First published: Fall 2020, amirisu issue 21
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? Please enjoy our interviews with the owners of Nomadnoos and Woolfolk.
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.
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.
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".
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 Einbund
About Ovis21 and Land Regeneration 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 ) .