Kate Burge-Tibi & Rachel Price began Spincycle Yarns as a handspinnery in 2004, the two of us kettle dyeing and spinning small batches of yarn and vending at Bellingham's farmers’ market. Because we came to this work with our foundation strictly in hand dyeing and handspinning, the hardest part of growing Spincycle from its tiny roots into a mill and dye house with worldwide reach, was figuring out how to scale up production while making yarn that looked just like our handspun.
Most of time, yarns are milled and then dyed. In this way, you can get beautiful solids and tonals, or speckled colorways, or dip-dyed (also known as space-dyed) effects. You definitely cannot get a slow color changing yarn like ours, however, where the hues sunset into one another and where the surprise tones that occur when one color blends with another is as unique from skein to skein as a fingerprint. That is the Spincycle magic.
Around the time we began thinking about how to scale up, we got very lucky, as in right time-right place lucky, and were able to convince a small local mill to work with us to develop a millspun 2-ply yarn. Dyed In The Wool was born!
[That is the very short version. Meet the Spinsters and learn more about our creative journey here, and if you are curious about why being wool mill owners in the US right now is basically the coolest job imaginable, click here!]
Once we were able to scale production, the world of designer collaborations opened up for us! It's hard to convey how incredible it is to see our yarns through the eyes of knitwear designers, and what an honor it is to work with that side of this industry. They see our yarns in ways that surprise even us, which is the greatest possible compliment.
As of 2023, the Spincycle team has grown to more than twenty hardworking folks. Everything you see, from the dyeing, spinning, packing and shipping, to the gorgeous design, media, and marketing, is done in-house.
[Meet our staff and read about our company values here.]
Our wool is grown, processed, dyed & spun in the USA.
The superwashed wool blend we use in Dyed In The Wool, Dream State, and Plump consists of Rambouillet, Targhee & Merino breeds, raised primarily in South Dakota and Wyoming.
The non-superwashed wool used in Trine and Metamorphic yarns is a blend of Corriedale, Rambouillet, & Columbia sheep raised in Colorado & Wyoming. The sheep that supply us with our wool are 100% non-mulesed.