Interview with Cosette Cornelius-Bates

How long have you been a knitter?

I've been knitting about 6 years.  In the beginning, I taught myself and knit from a dummies book.  Then I knit through the back of the stitch for about a year before I was corrected.  Much easier to knit correctly. I've been spinning and dyeing for about 3 years.

When did you start recycling wool from sweaters?

I started recycling wool from sweaters when I was dirt poor in graduate school.  I stumbled across two tutorials on-line and I was hooked.  It was not only a way to keep knitting with natural animal fibers without having to pay a lot of money, but I also love thrift store shopping.  The shoe seems to fit.

When did you start designing?

I first wrote down my patterns and considered it designing after I got the book deal.  Before that, I was just being creative and playing with color and texture.  Who knew you could get paid for that?

Did you ever imagine you would have your own book?

I hadn't ever written down a pattern, so no.  Not even slightly on the horizon.  When I got the offer, I had no idea what to do with it.  I was busy with graduate school and other things, but my friend Alissa told me that I had to do it, so I did.

What are some of your favorite projects from Knit One, Embellish Too?

This is an interesting question because I think of projects as suggestions for more projects :)  rather than as individual patterns.  I love the 'patterns' for shapes that I use over and over and never get sick of.  But alas, they would not let me write the book that way.

If I had to choose the particular projects that I like today they would be: The All Things Grow Hat, Twirly Girl Bonnet, Night Sky Wristers and The Lake Reflects Trees Hat.  The last one mostly because my husband wears it every day and it never fails to make me smile.  Realize that depending on the day, this list will change dramatically.

What is on your needles right now?

I just cast off two hats that are samples for a colorwork class I'm teaching.  So that leaves socks for my dad.  I send my Christmas gifts mid January to avoid stressing during my busy season for craft fairs.  There will be hat for my brother soon... as well as a design for an on-line magazine.

What can we expect next from you?

Not sure.  Fiber arts, for me at least, is a bit unpredictable.  I'm full time designing, spinning, recycling, knitting, and dyeing, so I suppose we'll just see where it takes me.  I've done some knitting for a movie, just started doing really big indie craft fairs, and I just finished an article for a knitting magazine.  I never quite know what's coming my way next ;)

Right now I'm working towards having a booth of handspun yarn at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival mid February.

You can check out more of what Cosy is up to here.

Interview with Susan B. Anderson

When did you start knitting?

When I was 19 years old I was a lifeguard at my neighborhood pool. Every hour we would be on duty for 45 minutes and then we would get a 15 minute break. That summer I was determined to learn to knit and I didn't know a single soul who knitted. I bought a how-to-knit pamphlet and some horrible white acrylic yarn at a fabric shop. During my 15 minute breaks I taught myself to knit by looking at the pamphlet. I made this awful white tank top that was knit incredibly tight. It was the worst. I was still proud of my first knitted creation. I gave it to my sister, never to be seen again. It's just as well. That summer my love affair with knitting began and I have never been without many projects at my side since.

When did you start designing?

I was a middle school teacher for many years and when I was expecting my third child I decided to give the teaching a rest. This is about the time I started designing. I'd say it was about 12 years ago or so. My designing really began when I started making up my own knitted hat designs to donate to my kids' nursery school's silent auction. I got such a great response to my little hat designs that it spurred me on to keep designing.

A few years later, I started selling my baby hats in a children's boutique in town. The hats sold really well. That led to getting a contract to design baby hats for a local manufacturing company for about a year. This job snowballed into me working in a yarn shop and selling my patterns and knitted hats there. I did this for about a year and a half.  When the shop I worked at ended up closing I sent in a knitted hat sample and pattern to Artisan, my publishing company, asking if they wanted to do a book with me. Well, they took me up on it and published my first book, Itty-Bitty Hats. Where do you get inspiration for your designs?

My kids, literature, looking at a beautiful babies, nature, life in general. I also like to take practical items and take a knitted twist on them. I want to say food inspires me, but that sounds a little weird. Oh well, so be it. Food, mainly fruits and vegetables. Flowers, lots of flowers.

