Tracing our yarns back to their sources
Interviewed by Meri
What if knitting lifted people out of poverty and could make the world a better place? My thoughts on this topic inspired this issue’s feature about two yarn companies doing just that. How they are doing things differently, satisfying consumer interest in fair trade and sustainability, and building ethical and sustainable businesses? My interviews with two of these company’s owners follow, giving you your own food for thought.
Coty Jeronimus, Nomadnoos
Spring 2019, when we walked into the giant exhibition hall of H+H, we spied the Nomadnoos booth, and were immediately drawn to it. The luscious yarns spun from yak, camel and sheep wool, was all the more impressive when we learned it was handspun! We placed our first order on the spot, lucky to have it arrive in our shop soon after.
She witnessed the negative impact of the fast fashion industry on the natural environment and on the workers.
Coty, the founder of Nomadnoos, learned to knit from her paternal grandmother, a prolific knitter who knit socks and sweaters for all of her 18 grandchildren! When it was Coty’s turn for a sweater, they shopped together for the yarn and pattern, and Coty enjoyed watching the garment grow and take shape on the needles. She still treasures one of her grandmother’s sweaters. When Coty learned to knit, she decided to make her own yarn as well! She bought greasy wool to take home, washed it, dyed it, and handspun it into yarn. After making several sweaters in this way, she gave up because the yarn was too scratchy and bulky. Besides knitting, Coty immersed herself in a variety of textile arts as a teenager. She dyed fabric, tried batik, and even made Brussels lace. After high school, it wasn’t a surprise that she went on to study textile design in Amsterdam.
After graduating from college, Coty worked in the textile industry for 25 years, first as a designer then later as a product manager in charge of sourcing. Over the years, the industry changed significantly, shifting from European to Asian production, and prices dropped. She witnessed the negative impact of the fast fashion industry on the natural environment and on the workers.
On the other hand, when she visited India for an audit, she met organic cotton farmers who explained how things improved once they switched to organic farming. There was less disease for one thing, and the experience left such a powerful impression on Coty, that she quit her job to work as a consultant in the sustainable textile industry, thereby fulfilling her need to be a positive force for change.
Her day job is still to support textile companies and NGOs to become more transparent and to integrate durability and responsibility into their supply chain. Her consulting work led her to the herders of Mongolia, who produce beautiful yak and camel fibers, and the marginalized women in Nepal who possess exceptional spinning skills. She realized that if she could unite the two, creating gorgeous yarns could become a means of livelihood for artisans, and also have a positive impact on the knitting world. Thus, Nomadnoos was born.
The concept of Nomadnoos aligns with the slow fiber movement, with transparency and responsibility present in each step of the supply chain. The goal is to pay the workers a fair wage, thereby eliminating the middleman sourcing the fibers. The money goes directly to the herder community via cooperatives. All the fibers are processed in Mongolia following the national laws.
Their supply is limited because fibers can only be collected once a year in Spring. As the weather warms, the animals no longer need their thick undercoat, and the herders begin manual combing. Mongolia is a huge country and it takes time to collect all the fibers to bring to Ulaan Bator, the capital for processing. The earliest the washed and carded fibers can be sent to Nepal is in September.
The goal is to pay the workers a fair wage, thereby eliminating the middleman sourcing the fibers. The money goes directly to the herder community via cooperatives.
Once the fibers arrive in Nepal, they sent to trained spinners. The spinners work from home, spinning approximately 4 kg of yarn per month, while also doing other tasks and work. They constantly look for and train new spinners. Respecting the environment and all the human beings involved in the process is very important for the brand. It is truly a slow process.
Sustainability has become a “buzz” word in recent years, but for Coty, it means more. She thinks it’s about sticking to your values and being responsible for people and the planet.
She tries her best to respect the people she works with. For example she constantly recalculates the living wage of their spinners, ensuring they receive fair and just wages. Being respectful to the environment is equally important to her. Desertification is a huge problem in Mongolia. The herder cooperative Nomadnoos collaborates with is aware of the issue, and is trying to restore their rangeland as best as they can.
To this day, Nomadnoos yarns have a positive impact on the rangeland in Mongolia and on the life of the herders, in addition to creating an additional income for marginalized people in Nepal.
There were many hurdles to overcome.
When Nomadnoos began the project, the first problem was how to achieve a certain standard in spinning. She tried different spinners in Mongolia and in Nepal but ended up deciding to focus only on spinning in Nepal. She learned that hand spinning has been embedded in the Nepalese culture for centuries.
