Katie Rempe: Those mysterious symbols on your yarn labels. They might just hold the key to perfecting your next project. Whether you've never taken the time to demystify these symbols, or whether you're a newbie who's looking to learn more, this episode featuring my special guest Heather Walpole will explain them all and more.
Light from Lantern presents Knit a Spell. I'm your host, Katie Rempe, designer, knit witch, and your companion in this magical making podcast. Together, let's explore the enchanted world where knitting meets the magic of the craft.
For all of those who maybe haven't seen, this is Heather's return to the show after she was here March 2022 to talk all about your amazing line Ewe Ewe Yarns and the amazing color magic that could be done with it and all sorts of fun stuff. Welcome
Heather Walpole: I am so excited to be here again Katie. Who doesn't love talking about yarn and especially what we can do with yarn? That's the most fun thing, like I can't think of a better way to spend an hour of my day.
Katie Rempe: We could just be doing this for fun, now instead, people get to listen in, or watch if they're on YouTube, to the process.
Heather Walpole: Yes,
Katie Rempe: If you are listening to the podcast, I appreciate it, but it is very visual. You may also want to pop onto YouTube because it's This episode, we are demystifying yarn labels. Both Heather and I, we have worked on the yarn store side serving amazing knitters, and the manufacturing side.
Heather Walpole: We both designed yarn labels ourselves. We Started as knitters. We both worked to manufacture yarn labels and we both helped customers understand yarn labels. I think you and I both have lot to say about yarn labels.
No Yarn Label Standards!
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Katie Rempe: That probably influenced how you then decide to go about Designing your own yarn labels because if people don't know you as a company can design yarn labels pretty much to have whatever you want on them.
Heather Walpole: Yes, people Think there's system to it, but really there's not, it's manufacturing and you can say I want this yarn. Do you have this gauge? And literally I invented the gauge of my yarns. I knit it. I wrote down my stitch counts and that's what's on my yarn labels.
Katie Rempe: Wait a minute. I'm sorry. Breaking news. Are you telling me that you have the perfect gauge? You always get gauge? Means that you are actually just getting your gauge?
Heather Walpole: Yes,
Katie Rempe: If your mind was just blown, leave a comment below. I'm pretending to be surprised. I also am the knitter that you are matching. Back when I was working at skacel, I would know that my gauge was typically tighter and I would go up needle sizes as the recommendation for people to meet me.
Heather Walpole: And, if I wrote my gauge today, would it be the same?
Katie Rempe: Ooh! And that's why you always do your own gauge, because even your own personal gauge changes over time.
Heather Walpole: Exactly, That's why even though a yarn label might say a gauge you might recognize that little gauge symbol there we'll get to that even though a yarn label might say a gauge That's why a pattern then specifies a gauge, because even though you might get five stitches to the inch on an eight needle with this yarn, the pattern in the t shirt you're wearing is in this wooly worsted yarn.
Maybe you're a little tighter knitter, so maybe you get five stitches using a nine needle. I don't know. The gauge that's on the skein we always said was like a jumping off point.
Katie Rempe: Because as soon as you do another stitch pattern, that can change drastically. Even if it's just garter stitch.
Heather Walpole: Yeah, exactly.
Garter stitch has more rows and wider stitches than stockinette. Right off the bat, we're right into it with, that is where you start. As an estimation of what you might get if you are using this yarn to make a sweater, make a hat, a shawl.
I want a loose shawl. This says an 8 needle. Okay, let me try a 10 needle. Let me try an 11 needle. You
Katie Rempe: Find the element of play in it. Experiment. Yarn is cool because you can rip it out if you don't like how it's going.
Heather Walpole: And it's really easy to reuse my yarn.
Katie Rempe: Which may not seem comforting until you have to pull it out, and then it is nice that you can do that.
Before we get into the symbols and everything, I want us to talk a little bit about the fact that as knitters I certainly didn't just become a knitter and then know how to read a yarn label immediately.
Nor did I prioritize learning the information very quickly. I'm curious to know how long was it that you perhaps also didn't explore the full bounds of the yarn label?
I came to knitting quickly in a weird way. So I have been like an artist and a maker my whole life, but I just never got into yarn and knitting. It wasn't something my mom did when I was a kid, Then, when I was in my early 20s, one of my sisters opened a yarn store, and I was just finishing up college for graphic design, and it was a Saturday afternoon, and I'm like, I better drive out and see my sister's new store. I get in there, and it's walls, and Of texture and color. And I'm like, what? Like I had no idea. So I'm just wandering around the store. She's helping customers. It was a busy Saturday. So I'm wandering around the store and it was like everything like Oh. And I was just totally mesmerized mostly by the colors and.
