Knitting For Olive

We spend a lot of time chatting with customers about patterns and the yarn that is recommended in them. Many of our customers use the online pattern service, ravelry.com, which has patterns and yarn recommendations from all around the world. Added to this, there is a current very strong trend for plain garments knitted in luxurious yarns, often with two strands of different weights of yarn held together, most commonly a 4ply (usually merino) and laceweight mohair/silk combination and these are used by some of the most popular designers such as Petite Knit (pretty much all her designs), Midori Hirose (most famously the Ranunculus) and Tin Can Knits (Love Note). Over the last couple of years, Mandy and I have been very inventive in our recommendations for brand and price based on the yarns that we stock, but have sometimes found it difficult to find the right colours for people. In addition, people often want to use the yarn recommended in the patterns. So we have decided to take the plunge and bring in a new brand, Knitting For Olive, especially to cater for those kind of patterns and for those of our customers who prefer a more neutral palette.

Knitting For Olive is a Danish company, based in Copenhagen. It is a small family-run business, founded in 2015 by mother Pernille Larsen and daughter Caroline, and initially they sold baby and toddler knitting patterns (really worth checking out – I particularly like the one with the tractor), quickly expanding into adult design in 2018. They almost immediately decided to create their own yarn and quickly discovered that conventional yarn production often did not consider either animal or social welfare. And this is the other reason that I have chosen to stock this brand. They are brilliant on sustainability and responsibility for the product.

First of all their merino is mulesing-free, which is a very important thing for me. If you do not know what mulesing involves, look it up and you will see why. All their yarn is traceable and they are Responsible Animal Fibers (RAF) certified. This certification guarantees that the wool comes from animals treated with respect and according to best practice in animal welfare. This applies to their mohair as well as their merino, and they are able to certify and track their wool and mohair from source to final product. Finally, the silk that they use is cruelty free. Silk is made from the silk threads that come from silkworm cocoons made of one single, very long thread, which can only be preserved as such if the cocoons are boiled before the moths leave it. Cruelty free silk is made from broken cocoons, which the silkworm moths have left. This means that there are many short pieces of silk thread that have to be made into yarn which is a time consuming process, and leaves silk less smooth, but I believe it is worth it. I used to keep silkworms as a child and the traditional process for getting silk has always bothered me.

All of this means, you will perhaps not be surprised to hear, that this is not the cheapest yarn that I stock. However, it is not wildly expensive and in fact has more meterage both in the Merino and the Soft Silk Mohair than similar yarns by other brands. And it is gorgeous. I have been stroking it lovingly all week. We are currently stocking twenty colours in their Merino (a 4ply/fingering weight) along with the same colours in their Soft Silk Mohair. We also have twelve colours in their Heavy Merino, which appears to be worsted weight although it has much more meterage than you would usually find in yarn of that weight, so while they say it is ‘rustic’ I would say it is closer to a DK than a worsted weight. But perhaps this is something we will have to work out over the next few weeks. If you like the brand, then I will also be considering their (even more) luxurious yarns – Pure Silk and Compatible Cashmere, but it’s all about baby steps at the moment! Of course if there is something particular you want, I will be able to order it for you. We are not stocking their patterns at present, but all of them can be got on Ravelry – and we can get them for you if you cannot.

As for me, although I am meant to be (and will be) casting on the latest Stephen West MKAL (the Go Go Dynamo Shawl), I have also earmarked a lovely vest pattern and the yarn for my next/sidealong project. Ever since I opened the shop, vests or slipovers (what I used to call tank tops), have been the most popular patterns and nearly three years down the line, I have decided that the time is right to make one for myself.