© Knitwhits 2013
Order Online or call 1-800-595-KNIT (10-5 M-F P.S.T)
For the Love of Color
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t knitting, and short of injury or ill-health, I can’t imagine ever putting my needles
down. I don’t know if my need to keep my hands occupied came as a result of knitting or was what led me to it.
Dyeing has sort of felt like a homecoming for me. As a photography student at the San Francisco Art Instiute in the 80’s I
spent hours in the darkroom color correcting my photographic prints. Intensifying reds, taking greens out of blue to make it
true, turning a pink into purple. When I learned fiber dyeing I was amazed to see that the process is almost identical to
darkroom work; changing filters and altering exposure time to get the perfect shade and saturation were not unlike the
additive and subtractive process when creating my pigment percentages and
solution strength for the perfect depth of shade in my yarn.
Back in 2003 I started Knitwhits, a knitting pattern and kit company. After 6 years
of designing small portable projects and keeping within the strict boundaries of
making cost-effective, “kit-able” designs, I was bursting at the seams to make sweaters and larger projects. I started
designing using primarily self-striping yarns as it appealed to my need to still change things up a bit. Long stretches of
stockinette in one color just don’t seem to hold my attention.
It became increasingly apparent that, though there are some gorgeous long gradient yarns on the market, there were elements still
missing. It is those missing elements that I bring to Freia Handpaint Yarns. The yarn I use is soft, lofty (or smooshy as I prefer to call
it). It has a wonderful rustic character to it, without the itch. In our Flux yarn the balls begin and end in the same color, making it
simple to just keep knitting on a bigger project without having to dig to match colors from ball to ball (and waste yarn in the
process). The Ombré yarns have gorgeous extra long gradients and our semi-solids give a knitter enough flexiblity to combine all
sorts of colors in a project.
I love what I do, I feel like a kid in a candy store. I get to play with color, I get to knit and design with yarn whose color I’ve created
and dyed from scratch. Short of owning my own sheep, this is may be the next best thing!
And who is Freia? Freia is my wonderful Chesapeake Bay Retriever who keeps me sane the rest of the time. Both Freia (the dog)
and Freia (the yarn) have brought a wonder to my life that is priceless in beauty, joy and exuberance.
“Nothing feels as good as knitting
with my very own brand of yarn
that I sourced and dyed from scratch”
Sign up for the Knitwhits/Freia Yarns Newsletter
© Knitwhits 2013
Order Online or call 1-800-595-KNIT (10-5 M-F P.S.T)
For the Love of Color
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t knitting, and short of injury or ill-health, I can’t imagine ever putting my needles
down. I don’t know if my need to keep my hands occupied came as a result of knitting or was what led me to it.
Dyeing has sort of felt like a homecoming for me. As a photography student at the San Francisco Art Instiute in the 80’s I
spent hours in the darkroom color correcting my photographic prints. Intensifying reds, taking greens out of blue to make it
true, turning a pink into purple. When I learned fiber dyeing I was amazed to see that the process is almost identical to
darkroom work; changing filters and altering exposure time to get the perfect shade and saturation were not unlike the
additive and subtractive process when creating my pigment percentages and
solution strength for the perfect depth of shade in my yarn.
Back in 2003 I started Knitwhits, a knitting pattern and kit company. After 6 years
of designing small portable projects and keeping within the strict boundaries of
making cost-effective, “kit-able” designs, I was bursting at the seams to make sweaters and larger projects. I started
designing using primarily self-striping yarns as it appealed to my need to still change things up a bit. Long stretches of
stockinette in one color just don’t seem to hold my attention.
It became increasingly apparent that, though there are some gorgeous long gradient yarns on the market, there were elements still
missing. It is those missing elements that I bring to Freia Handpaint Yarns. The yarn I use is soft, lofty (or smooshy as I prefer to call
it). It has a wonderful rustic character to it, without the itch. In our Flux yarn the balls begin and end in the same color, making it
simple to just keep knitting on a bigger project without having to dig to match colors from ball to ball (and waste yarn in the
process). The Ombré yarns have gorgeous extra long gradients and our semi-solids give a knitter enough flexiblity to combine all
sorts of colors in a project.
I love what I do, I feel like a kid in a candy store. I get to play with color, I get to knit and design with yarn whose color I’ve created
and dyed from scratch. Short of owning my own sheep, this is may be the next best thing!
And who is Freia? Freia is my wonderful Chesapeake Bay Retriever who keeps me sane the rest of the time. Both Freia (the dog)
and Freia (the yarn) have brought a wonder to my life that is priceless in beauty, joy and exuberance.