Heather Walpole: All the different textures, I had no idea what I would make out of any of it. And, finally, when she had some time, she was like, okay, that's it. Sit down. And I'm going to teach you how to knit. So I'm like okay, sure.
Katie Rempe: About time.
Heather Walpole: So yeah, I cast on a gray scarf for some reason.
I have no idea why I would have chosen gray. I still have this vivid memory of some lime green in her store, but I chose gray.
Katie Rempe: You don't want to get too wild too quick, right? You're learning a new skill, you don't want to also tackle on neon green.
Heather Walpole: So maybe I didn't want to ruin it. I was like, alright, let me just go with something basic. Yeah, that I could see myself doing something like that. So anyway, so I learned to knit a scarf. Then after the scarf, I Make a hat and then it was the felted purses era. So I made so many felted purses and it was so fun because you knit that stuff big on wool and then you shrink it in your washing machine and it would hide any mistakes.
So it was super forgiving way to start knitting. And. I had a concept about gauge because doing those purses, they would be super big and really loose and floppy
Katie Rempe: So that there was room for it to agitate and felt, right?
Heather Walpole: Yeah, you wanted a handbag that was like this big and it would be like this big while you're knitting
Katie Rempe: and so nasty looking too.
Heather Walpole: And yeah, oh yeah, always so ugly. But that would be something you'd take like a worsted weight. non superwash wool, obviously, and you would knit this not on an eight needle, but up on a 13 or a 15.
that sort of taught me how yarn behaves without really thinking about it too much. Within a year, actually I partnered with my sister, and I quit my graphic design job, and I opened a sister's yarn store.
Katie Rempe: A sister yarn store. I love
Heather Walpole: My yarn store was not close to her yarn store, and I had only known how to knit for a year.
Katie Rempe: Quick learning year.
Heather Walpole: It really was. So then, I was in my yarn store, and, the fastest way to learn something is to try and help somebody figure it out. I learned so much about knitting.
In three months, I'd say,
because when a customer comes in and you want to make a sale, you got to figure it out. So I learned how to knit and how to be a better knitter through problem solving, basically. I saw all types of. Yarn labels right from the start.
We carry different yarns in the store, so I had to understand those. And then also customers would come in, because there hadn't been a yarn store in this area for a long time. So there were all other yarns that people will come in with their projects and they'd want a little bit of help to move on.
So I'd read those yarn labels and help them and figure it out. And then plus as a graphic designer basically the entire purpose of what we do is relaying information in a clear and concise way.
Katie Rempe: You've been training your whole life for this.
Heather Walpole: oh my gosh, yarn labels are like my dream. You're giving people information in the tiniest package.
I don't think it was deliberate about how much I thought about yarn labels, but it was a part of my life very early in my knitting journey. I have understood gauge and yarn and patterns because I learned it as like trial by fire.
When you have a woman come to you and go what about this? And you're like, oh, you can't just stand there all day. So and I don't remember if I got it all right every time, but I tried and then I also listened.
I had a lot of customers and I had employees in my store that knew how to knit.
I had knitting teachers and I listened When they said, oh maybe Heather, they'd politely interject, I was like, yes, Leah, come tell me, yes, okay, Marsha, what? Tell me more. And we'll learn together, I used to,
Katie Rempe: This is a great attitude for everyone as a knitter or crafter or whatever you're trying to build as a skill to hear. The best thing you can do to advance your skill is to throw yourself into I don't want to say the fire, but throw yourself into the action and get involved.
Volunteer at your local yarn store. Get their permission first, of course. To act as a resident Let's Fix It Together person. I remember the yarn store I worked at had a time when The Fixer came. And ladies and men and all sorts of people would line up to get help at that time. And at one point, she stopped doing it.
And then guess what? I had to do it, and I was like, oh my god, to do this, so I completely feel you. It was like, I went from a beginner knitter to wow, now I know so much. I'm not even knitting this pattern, and I can follow the journey to help you with the mistake that I don't even know how you did it, but it was very creative.
Heather Walpole: Yes, always those. And, but I think trying something and not being afraid to be wrong,
That's how you have to learn anything. That's how a three year old learns how to read. Does he say the wrong word 12 times? Yes.
