Today, we bring you a giveaway from SouleMama Sponsor, Quince & Company. In Pam Allen's words:
"We’re a handknitting yarn company devoted to making pretty yarns in American mills. We source all our wool from the US and have our yarns spun and dyed here. We also carry a 100% linen yarn grown in Belgium and spun in Italy. Visit our Blog."
When I first started this business, I had grandiose hopes for working with the mills that are still left, hoping to be part of a resurgence. But we’re swimming against the current. In the three years we’ve been in business, I’ve heard a lot of romancing American industry from big companies like Eileen Fisher or Ralph Lauren, companies that talk about bringing business back to the states. But if they don’t hurry, there won’t be anything left to come back to. So many facilities have closed, the machinery shipped overseas or dumped, the buildings sold to insurance companies or turned into condo’s. Whatever ends up surviving will look very different than it did fifty years ago. Automation, specialization will change the historic nature of the textile industry. That said, handknitting yarn is still a hands on product—if you want to get it right. I love that, for now, we can still get it made here with care and thoughtful attention. Our yarn is made by people who understand fiber and twist intimately because they grew up with it. Run a yarn over their upper lips and they can tell you its story. Well, it’s almost that easy.
What else I love? Staying close to knitting and yarn, having it litter my desk and surround me on the floor is a favorite part as well. Choosing colors, swatching, dreaming up a good sweater—what could be better.
The most challenging part of the job is the supply chain—getting yarn spun and delivered to us on a regular basis. It’s a constant struggle. We work with a couple of mills, but they’re often behind in their production. Equipment is old and it isn’t uncommon to hear something like, “We’re fixing a part on the carder and will be back in production in a day or so.” Dealing with a fading, aging industry isn’t easy.
SouleMama: Tell us about your customers.
Pam: Our customers come from all over the world. It’s truly exciting to get an order from Australia, Brazil, Japan, South Africa, Tasmania—almost anywhere. Imagine! And I love that so many of our customers tell us that they appreciate what we’re trying to do. As big as the world is, I feel like we—knitters—are a small town, no matter where we live.
SouleMama: What's the product or offering that you are most excited about in your shop right now? Tell us about it.
Pam: This past spring we introduced Owl, an American wool/alpaca blend. We had the yarn woolen spun, a spinning system that’s different than the one we use for our core wool line. Alpaca is a hollow fiber and is usually spun worsted, a method that aligns the fibers and squeezes out the air in and between them, creating a silky yarn with lovely drape, but one that’s heavy and inelastic. In the woolen system, the fibers are only casually aligned in the same direction when they’re spun, so the yarn remains light and literally airy and buoyant. I love our new yarn. It comes in six undyed natural shades (alpaca comes naturally in many shades of gray, black, and brown). But we also overdye the yarn for colors with depth and interest. Owl is reasonably soft and it has a pretty halo. It’s all I want to knit with these days.
We had a difficult time finding domestic alpaca fiber in the right colors and grade. It’s easy to source wool from the US—you can buy it carefully graded and sorted from brokers. There’s no equivalent in the alpaca world. But a handful of farmers are trying to create a system to help people like me who want to source a consistent product on a regular basis. Hoping there’s enough demand so that a few years from now, I’ll be able to make ONE call to get what we need. Right now, it’s a piecemeal situation.
SouleMama: What's the one thing you can't live without?
Pam: More than one, I can’t live without the people I work with: Jerusha, Carrie, Adi, Ryan, Istahil, and often Hannah; coffee; and rosewood knitting needles.
{From the left is Ryan (my son), Jerusha, me, and Carrie}
{Adi and Istahil in the warehouse}
For today's giveaway, Quince & Company is generously offering the following gifts to THREE winners:
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To
enter today's giveaway, please leave a comment (one entry per person,
please) in today's post. I'll close comments by 8 am EST on Sunday, and
announce the winners, chosen via Random Number Generator, shortly after. Comments closed! The winners are...
I would love to try some Quince & Company yarn!!!
Posted by: Faye
Thank you! Thank you! Your yarn is lovely!
Posted by: Sophie
Sweet! I love Quince yarns. Thank you!
Posted by: Schirin
Thank you, Quince & Company!