I read a ton of books, magazines, knitting books, knitting magazines, online stuff. I really study knitting all of the time. I like to keep up on trends and what is current in the knitting world. There is always inspiration and excitement to be found everywhere you look when you are thinking about knitting. What are a few of your favorite designs from Itty Bitty Nursery?

My favorite design is the Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton Stroller Blanket, Circles Hoodie and the Chubby Bunny. I love that set so much.

I also love the Cupcake Set, hat, mittens and scarf. The pacifier clips are really fun, the flower, frog and elephant. I adore the Manos Cotton Stria Flower Cardigan and Hat. Those are so simple and sweet.

You know the other favorite of mine is the Ruffle Blanket in the layette set. It is a simple white cotton basket weave blanket with a sweet ruffled edge. The yarn is Rowan Handknit Cotton and it has the loveliest, purest feeling when knitted up in that blanket. Love that one. What is on your needles right now?

Oh my, what to say? There are so many things that I shouldn't even admit it. Work-wise, I have a baby sweater and hat set for a yarn company that's due in a few weeks. On the personal side, I have several sweaters, several pairs of socks, a couple of scarves, a pair of mittens, a pair of gloves, a checkerboard.......the list goes on and on. It's a little embarrassing, the number. I do always finish everything eventually. A couple of weeks ago I was desperately trying to finish up several last projects for my latest book project. I have recently designed and knitted over 30 toys for this new book. I have loved every minute of it. It has been a busy knitting season for sure.

What can we expect next from you?

I have a new book, Itty-Bitty Toys, coming out in the fall of 2009. I am frantically trying to get my manuscript done over the next couple of weeks for that. Yikes.

I hope you will see a couple of designs I did for a yarn company pop up soon.

Then, who knows? I think I may need a little vacation.

Interview with Kelbourne Woolens

At Stitches East I met Kate and Courtney, whose company Kelbourne Woolens is now exclusively distributing The Fibre Company's yarns.

You may be familiar with some of their designs, as they are very popular on Ravelry.

Let's find out more about these two:

What is the history behind Kelbourne Woolens?

Courtney and I worked together at Rosie's -- she returned as manager after a brief hiatus in August of 2006 and I was hired in October of 2006.

Fast forward about a year and a half, I was seriously re-considering my educational and professional options and Courtney was wrangling a 4 month old and co-managing the store.  Courtney caught wind that the Fibre Company was looking for a new distributor and called Daphne for more info to see if this really was the case.  For various reasons, it seemed like a great opportunity for she and I to join as partners -- we knew we worked well together and brought different things to the table in terms of our experiences and backgrounds.  I still remember when she called me to ask if I wanted to be co-distributor with her -- I thought she was playing a practical joke as it seemed too good to be true!  We spent the summer working with Daphne, figuring out some educational and familial logistics, absorbing as much information as humanly possible and putting it all in place.

During the process we kept going back to the name of the company.  Because the Fibre Company is a separate entity, we knew we needed a different name.  One of the things that we are both attracted to in the industry is the rich textile history in this country, especially in Philadelphia where we both live.  We wanted a name that payed subtle homage to this history that was also easily identifiable as yarn related.  "Kelbourne" is a  merging of Courtney's last name and my soon-to-be married name, Osborn (and Kelgag and Gagley didn't quite have the same ring)! How did you two meet?

Pure Kismet!  One of the other students in my grad program heard that Rosie's had a PT job opening.  She didn't have time to do it, so asked if I was interested.  On a whim, I emailed Courtney, she told me to come on down to the shop.  And, as they say, the rest is history! What is your relationship with The Fibre Co?

We are the sole North American distributors of the Fibre Company yarns.  We are in charge of marketing, new pattern support, working with the retailers and shipping.  The Fibre Company is still owned by Daphne and Iain, the original owners and founders.  They still have creative and developmental control but we all work closely together on the process.  Because the Fibre Company yarns are so unique, it was (and continues to be) very important for us to stay true to the unique and artisan quality of the yarns. Can you tell us about the four current lines of The Fibre Co?