Who cares? You just tell him the right way.
And then hopefully one day he gets it You put your pride on the shelf, and you listen to what more experienced people might have to
You put that in your pocket, and now you have it to help someone else, without being the entire You don't have to know everything.
I don't know everything. I haven't knit every pattern on earth. I don't want to knit every pattern
Katie Rempe: No. I design my own patterns, and I still will mess them up. They're my pattern. You might think, like, how can you do that and not remember them? I'm like, because I'm human, and there's a lot of stuff going on,
Heather Walpole: I can literally show you that exact thing on my needles if I had it in this office.
I have one sample and I was making the second sample and I messed it up.
Katie Rempe: I literally have behind me the same thing in your yarn, one of my patterns. The irony is, and this is going to be a future video on my YouTube, the irony is that it's the grounding color that I start with. It, I was clearly not grounded when I did it because it's all sorts of messed up. I made a very rookie mistake and I'm very excited to just blow that out for everyone so that Nobody has to ever feel bad about failing because it still happens all the time for everyone.
No matter how expert you might be perceived as.
Ewe Ewe Label Breakdown
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Katie Rempe: Now that we've hopefully given people enough courage to go out there and learn on the fly or ask from others let's break down your amazing yarn labels I had almost all of them. I know I have the bulky in my Florida location, but unfortunately that's not where I'm at right now.
Let's go into some detail about what you chose to put on your yarn labels. let's start with the very beautiful front here. We have your very cute logo.
What was the thinking behind your
logo? Cause I love this little heart.
Heather Walpole: So I have all my yarns here, too, of course. So this is what you have. You have You So Sporty on hand
and logo being the most important thing because we need to know our brand and where the yarn is coming from. My logo is a little scripted EWE logo an EWE with a heart in the middle.
As a graphic designer, I am even a bit surprised by my own logo because never saw myself as like a scripty girl or a heart girly, both those things surprised me. But when I designed it, I was like, there it is. And I stopped from there.
So the name of the company is Ewe Ewe Yarns. So it's E W E E W E. It's two female sheep and, they're friendship connects them through knitting. That was like how it all came together.
Katie Rempe: I like the logo because to me, my impression of it is if you were to just roll the yarn around and let it go, it looks like that could be what it said from the yarn, right?
Heather Walpole: I never really thought about it. All strung together like that.
Katie Rempe: Yeah.
Heather Walpole: I like that even more. We might have to add that to the spiel.
Katie Rempe: There you go.
Heather Walpole: Maybe that's why the script is worked for me.
Because I look at still like maybe redoing it and I'm like, no.
Yarn Names
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Katie Rempe: And so then under the brand, which is how you find the yarn again, if you ever want more then you have which yarn in the brand it is.
Heather Walpole: Exactly. I have four weights of yarn. They're all essentially the same thing, but. Different weights. Is my sport weight. And I named it Ewe So Sporty. You go girl, so you so sporty. That was how that name came about. And I have the yarn weight in each of my yarn names.
That way it's less information even still that I have to actually put on the yarn.
Katie Rempe: And it's helpful for people who work with the yarn to also identify what it is, the people at the yarn company it's helpful on many levels.
Heather Walpole: Yes, exactly. If I had named it California It's not telling me anything.
Is it a surfboard? I'm not sure. I went for a more descriptive name for each of the yarns, saying the yarn weight in the name.
So we have the Fluffy Fingering, and the You So Sporty, and the Wooly Worsted, and the Baba Bulky.
Katie Rempe: And Heather's Heathers, which is a woolly worsted.
Heather Walpole: is Wool E Wursted, and I do also have that on the front, but it is a heathered yarn.
Fiber Content
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Katie Rempe: And then, of course, has what it is made out of, which I didn't put in our notes. here, but that is helpful for people because that will lead a lot of indicating of how it's going to act in your project .
Heather Walpole: Exactly. The yarns I currently have are all merino. wool. Merino is a breed of sheep. You can hear about that in the other episode I did. We talked a lot about that. The wool is then treated to be washable. So unlike those bags I was talking about that you could knit big and shrink, this yarn is not going to shrink.
Katie Rempe: Designed not to shrink.
Heather Walpole: Exactly. Exactly. Which makes it very durable and easy to rip out.
It also gives the yarn like a smoothness and a kind of a sheen. So it feels like butter when you knit it too.
