Cedar House Yarns Story
Who is Cedar House Yarns?
Cedar House Yarns is owned and run by Jennifer and Eric in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. We hand dye, rinse and wind each skein. The yarn is hand crafted in small batches to ensure quality. Our wool comes from small, non-mulesing* ranches in South America and Britain. Each batch is carefully measured and dyed to exhaustion, meaning the water is clear and ready to recycle for the next batch. This keeps the environmental impact low. We live in a beautiful, natural environment and we want to keep it that way.
What lead you to becoming a yarn producer?
A love of color is what pulled us into textile dyeing and the woods. The mountains that surround us are what inspire our palette. The individuality of our colors is important to us. We do not use stock dye colors; each of our colors is carefully measured, hand mixed and unique.
What inspires you?
I lived my childhood in an apple orchard that was our family business. Autumn is my absolute favorite because it meant harvest season. The smell of ripening apples and pressing cider creates a warm atmosphere in cool crisp environment. The fall season inspires me like no other, to create that same warmth in my yarns and knitwear.
Can you walk us through the creation of one of your yarns?
One of my favorite yarns is our Windfall Super Bulky. These fat, squishy singles are grown, gathered and spun in Peru and shipped to us. We weigh them, soak and dye them in a particular method to create a quick uptake of color. This leaves a mottled appearance on the yarn. They are then rinsed and, weather permitting, dried out in the breeze.
*mulesing is a practice that is considered inhumane by many. None of the wool carried by Row House is from farms that support mulesing.