Still, before spinners can achieve the required standard, they need to go through a training that lasts for 1.5 months. Another challenge was achieving standard dye lots because the colors of yak and camel yarns vary per lot and per season. Season after season, they need to be able to deliver the same color to the market. Thanks to finding a great dye master in Nepal, this problem was solved.
The idea of manufacturing hand-knitting yarn was a new concept for the herders and spinners, but eventually Coty found her collaborators to help make it happen. The Mongolian herder cooperative is one; Tara Panera, her point of contact in Nepal’s who manages the spinning, dyeing and packaging processes, is another.
Now Coty and her team are working hard to bring Nomadnoos to the next level. They are running a social project to fund creating a workshop for their spinners in Nepal. The idea is to create a space for spinners to work, while getting childcare and other support.
On an environmental level, they are looking into raising awareness of plastic waste on the steppes amongst the Mongolian herders.
In terms of product development, there are some new yarn features in development, one of which is a thicker yarn.
Coty hopes that she can reopen a study trip program and workshops again in the near future, bringing knitters to Nepal and Mongolia to meet the spinners and herders, for customers to truly learn the value of Nomadnoos products and processes. We cannot wait to see what other amazing products Nomadnoos releases in the near future.
To this day, Nomadnoos yarns have a positive impact on the rangeland in Mongolia and on the life of the herders, in addition to creating an additional income for marginalized people in Nepal.
Photos courtesy of Nomadnoos and Flavia Sigismondi
Kristin Ford, Woolfolk Yarns
I’ve known Kristin for most of my knitting career. She was already working in the knitting industry when we first met, and a tremendous help when we first began amirisu. We were in occasional contact when she was between jobs and planning something huge, and we were one of the shops that received the first shipment of Woolfolk Yarns. amirisu, as a retailer, is proud to be a part of Kristin’s wool journey, and happy to introduce her story here.
Kristin is one of the sweetest, kindest people you could meet. Her exquisite taste and keen eye for design and fashion is reflected in everything Woolfolk produces. It is always inspiring to meet her in person, and see what she is wearing. She always wears a sweater she knit for herself, looks amazing on her (and isn’t available as a pattern.) A simple, yet intricate knitting project is always on her needles.
Her grandmother, Katherine Temple Woolfolk, taught Kristin to knit when she was five. Katherine was a wonderful creative free spirit, and was always knitting or sewing. One day Kristin wanted to make a skirt for her Barbie doll, so Katherine taught her how to knit. Kristin was instantly hooked, and by the age of 10, she was able to make a sweater for herself. She remembers her first sweater was sleeveless and covered with daisies. One thing hasn't changed – she always makes things that she would buy and wear, but instead of buying, she knits them herself, like her grandmother used to do.
Kristin immediately knew their wool and work were special, and with her family's encouragement, she bought a ton of their wool that year
She grew up to become an architect, but she kept on knitting. In her thirties, she decided to stay home to raise her children. She had plenty of time to knit, during the multitude of sporting events her kids participated in. She could finish a whole sleeve at a swim meet or a double header of Little League baseball. When they were older, she began working in the yarn industry. There her passions for design and knitting were finally met. She worked as shop staff, and eventually as the company’s brand director, leading its look and feel.
One year she met the Portland based representative for the Ovis 21 co-op in Patagonia. They supply pristine, high quality merino wool to some American fashion brands, and were looking for a new company that would support their co-op long term. Kristin immediately knew their wool and work were special, and with her family's encouragement, she bought a ton of their wool that year, had it milled and introduced it to a few of her friends with retail shops. Her office and warehouse were the apple shed on the family farm. The brand name, Woolfolk, came from her grandmother’s last name, inspired by her Danish heritage.
In the beginning, the financial aspect was the biggest hurdle. She was alone and did most of the work herself. She knew that an online presence was critical, and not in her skillset, so she decided to hire someone and invest in the website.
Woolfolk started as a team of three people. Kristin first hired Vanessa Yap Einbund as a graphic designer and Olga Buraya Kefelian for all pattern development. Vanessa designed the website and graphics and is now what Kristin calls the "guardian of good taste.” She curates the collections and does all of the photography. Olga designed their first two collections while Kristin was fulfilling and doing customer service for every single order.
In the fall of 2014, a massive quantity of yarn sold in three months, and Kristin hasn’t looked back since.