Katie Rempe: Any of that like old thinking that wool is itchy, this is not that wool.
Heather Walpole: It's a fine fiber and those things are included right here on the front of the label. So it does say it's washable and then I also add it again where it says 100 percent Merino Superwash. Washable means one thing, but superwash means it has had that treatment and you can really actually wash it.
Katie Rempe: True, because it can be washable and not treated as a superwash, because maybe it's not a wool fiber, or you can hand wash it, so always check what the true meaning is.
Heather Walpole: yes. I think those are the most important things. What is the brand? What is the yarn name? What's it made out of, and, the washability is like an extra factor that I was able to tuck in there by ease of description.
Gauge
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Heather Walpole: The idea is that you turn the label and you can admire the other information. So they are packed. With info. On here, then, we have details about that gauge that we were talking about earlier, and you can see that little grid symbol. Not everybody uses it, but it's like a piece of graph paper, just like your knitting is.
You're making a row and stacking another row on top, and it's columns of stitches. So that's why we use that little symbol to be the main gauge symbol.
When you knit a gauge swatch, you need a little section. Most people say four inches, ten centimeters is a good enough amount of space, if you think about how much fabric you're making in four inches because then you want to be able to measure inside of it.
Perfect for every gauge swatch? Not necessarily, but it's a standard amount. That can give you your referenced number of stitches.
Katie Rempe: that jumping off point.
Heather Walpole: yes, exactly. On the sport weight, we say it is 24 stitches over 24. Four inches. And that is at the bottom of the square.
It says the 24 stitches, and then there's even the row gauge on that side. And then it tells you on what needle that was worked on.
Katie Rempe: That's a lot of information on a teeny tiny little square.
I think this part in particular overwhelms people who are new because they're like, okay, there's so many numbers and I just thought I was going to be knitting this thing and now I have to do math maybe.
Heather Walpole: Yeah, exactly. I'm just gonna pick up whatever needle size she says, and I'm just gonna go with
it.
Katie Rempe: for the best,
Heather Walpole: Yeah, exactly. Which,
Katie Rempe: Is one way to
learn.
Heather Walpole: start. Yes, you can jump right in, and that's what we said. That is one way to learn. maybe you're gonna have to give this sweater to your big sister, cause it doesn't fit you.
That is the purpose of that. Because you need to know how many stitches you're making per inch to be able to devise how many stitches you need to cast on.
If your head is 20 inches and you're getting 5 stitches to the inch, 20 times 5 is 100. Start with a hundred stitches, so that's the breakdown.
Katie Rempe: I used to say that the gauge was the key to designing any pattern. The part that a knitter hates is essential to the design process that we go through. Like you said, how would you even figure out how many stitches to put on a hat?
It's because of this little math thing here and Let's just say, okay Katie, I'm not a designer. I don't care. You might care when you realize that this yarn, not this yarn, but a yarn that you're looking at in your stash is unavailable anymore and you need more of something to finish it.
This is the key to unlocking a matching yarn. To at least some pretty accurate degree, you can find a yarn that's a similar needle getting a similar gauge. Odds are that's a pretty good clue that this could be a good match because it's on that standard stockinette stitch over all the yarns.
Heather Walpole: Yes, and that's why we keep our labels.
We take good notes, or, whatever the case may be.
Katie Rempe: All of those things. And you don't just keep the label for the gauge. You also keep it because if you're someone like me I like to knit for people on occasion. And when I do, I keep one of the labels and I gift it with them because it already has all the wash and care instructions on
it.
Yardage
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Heather Walpole: That is a very clever idea, and that is the next thing. After yardage,
Katie Rempe: how much yardage does this ball symbolize?
Heather Walpole: yes, exactly. And it is strange who thinks in yards other than football players? But sewists and
things like that, too. However, thinking about a yard, but It's just easier than saying this ball has, 5, 280 feet of yarn.
Katie Rempe: And more accurate than saying it has three ounces and you're like, Oh, what does that mean?
Heather Walpole: I know. I do not like to go off of the skein weight, because different fibers weigh different amounts. If you think, you can pick up a cotton t shirt off your laundry pile and it has a weight to it. But then pick up your silk shirt,
Katie Rempe: Yes.
Heather Walpole: If you compare, 50 grams of wool to 50 grams of cotton, they're not going to be the same yardage. So that's why we like to think in terms of Length when we're looking for the amount of yarn we need for a project.
