Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Dyers In Their Studios - Veronika and Danny of YOTH Yarns


For our Winter Ficstitches Yarns Kit Club we have the pleasure of working with YOTH Yarns. YOTH stands for Yarn On The House, and this is truly a family business with even their yarns named for family members. We are using Father, a worsted weight domestically grown Rambouillet wool. Some of their other yarns are called Mother, Big Sister, and Little Brother.

I first spotted this yarn company back in February of 2015 at Stitches West. Every time I passed their extra large booth I saw people with armloads of yarn ready to check out. By the last day they were nearly sold out of yarn and I got a chance to meet "Big Sister" Veronika. I learned that this was their first big show and they were from Washington state like I am. We were just getting ready to launch our first Kit Club then, and I kept them in mind for a future kit.


The following year I got to meet "Little Brother" Danny and their "Mother" during the Rose City Yarn Crawl at their trunk show at The Knitting Bee. We thought their colorways would be perfect for the Western Story our author C. Jane Reid was cooking up for the Fall and Winter Kits this year. We needed 2 colors of worsted weight yarn for the design I had come up with for this project, and their Father was perfect.

Cool and Warm color choices for Winter Kit Club
Wild Rice/Blue Raspberry OR Mango/Dates
Now here's more from Big Sister Veronika:

BACKGROUND
  • How long have you been in business?
YOTH was started in 2013. It took us a good year to establish our brand and what we wanted to do with our company. We opened our online store October 16th of 2014 and have been busy creating yarns since!

  • How did you get started dying?
We started out hand dyeing our yarns on our kitchen stovetop like most hand dyers, but we quickly learned that we needed a dye studio in order to not only keep my kitchen from being ruined, but to produce better products and have the space to grow. After converting my garage and basement into a small factory and a soft open into the knitting marketplace locally at the beginning of our business, we made the choice to actually source a dyehouse that we wanted to work with. It was either that or keep growing our own dyehouse and we truly believed that working with Saco River Dyehouse would be a good fit and allow us to grow more quickly. We are happy that we took that route and our yarns are now dyed by Saco River using a cool technique that mimics the look of hand dyed that we love!

  • Does your whole family work for the company?
All of the family is some way connected to the business and works for YOTH. My hubby is our graphics and web guy, also all around tech help when needed, mom is our warehouse manager and wonderful helper/fixer of all things, dad builds our beautiful display pieces and drives the truck and trailer all around the US for shows and conventions, my daughter models for us and when she can helps in our booth during shows, and we have a lot of wonderful friends who work with us when we need the extra hand. We definitely could not do this without the support of our loving friends and family!


YOUR YARN
  • What makes your yarn special or unique?
There a lot of really wonderful and lovely yarn companies out there doing great things. We are definitely not reinventing any wheels here!! But, we do believe that we bring a unique take on color to the knitting world. Most of our colors are more muted and sophisticated. It's what we really love!

  • Who develops your colors and names your yarns?
Our colors are usually developed by me, Big Sister, and then really hammered down with the mom and Little Brother when the final calls are needing to be made. I really appreciate the perspective that comes from both of them, because I feel that color can be so relative. What you like might not be what I like, and finding a happy middle that still sticks to our brand is what is important. Names are a whole different story!! Those involve Google, Pinterest, the whole Team and a bottle of wine.


JUST THE FACTS
  • How many colorways do you have?
We currently have 36 colorways. We are in the process of developing our final color Palette: Roots. It will be the reds, pinks and purples... YOTH style.

  • Where do your yarn bases come from?
We try and keep as much as we can in the US when it comes to fiber sourcing, milling, dyeing and selling. It's not always possible, but if you see an American Made stamp on your yarn tag, it's all from here!

  • Where can we find your yarn? LYSs and online?
Definitely online, but we also now have 25 beautiful Stockists all over the world. We love when folks can support their local economy and see our complex colors in person. Win, win!


YOUR TEAM
  • What is it like working with your family?
It has its rewards, but it also can spur some arguments. At the end of the day, we are blessed to be a part of such an awesome knitting community and be able to make a living working alongside the people we love most in this world.

  • How has your business grown in recent years?
We are expanding into many more shops and really try to hone our products and bases. It's ever changing and we always try to keep up with the latest, but we also feel that staying true to what we love is really important. The family, Mother, Father and Little Brother recently purchased a large property in Carnation, WA, and we plan to build a larger facility on the land to house our warehouse and hopefully keep growing.


PERSONAL
  • What are your favorite colors?
The joke around the house is... just don't use Oyster again. It's a well known "secret" that Oyster is one of my favs, but I really love all the neutrals, scummy yellows and blues. Little Bro's favorite has always been Cracked Pepper. No surprise!

  • Do you crochet, knit, or spin? What came first?
I mainly knit, crochet a little, and I just never caught the spinning bug. That's not to say that I didn't try! All the lovely men of our Team have all gone to a knitting class to at least learn the basics. It's good to know what it takes to knit a hat, scarf, etc.


LINK UP
  • Ravelry Group? yarnonthehouse
  • Twitter Twitter.com/yarnonthehouse


You can PreOrder the Winter Ficstitches Yarns Kit Club featuring YOTH Yarn through October Only. Because they have already dyed all of the yarn, the yarn for this Kit is Limited, so don't wait to order. Don't miss your chance!

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