The next year, she doubled her yarn order and was still fulfilling orders by herself, until she grew resentful. She finally hired Meredith Hobbs, who has been life-changing for her. Meredith now handles all of the orders, trunk shows, and customer service. Miyoko Cancro joined the team in the subsequent years to manage all of the sample knitting as well as designing the brand. Jules Canda is in charge of the men's styling and design, and assisting Vanessa at photoshoots. Renee Lorion is also on the team, tech editing and writing patterns.
“What interests to me is moving beyond sustainable to regenerative practices.”
The core of the Woolfolk brand is not just the elegant knitwear design that made it successful. Kristin works with Ovis 21, a co-op of farmers and technicians in Patagonia who have developed a breed of Merino to produce the Ultimate Merino which is the core of the Woolfolk brand. Theiy focus on restoring the grasslands of Patagonia through rotational grazing and good farming practices, animal welfare, and quality of life for the farmers. Their idea is to leave the land better rather than simply sustaining the status quo.
Kristin explains, “what interests to me is moving beyond sustainable to regenerative practices, which is something I learned about when I visited Patagonia last year. The Ovis 21 platform strives to leave the land better than they found it and for every skin sold, we contribute a percentage back to the co-op. It is interesting trying to apply the concept of regeneration to all aspects of life, and we are using these practices on our own small farm.”
The fleece is then shipped to Peru, where the yarn is milled the highest standards of production and dyeing. Unlike most yarn brands, the colors are inspired by the landscape in the Pacific Northwest, where the brand was born. Kristin only selects the colors she would wear. Her staff once explained the color palette best by saying "if you can't name the color, it's probably the right one".
Her plans for Woolfolk are to continue to work as a team to develop products and design that elevate the handknitting industry
Woolfolk now, and onward has been affected by the pandemic, and the team has been providing materials to support retail partners as they help them build an online presence. Their mill in Peru was closed for a while but is now back at half capacity, and they’ve managed to do photoshoots for this year’s collections using best practices for social distancing.
They just released a new yarn, STRA, which is a combination of rustic linen fiber and their signature Ultimate Merino. It is a wild yarn with rich textures, yet very soft and delicate. It is a fine representation of Kristin’s sensibility and passion for innovation in knitting.
Her plans for Woolfolk are to continue to work as a team to develop products and design that elevate the handknitting industry. Incorporating the ideas of other disciplines such as architecture into their work enriches Woolfolk’s aesthetics, and gives a different perspective to the industry. Her small team are aligned with in the same goals for modern, clean, wearable designs and using ingenuity to create interesting yarns. “I will continue to support and appreciate my fabulous team. There would be no Woolfolk without them!”
Photos courtesy of Woolfolk and Vanessa Yap Einbun
Ovis 21 and Regenerative Land Management
Wool is a sustainable, renewable resource, yet over the course of the last century, the land sheep graze on has been in serious decline.
According to the Savory Institute, a third of the earth’s land is grassland, and 70% of it suffers from degradation. Many areas have fallen to inhabitable desert, the cause unknown.
In the 1960’s, Zimbabwean ecologist Allan Savory made a significant breakthrough in understanding this cause of degradation and desertification. He discovered that by mimicing the natural process of animal grazing, the land can support more animals while regenerating bio-diversity. Through years of study and practice, he set a course in holistic land management and set up a non-profit in the 1980s. Although controversies over this method exist, as to whether or not it can actually decrease greenhouse gas effects, numerous examples indicate that Holistic Management does improve the quality of grassland, and stops degradation. As the land regenerates, it can support more grazing animals though, which in turn may contribute to more greenhouse gas. The scientists are researching to figure out if this can be offset by improved grassland and green mass.
Ovis 21 is a co-op founded in Patagonia by Pablo Borrelli and Ricardo Fenton in 2013. Out of 60.7 million hectares in Chile and Argentina, 80% are in critical danger of degrading. They became a hub for the Savory Institute to set up the first grassland certification for regenerative grazing in the region, educating and promoting holistic land management, planned grazing and improved animal welfare. Today, 1.3 million hectares are under the certification program, supplying premium merino wool for Timberland, Eileen Fisher and many other brands.
You can learn more about Holistic Management through Allan Savory's TED Talk (https://www.ted.com/speakers/allan_savory), on Savory Institute website (https://savory.global/) and through Ovis 21 (http://en.ovis21.com).