Katie Rempe: Think it's like an old timey way of doing it. There were less varieties of yarns and things at one point. And so I think it was more universal that if you had the two yarns that were being made, probably not that little, but you know what I'm saying?
Heather Walpole: It was exactly that because they would say okay, to make a small sweater. finished sweater weighed ounces. So that means if our skeins are three ounces each. You need
three balls and, the pattern came with the yarn.
It's how it used to be. And the yarn books used to be Just for one yarn and it would be like, okay You need 12 ounces to knit the man size and you need whatever to knit the dog size. So
Katie Rempe: I love that you chose man and dog sizes.
Heather Walpole: It's
Katie Rempe: Yeah.
Heather Walpole: It was very siloed per yarn company, yarn patterns.
And we still, as a yarn company, I still make patterns that support my yarn, but now we have so many more pattern opportunities that we can use my yarn for other designers, patterns, other companies, patterns, whatever the case may be. Like Woolworth used to sell this Woolworth yarn,
And here's the pattern book.
Katie Rempe: All the pattern support came from the yarn company, like you said.
Heather Walpole: exactly,
That's how the industries were.
Even at skacel when you work there , they make books that support their yarns, but now we're really lucky in the knitting and crochet world that there's other designers. not only do I get to design patterns to support my yarn, I get to work with people like you, Katie.
Heather Walpole: And you can design a pattern, you can say it uses one of my yarns, like that shirt you're wearing, and then you can sell it. And in that sense, you are making the money off of your pattern design, and then hopefully the customer comes and buys my yarn. But I can also say, Hey, look at this great pattern. this designer used and things like that. Maybe you have design in a different yarn and you're like, hey, it would also work in this yarn.
Katie Rempe: Not all yarns last forever. Sometimes they become discontinued and you're like,
oh
no, I need to make another sample. And then you find another yarn that's, a good mix. That was my ship to shore shawl, the big one. Initially in a yarn that is now discontinued and now in your bulky weight yarn, which
Heather Walpole: I know.
Katie Rempe: beautiful.
Heather Walpole: I know. I need to make one of those this fall.
Katie Rempe: It's a really quick knit, which is surprising because it's so huge, but it's the big needles so much fun.
Heather Walpole: That sounds good for gifting.
Katie Rempe: This would be a great episode for all knitters to watch, but especially new knitters to watch.
Heather Walpole: I
know,
Katie Rempe: like modern knitters who don't know about stuff. So yeah, enjoy this extra long episode. But yeah, I think this is so great.
Wash & Care
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Katie Rempe: So what's next on your label?
Heather Walpole: Next then we come around to care instructions, which are important, obviously. I made some cute little symbols like we're talking about today. So we have our little knitting needles. and a washing machine, and then my heart, because I want you to knit your project, care for your project, and love it in as many ways as you can.
And then I do have the written out instructions about how to care for the yarn. We could use those international care symbols, but Americans aren't very good at knowing them.
Katie Rempe: They're also not necessarily standardized. Making it even more frustrating if you're trying to break into it.
Country of Origin
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Katie Rempe: Also here did you know all yarns at least have to say where it's made?
Heather Walpole: You do have to by government law say where this is made. There's even some choices there. So mine says product of Italy. Because it is spun and milled in Italy. But the raw wool actually comes from Australia. There's not many Italian sheep herds.
So yes, very good Merino wools come from Australia. But then, because the product goes through manufacturing, actually, in Italy, then it becomes, it's made in Italy, product of Italy that's an interchangeable term. And is why it says Italian, because it is spun and dyed and skeined and labeled all in Italy.
And then it comes to me as a finished cute little scheme.
Location
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Katie Rempe: Then we have where you're located, or at least where people can reach out to you.
Heather Walpole: Yes, I am in California, so it says our address if you need to contact us.
Color & Dye Lot
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Heather Walpole: And then, as we come around, we have one of the other most important parts.
The color and the dye lot.
The dye lot is an interesting thing. So as I said, the yarn is spun and dyed and skeined in another country and also it's done in batches the machines are only so big, and the die pots are only so big, so they can only put in
Much raw material. So that is what happens every time I buy yarn, I buy Basically a dye kettle's worth of, let's say, saffron then also per weight.
It's not like they're dyeing my saffron worsted with my saffron sport.
When we go and say there's 25 colors, And there's 25 colors across four weights.
Katie Rempe: That's like a hundred and seventy five thousand yarns, basically.