Currently, The Fibre Company has four lines: Terra, Road to China, Canopy and Organik.

Terra is probably the most well known of the yarns. It is a 40-40-20 Alpaca, Merino and Silk singles and has a slightly rustic (think nubby silk) look and incredibly soft hand.  The dye process that is so unique to Fibre Company yarns is really apparent in Terra -- they are all "solids", yet have multiple colors within the yarn.  Not quite heathered, not variegated, they are layered in a way that adds really interesting depth and sheen.  Because it has been around for a few years and was always individually hand dyed in small batches, it very quickly had quite a few colors that were sometimes available in only small amounts.  We wanted to streamline and focus the line to showcase the best and brightest of the bunch and also ones that stayed true to the original vision, which is why there are currently 20 colors in the line.

Road to China is a 3-ply 65-15-10-10 Aplaca, Silk, Camel, Cashmere blend and is quite luxurious.  The spin and ply of Road to China creates a much more refined look and the fiber content makes it beyond soft.  (And Warm!)  It is perfect for luxurious small items.  This Fall, we are really excited to be offering "Road to China Light" -- a finer gauge version of the original offered in the same 15 colors for those interested in a different application.

Canopy is the newest Fibre Company yarn and debuted at the January 2008 TNNA.  It is a plied 50-30-20 Alpaca Merino and Bamboo blend.  The bamboo adds strength, sheen and drape unique to the Canopy.  Canopy comes in two weights, a Worsted and Fingering (The Fingering was previously labeled as a Sport -- there is still some out and about with this label, so don't be confused!  They are the same yarn).  This fall, we are also excited to offer the Canopy Fingering in 10 new shades and see it as a great candidate for those interested in Fair Isle projects with a luxurious hand. Organik is a Fibre Company yarn that has been around for a few years also, but in 2007 it had a slight facelift and is now a 70 -15- 15 organic merino, alpaca and silk blend that is amazingly soft.  Originally, Daphne wanted to bring in an organic yarn and found a mill in New Zealand that is one of the oldest organically certified mill in the world, from what I understand.  They fiber content was the same, but in place of the 70% organic merino it was 70% organic New Zealand wool.  The mill in New Zealand also dyed the original Organik using low impact natural dyes.  Daphne got a lot of feedback that the yarn was not as soft as people are accustomed to Fibre Company yarns being and that the dyes were not the bright, complex tones that they loved.  She began working on developing this 'new' Organik with the customer's input and launched it in it's current formula in December of 2007.  In contrast to its cousin, Terra, Organik has a smooth hand and really great stitch definition. What kind of pattern support can we look forward to?

From our experience working in yarn stores, Courtney and I really wanted to find a way to market the yarns and subsequent pattern support to make it really easy and exciting for retailers and knitters.  As a result, we are currently offering free patterns on our website.  We really want to showcase the individual qualities of the different yarns that make the Fibre Company so unique and also make it easy for people to not only see the possibilities, but also what result as little as one or two skeins can do.  We will be constantly adding new things; there's a cardigan that Kate designed and a new (shocking, I know) beret that we'll put up before the month is out.  The trend seems to be forecasting more towards smaller projects and accessories, but if there is anything knitters want, by all means, send us a pattern request!

How can shops and designers get in touch with you?

We have made ourselves incredibly available!  Our email address is info@kelbournewoolens.com, all the current color cards are on our website, we are on ravelry as 'kelbournewoolens' and individually as patternfactory (courtney) and zeitgeistyarns (kate).  Our office phone is actually a Blackberry so we answer it anytime, anywhere.  I have fielded calls from the grocery store after hours even!  We have a physical address--all of which can be obtained from our website.  But here:

Kelbourne Woolens 915 N. 28th St. 2nd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19130 fax 215-701-5901 phone 215-687-5534

Thank you to Kate and Courtney for sharing.  We wish you, along with Daphne and Iain, all the best as you take The Fibre Company in this exciting direction!