About Direful Yarns
Direful Yarns officially launched in October of 2017, but that is not where my dyeing journey began.
I was bitten by the knitting bug in 2009, and started dyeing my own yarns in 2010. It originally started as a budget friendly option for me, and soon snowballed into a full blown obsession. At that time I had a little online children's clothing boutique called Pinkebody. It wasn't long before I was dyeing yarn to match some of my clothing creations. I was big into the cloth diaper world at that time, having an infant and two toddlers, so I was dyeing yarn for longies (handknit wool pants) to go with some of my own kids cute tops and dresses. Someone else saw them, requested their own, and it was kismet. I was invited to join a fabulous group of knitters and yarn dyers on the website Hyena Cart (this was THE place to go to get yarn/woolies and everything cloth diaper related). This group of knitters and I had a "congo" (conglomerate) shop called Capella. As our kids grew older and trends started to change in the cloth diaper world, we went our separate ways. This is when A.P.I. Fiber Co. was born!
A.P.I. was started in 2014 as a way to separate my sewing and yarn related items. Api was my childhood nickname (and still used by old friends and siblings) and it only felt right to tie it all together. I dyed under this shop name until 2015 when my mom requested my help in the shipping department of her small business. So, I went to help her out and sadly had to close up shop, as I just didn't have the time or energy to do both. I even lost my knitting mojo for awhile.
In the Spring of 2017, I stumbled upon the Grocery Girls podcast and the desire to knit and dye yarn was reignited. Like big time. I started knitting again, then I decided to dye a few things up for myself. One morning I was talking to my husband about how much I missed dyeing yarn and that I was contemplating re-opening my shop. Well, that day we went to a car show/swap meet and I found a license plate that said "D DYESS" and I took that as a sign it was time to jump back in. I brainstormed how I could tie it all together, using that plate to come up with a fresh name for my shop. As most of my old colorway names were based on Tim Burton/Scary Movies/Cult Classics, it had to be something spooky. A quick search of synonyms for "spooky/scary story" and I came up with Direful Yarns. I am lucky to have a super talented step brother that draws up custom logos and artwork. I sent him a text with my idea, asking him to help and boy did he ever deliver! In less than a week, he had drawn me up a new logo and things were falling into place. I have been branching out into events and the occasional trunk show and I have met so many amazing people on this journey and can't wait to see what the future holds for me and my shop.
Thank you to all who support me, even if it's just an encouraging word, you have no idea how much it means!
<3 April