Heather Walpole: I have exactly 100.
Katie Rempe: One hundred yarns! A lot of inventory.
Heather Walpole: it is a lot of inventory and there's minimums. So anyway, the yarn is, made in batches, and that's called a dye lot. Just like anything, if you make a batch of chocolate chip cookies today, and you make one tomorrow, they
might taste a little different.
You might still know, oh, those are Katie's cookies.
Katie Rempe: My proprietary blend of cookies. That's
Heather Walpole: exactly. Yeah, I've heard of them. Maybe this one has a little extra salt. And maybe this one has a couple more chocolate chips. It's not an exact science in baking and in yarn.
It's a natural fiber that we're applying something to. So just like in baking,
your alchemy can change. It's the same type of thing. We know there's hand dyers dyeing yarn is totally an art.
Katie Rempe: Beyond the hand dyers who are literally hand painting the yarn, just like you said the art of mixing the dye exactly the same batch to batch, we've all gone to our hairstylist and been disappointed that person cannot match the same thing they did last time.
It's because it is almost impossible.
Heather Walpole: think about wall paint, and all that type of thing, you take a little chip swatch and they have a special scanner and that is actually how they devise the colors. Or yarns, too. It's the same sort of thing.
That is why dye lot is so important and having that information is so valuable because, say you only bought eight skeins but you need nine to get that last little bit here and slightly
Katie Rempe: the same next to each other, and then as soon as you knit with it, you're like, What? Is this a whole different color? What? What? And it is so funny how just the slightest difference is
like, what? Actually, I have a really good example of this.
This is my Stormy Shores Cowl. And I always have to be very strategic when I take photos of it because of this. Slightly obvious color difference here. I don't know if you
Heather Walpole: What, so what happened there? Tell us what happened.
Katie Rempe: What happened is I had two hanks in one dye lot and a third hank in another dye lot. This was yarn that was sent to me to make a sample where the yarn store had ordered the yarn twice and did not realize that they had multiple dye lots on hand.
Or maybe I was the person taking care of their extra dye lot. That's okay too. Either way, I ended up with two different dye lots. And I didn't pay attention either until I was like, Oh I guess this is a learning opportunity I'm going to be using. So it worked out in the end.
Heather Walpole: That is like an incredibly important part of the information that is on your yarn label.
Katie Rempe: And I think it's important to also note not all yarn companies have dye lots. Hand dyers will not put dye
lots.
Everyone's its own dye lot. exactly because where it sits in from what we were talking about as per the VAT from today to tomorrow could be different. And, maybe even the water temperature is different. It still affects how the dye happens. Even in the dyers, where each skein is different.
Heather Walpole: Sitting, if they are hand painting it or speckling it or whatever technique they're using, it does make an individual skein and we used to do what's called invisible stripes, basically, is the technique that I've heard it called where if you have a pretty hand dye with a lot of colors.
If you do in stockinette, over and back with one ball and over and back with another ball, and then you keep going back and forth, then with all those colors and all those variations, you end up not seeing the extreme differences like in that dye lot that you showed of the solid color.
Katie Rempe: I also remember recommending this method. It was like the blend method or whatever. And I can't tell you the look I would get from people who were spending 50 a hank on their yarn, and then were told they are gonna have to have so many extra ends and all those extra steps to do to make it look like what the skeins look like.
Heather Walpole: Yeah.
Katie Rempe: So I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing, I'm just saying some yarns don't have dye lots. But in this case, they do.
Heather Walpole: So it is a valuable piece of information that you can take forward with you. just keep that label on hand while you're working on that project
Katie Rempe: I always say Keep at least one until the end just in case especially if you want to remember how to wash and care for it
so what else do we have on here? Oh, that's right. We have your beautiful website Yes, cuz maybe I need more yarn.
How am I gonna find it? I can't just message you. I can't just mail you an order
form.
Heather Walpole: I did once actually have some customers try and show up to this P. O. box that's on the label, too.
Katie Rempe: It's a quick shopping experience for them.
Heather Walpole: Oh, they called very confused on a Saturday morning.
Katie Rempe: Instead, go to the website
and shop.
See all the
Heather Walpole: place, too. Yes, exactly. So it's just simple, Ewe Ewe. Com.
Katie Rempe: You don't even have to go to a disappointing post office box, you can just shop from the convenience of your homestead.
Heather Walpole: put it right in the mail for you.
