La Bien Aimée, it was quite hectic. I ran back and forth between both shops A LOT and sometimes I would have to close one to run to the other, but after a few months I got some help by hiring another employee to help with the two shops. In year two of La Bien Aimée, my husband joined me to help me run both my businesses. I would not have been able to do it without him and from there we are grown to a current team of 13 people.

What inspires your colorways and your colorway names?

I am very inspired by nature and my travels. I am also inspired by my childhood and where I grew up, which was in Kansas, and my Korean heritage. I also have made 11 colors inspired by Game of Thrones!

Do you have a favorite color or colors, and have they changed since you became a dyer?

I would say that one of my favourite colors to design is the color pink. I am constantly developing new pinks each season. But my absolute favorite color is yellow. I created a color called Yellow Brick Road in the first months of launching my yarn brand and it’s stayed true to itself from the beginning. Whenever a new sweater design comes out, I immediately want to knit it in Yellow Brick road. Yes, I do have a lot of yellow sweaters and I’m so happy about that.

When and how did you learn to knit?

I learned to knit from my mother when I was a child. She started off by showing my how to weave in my ends and often let me help her. I didn’t knit much after learning, and it wasn’t until I was a young adult living in Paris as an expat that I found my way back to knitting.

Do you enjoy any other crafts in addition to knitting?

I only knit. I have tried other crafts, but I always come back to knitting. I would like to learn to sew though. I have not really tried that yet.

What are some of your favorite FOs you or your customers have made with your yarn?

I really love my Mon Manet Light by Jonna Hietala in our custom spun Merino Sport base. It’s in Yellow Brick Road Graffiti and I wear this sweater all the time. I love seeing West Knits shawls using La Bien Aimée. I am also always so excited to see any FO that my clients have knit — just to see them wearing their knitted garments in my yarn bring my so much joy. Another sweater that I really love is Love Note by Tin Can Knits, I can’t wait for the cool weather to arrive. I will be wearing this all the time over my dresses.

What advice would you give an indie dyer just starting out?

I would say, have fun! I learned everything I know by tinkering around in the studio. Maybe study a little color theory and learn about safety when dyeing so that you can keep dyeing as long as you want and not get sick. Also, if you want to have a go at this as a business, be creative and don’t look at what the others are doing.

Yellow yarn with pink and purple speckles.

La Bien Aimée’s new Lyra colorway, which will debut at Indie Untangled.

What plans can you reveal for Indie Untangled?

We will be bringing a new base called Cashmerino to Indie Untangled and we will be revealing four new colors, plus a new custom color for Brooklyn General Store that goes very well with our fall palette. I look forward to seeing all the knitters, so please come by the booth and say Hi! Show me your knits, too!