Behind Julie Asselin Yarns are Julie and Jean-François, two craftspeople driven by the need to offer original yarns that will unleash your creativity.

From the conception of our yarns—by perfecting our dyeing processes and promoting local and responsible production—to our vocation, which combines openness to the world and plurality—we want, above all, to reach, include and bring together all fibre-art enthusiasts. For us, a spirit of community and mutual support is of the essence.

We have been working in the textile industry since 2011. Our workshop is now in Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada). We proudly collaborate with a number of yarn shops to ensure that makers can purchase our range of yarns, no matter where they are located. We have forged close ties with business partners who shares our vision of work well done and equitable, their work spirit and practices reflect our shared values and goals.

Luigi Boccia currently serves as Brooklyn Tweed’s co-owner and Operations Manager, and has been part of the BT team since 2013. He grew up in Southern Italy among a family established in the craft of leather manufacturing and tailoring, and moved to New York in 2005. Nurturing a lifelong passion for operatic singing, he earned a Masters Degree in Musicology, then studied performing arts at the Juilliard School and served as resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia for two years. He went on to teach Italian through Operatic Libretti at Columbia University (NY) as an associate, while continuing to perform professionally through 2012.

In 2013 he decided to make a career change and come back to his family roots in small artisan business manufacturing of high-quality products, and Brooklyn Tweed happened to have just the right spot for him. He has seen the company through a move to Portland in 2015 and promoted sustainable growth over the last 9 years. Luigi is especially passionate about building and maintaining relationships with business partners and collaborators to continue to support the domestic textile and fiber industry and provide excellent and thoughtful offerings to our customers.

Hanna Lisa is the founder and CEO of Making Stories, a knitwear design publisher dedicated to sustainability. Their core product - Making Stories Magazine - comes out twice a year and features 12 modern, wearable knitwear designs in each issue. It's entirely ad-free, printed locally in Berlin on 100% recycled paper and Blue Angel certified - the highest eco-certification for print products. With their magazine as well as the supporting content they publish on their blog and in their pdocast, Making Stories wants to encourage and empower knitters to create projects they love and knits they will wear for years to come. In Hanna Lisa's own words: "Stitching sustainability into every aspect of life (and business) can not only help us save this beautiful planet, but also lead a more mindful and fulfilling life. That being said, we believe sustainability looks different for everyone. Finding what exactly it means for you and making decisions that reflect that in your daily life is incredibly empowering - and we're here to help you on that journey.

Malia Mae Joseph, sometimes referred to as Penelope is one half of Stephen & Peneople. She is the founder of Penelope Craft Boutique that was to eventually become Stephen & Penelope.

When Penelope Craft Boutique opened its doors on a side street in central Amsterdam, Stephen was the first one there. He came to every craft night. Soon Stephen was there all the time, and we were making plans and working to host his second Mystery Knit Along. Suddenly she realised that Stephen had already found his people.

At Stephen & Penelope her role is to manage all branding and marketing, design new products in the ‘S&P’ line and develop the ‘West Wool’ yarn line. In the time she has spare, she designs her own hand knitting patterns, a skill she is continually developing.

Her designs can be found on Ravelry under her designer name maliamae and at Stephen & Penelope.

Since joining Garthenor Organic in 2017, Jonny has advocated sustainable, transparent production through strong relationships with farmers, mills and dyehouses, striving for growth in the UK organic textile industry. With a background of graphic design, he has overseen the transformation to a modern, innovative brand at the forefront of the sustainable yarn movement. As Garthenor Organic begins the journey of opening Wales' first new spinning mill in decades, Jonny's passion for transparent and sustainable manufacturing is leading to a modern mill on the Welsh coast.

Garthenor organic is an independent, family run designer and manufacturer of ethical, Certified Organic yarns. Our mission is simple: to make only 100% certified organic yarn without compromise, ever. Totally traceable, completely climate positive and outstandingly organic. We were the first company in the world to make yarn that was certified organic from sheep to shelf, and we’ve never stopped being planet-loving trailblazers.

The Fibre Co.’s story began in 2003 in an old warehouse on the working waterfront of Portland, Maine, USA with a small spinning mill, lots of raw natural fibre and owner/founder Daphne Marinopoulos’ vision of creating yarns that she couldn’t find on the retail shelves.

Textiles are in Daphne’s blood with a textile engineer father and grandparents who immigrated to the US to work in the New England mills. With a love for the fibre arts and a background in business, Daphne jump at the opportunity to purchase a small mill when she lived in Maine. Originally, Daphne herself produced and hand-dyed all the yarns, developing her knowledge as she carded unusual blends and then hand-dyed them to test how each fibre took up the dye. As the company expanded its wholesale distribution, Daphne began to partner with other mills to pick up the backlog.

Today, The Fibre Co. is based in the Lake District in Northern England from where we work with a variety of producers and artisans to create luxury yarns for makers who want wearable well-fitting handmade pieces for their wardrobes. Our yarns and designer patterns help makers choose the perfect pairing so that they end up with a project they’re proud of.

Carmen is the owner and founder of A Yarn Story, Walcot Yarns, Events Unwound, and Octagon Distribution. Born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, Carmen went to uni in California before leaping across the pond to Europe where she first made Germany her home. She then headed to Ireland where she found her love of knitting, before eventually settling in Bath.Her earliest memory of yarn involved creating endless i-cords with her French knitting dolly, as well as weaving rugs for her doll’s house, and winding and re-winding yarn on her Mom's ball-winder. To this day, Carmen is still a ‘product knitter’, and loves creating everything from socks and shawls to mitts, hats and sweaters – as long as it is beautiful, useful and full of colour.

Armed with an MBA from Goethe Business School and heavily influenced by her parents who ran a successful restaurant, Carmen combined her business brain with her passion for yarn to launch A Yarn Story in 2014… and has never looked back! She says of her love of knitting, “With yarn you can take that string you love and turn it into whatever you want – absolutely whatever you heart desires.”

Sylvia Watts-Cherry, (aka withcherriesontoptoo on Ravelry and Instagram) is a UK based knitwear designer and instructor whose USP is her designs inspired by her African culture and her intarsia colourwork patterns. Sylvia turned her hands to knitwear designing in 2018 after selling the education business which she and her husband set up and ran for over 10 years. Since then, she has adopted her experiences of running a business into her new knitwear design business and has quickly gained recognition in the knitting industry.

As well as publishing her own patterns, Sylvia’s patterns have been published in Laine Magazine, Pompom Quarterly, Taproot, By Hand Serial and Knit Now as well as Warm Hands, a book collaboration between Jeanette Sloan and Kate Davies and Worsted, a book curated by Aimée Gille and published by Laine Publishing.