Katie Rempe: And it comes in a little pink bag and it's just lovely and then you get to have a little party and it's the best day of your life.
So now we know how to get more yarn. Also have a really nice little free pattern.
Heather Walpole: yes, That was actually my sister's doing the one that had the yarn store. Yeah, she was like, what's great is when they include a free pattern on the label.
I totally did. Like I said I started with the Wooly Worsted, and I had, of course, no patterns when I started the yarn, and so I made the most basic scarf you can make is right here on the side, and in this little amount of space, you can make the Thanks.
You just use three different balls of yarn and get your size 10 needles, cast on 20 stitches and away you go. Right there on the label, Free Knitting Pattern. And a little illustration of it
Katie Rempe: It's so nice, because so often you fall in love with the yarn first, and then you're like what am I gonna make now? And so it's nice to have a little jumping off point, because maybe you don't end up doing the scarf, or you start with the scarf, and then you're like, oh, okay, now I understand how the yarn works, and I love so excited about all the colors, and now I'm gonna knit a sweater or something.
Heather Walpole: it's a great way to give it a little try before you jump into the sweater and stuff like
Katie Rempe: or like a huge blanket that you're gonna love
Heather Walpole: yes.
Is how a yarn label breaks down. I know, there's a lot packed on this little tiny strip.
Katie Rempe: A thing that you might just take off and throw away is actually worth keeping.
It's packed with info that has been thought out for you.
Yarn Put Up
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Katie Rempe: And I appreciate that it is in a talk about this before, but as a person who worked at the yarn store, it comes in a skein that you can just pull and work from immediately. You don't have to worry about how annoying your yarn store rolling it or do I have a ball winder and swift or willing participant at home?
Heather Walpole: That was one thing I wanted. I didn't want yarn, I had to wind. So yes, all of our skeins use our center pull. If you can find the center, you're a magical magician. But anyway, you can just take the label off. And here. Get started right from it and just go for it.
How Labels are Attached
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Katie Rempe: And as one last note on just a reflection of the yarn label, there are many ways that you can choose to attach a yarn label. I like the way you have decided to do it with this. just wrapping it around the skein because it is very secure. It's going to stack really well, like in a cubby, which is what a lot of yarn stores use, or like you can put it in a basket and it looks really nice.
It's like a bouquet. And If, there you go, and if you have a lot of them packed in there and you accidentally pull it out, it's in a color that you actually can identify what it is and just easily put it right back in there. It's not gonna like mess it all up and like you don't have to be like, what the hell color is it?
You'll know.
I designed the company designed the yarn to be colorful. So my inspiration has always been like colored pencils for your creativity. When you are a kid and you open a box of crayons or a box of colored pencils and it was like, the world is my oyster.
Heather Walpole: That is how I want the yarn to be for you as a knitter. Like a fresh box of creativity just waiting for you. Yes, Yarn crayons.
For that reason I went with a white label and you can see the yarn colors. The label is not competing with the colors of the yarn. So that was very intentional
Katie Rempe: And it's all very cohesive, but like you said, it's all about the color than,
Heather Walpole: right.
Katie Rempe: the design of the label.
Heather Walpole: Yes, the label is secondary. it's just clean, it's
clean and informative
Katie Rempe: It's like a smart belt.
Heather Walpole: The fact that I got to design a yarn is the thing here. So that, yes, then the label is. The information side of it all.
Reach Out!
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Katie Rempe: I hope listeners have enjoyed this episode as we nerd out as two people who have a lot to say about yarn and yarn labels and
Heather Walpole: We do. We do. And if you think of something I'd love it if you ask. Katie and I could each talk about this. All day. And we do we literally text about yarn. Yes, if you have any questions of things we didn't cover about what's on a yarn label or what's on my yarn label specifically, I would love to hear it.
Katie Rempe: Drop a comment on her YouTube, or you can send me an email at [email protected] at gmail. com. Or of course, you can always visit Heather's website, or you can reach out to my dog Pancakes, who's in the background and mad that she's not getting a shout out.
Hi, welcome to the show. Pancakes. you have dogs in the recording
studio. You get it.
Heather Walpole: Yes, I do.
Katie Rempe: So before we wrap this up, do you have any?
interesting or funny stories regarding yarn labels and creative customer interpretations of them through the years of knitting.
Heather Walpole: oh, definitely.
Katie Rempe: And you can share!
