As you may have heard – I think I may have mentioned it several thousand times – YAK will have a stall at the first Unwind Brighton festival in July. I may also have mentioned that I will be taking some beautiful yarns by Dye for Yarn. Three in fact, lace weight Merino/Silk/Cashmere, fingering weight Tussah Silk and DK weight Merino/Silk. But wait, it gets even better! The dyers behind Dye for Yarn will be there too!! Not only will they be perusing the marketplace themselves but I am very excited to announce that on Sunday 13th July at 12pm YAK will be hosting a “meet the dyer” where you will be able to meet Nicole and Cordula, the master dyers.
If you know and love their yarns already or if you have never come across them before, this will be a great opportunity to find out more about the yarns straight from the makers themselves. Ask them what patterns would look great in their yarns, find out where they get their inspiration from or where they get their ideas for the brilliant colour names. Or just come and hang out, say hello and put a face to the yarn. I love getting to meet dyers. I think understanding the personality behind certain yarns and colours really brings them to life.
As a little introduction, a sneak peak if you will, I asked Nicole to answer some questions about them and their company.
Where did you both meet and how did DFY start?
Cordula and I met in our former jobs at the university. She just finished her PhD in molecular medicine and I started mine in Biology. We were working on the same project back then.
After about a year into my PhD I started knitting and immediately began with lace shawls. Cordula was intrigued, too, but we couldn’t find the right yarns for our projects. We wanted them to be silk, solid and lace weight. That basically was the starting point of DyeForYarn.
Does Fürth have a big knitting scene?
Fürth is a rather smallish town, which lies between Nuremberg and Erlangen (where the University is). Cordula lives in Nuremberg and I live near Erlangen, that’s why we picked Fürth as the location for our store. Although Fürth has a lively art scene, knitting isn’t very popular, yet. But we’re working on that 😉
How do you split up the work load? Do you each have your favourite bases to dye, or do you both do a bit of everything?
Basically each of us does whatever’s necessary at a given time to keep the business running. But we all have different talents and interests, so when it comes to e.g. organization of events, bookkeeping or cost accounting, we split the work accordingly.
When dyeing yarn, Cordula has her “specialty colours” and I have mine. But in general we try to dye up all the colours of the rainbow, in their pastel, muted and intense versions as well as all the other colours, such as beige, brown, black and grey, which aren’t represented in the rainbow.
Which is your favourite yarn to work with? Why?
Our all time favourite yarn is Tussah silk, both lace and fingering. The lace version was the first yarn we worked with back in 2010, the first yarn we’ve listed and sold on Etsy and in general a wonderful yarn base for knitting and crocheting. So is the fingering version, which we added to our permanent stock in July, 2012.
What are you looking forward to the most about Unwind and visiting Brighton?
We’ve read a lot about the beauty of Great Britain’s south coast and Brighton’s 19th century architecture. To combine such an exciting city trip with the great opportunity to meet our customers in person is terrific. We look especially forward to Unwind, because it’s the first international yarn fair we’re going to attend. And thanks to Kate some of our yarn will also be there with us!
Thank you so much Nicole for answering my questions. I can’t wait to meet you both at Unwind.
Don’t forget 12pm on Sunday 13th July at YAK’s stall in the marketplace. I hope lots of you will come and say hello.
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