Heather Walpole: Yes. The biggest one that literally have argued with me about is the name of my company. Because of that scripty little logo with the heart in the middle I've had you love you.
So I've heard you heart you. I've also had eewee eewee. Which reflects more on
them than on me. Or the logo.
Katie Rempe: Yes. Good point. Everyone has their own interpretation.
Heather Walpole: The you love you and the you hurt you, which are not bad, but no, I did literally have a woman argue with me. And I'm like, no!
Katie Rempe: ma'am. It's my company.
Heather Walpole: If you flip it over here and you read the address, it's just you, you, yarn.
That is the most curious thing, but but no, as far as the label itself and the information that is
Katie Rempe: Straightforward enough.
Heather Walpole: Yes, I seem to have managed to keep the questions away, just like I, when I go to design a knitting pattern, I try and put everything in a pattern.
Every question I think a knitter might have, I try and put in the pattern. That's also how I handled the label. After so many years in business I feel like nobody really asks me that anymore.
Or at least they don't do it to my face.
Katie Rempe: that's something.
Thank you so much for coming back to share all your knowledge about yarn labels and everything containing and your yarn labels.
Follow Ewe Ewe!
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Katie Rempe: Please tell people where they can follow you, anything you have going on, all that fun stuff.
Heather Walpole: You can find me at Ewe Ewe. com. So that is my main website. And I love updating my website. So it's not one where you go on and it's stale. There's always something new, blog posts, new pattern ideas, my best way to get in touch is on my newsletter list. I love newsletters.
You can always reply. I answer back. You tell me what you're working on. You have a question. So if you go to my website, you can sign up for our newsletter. And plus I am in all of the other regular places as Ewe Ewe Yarns. So E W E. E W E Y A R N S. And that is my Instagram it's also my YouTube account I do a weekly live stream every Wednesday.
I call it my Wednesday at one. And I just, I come on for 10 to 45 minutes and depending on how Many people are there and people have questions, but I just I come on as like a light topic every week and maybe we talk about color. Maybe we talk about a specific pattern Maybe we talk about a podcast I'm on, you know every week It's just a little something to break up the Your day and hopefully you get some enjoyment and get to think about your creativity for a couple minutes.
Katie Rempe: Always something inspiring and fun happening there. Definitely recommend that. And you also have a community,
Heather Walpole: Oh, yes, I
do. It's a little in an app called. Mighty, but if you go to my website right at the top, it says community. It takes you right in there and Inside there we can chat and share pictures and see what other knitters are working on. And then I also have a paid Section called SSK you might recognize this.
So it's called the secret society of knitters or SSK for short And inside SSK we do Zoom, knitting, meetups, you get a discount on the yarn, always, if you're a member of SSK. And just a lot of other fun swag, and just a little more, like I said, you get to be on Zoom with me at least once a week.
Katie Rempe: So fun, especially if you're in an area that doesn't have like a knitting community, or you don't like the knitting community, it's a nice option to do at your speed, or maybe you just don't want to go out of the house that day. You can just hang. So nice. Oh
Heather Walpole: yeah, a lot of fun.
Katie Rempe: I'll make sure to put all the links to everything that we're talking about in the description, so it's easy for everyone to access.
After Show on Patreon!
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Katie Rempe: Before we go, I just want to remind everybody that the show is not really ending here. We're about to head over to the after show, where Heather and I are going to just go crazy talking about yarn labels. We're going to talk about Other yarn companies, yarn labels and dissecting those.
So you get to listen to that. And we have an exclusive set of Q and A's that Heather is going to answer that I think you're going to love. That is continuing on our topic of labels and symbols. So be sure to check us out on Patreon. It's patreon. com forward slash knitispel. Only 5 to join and support.
And I hope to see you there. All right, Heather, thank you again for joining
Heather Walpole: thank you again for having me. I love coming on the podcast.
Katie Rempe: And I look forward to hopefully having you on again at some point.
Heather Walpole: Yes,
Katie Rempe: Yay.
Heather Walpole: look forward to coming back. See you soon.
Katie Rempe: All right. Bye everybody.
Speaker: Thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a review on iTunes or Spotify, and supporting us on Patreon to enjoy exclusive content. You can also subscribe to the Light From Lantern YouTube channel to receive a notification whenever a new episode of Knit A Spell is released.
And as always, I'd love to hear your feedback on this episode, so be sure to leave a comment on YouTube or on Patreon. See you next week!
