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We're here to help you stitch sustainability into every aspect of your making.
With our carefully curated selection of non-superwash, plastic-free yarns and notions, we have everything you need to get started on your next project - and the one after that.
Here's to a wardrobe of knits we love and want to wear for years to come!
We're here to help you stitch sustainability into every aspect of your making.
With our carefully curated selection of non-superwash, plastic-free yarns and notions, we have everything you need to get started on your next project - and the one after that.
Here's to a wardrobe of knits we love and want to wear for years to come!
June 05, 2018 4 min read
This month in Making Stories Unravelled, we're talking about how Making Stories came about! We learn how Hanna Lisa and Verena met and made the decision to work together. Also how they came to create a company that not only promotes independent knitwear designers from around the world but also supports environmentally friendly yarn sources.
Both Verena and Hanna Lisa didn't begin their working life in the yarn industry.
Hanna Lisa had studied business administration, and worked in consulting for a few years before joining a small (50 people) Berlin-based online company. There she became COO and after a couple of years, decided to leave and figure out what she really wanted to do with her life!
That turned into freelancing for a while and gradually to work in the fibre industry with her project bag label and as a small business coach.
Verena had studied educational sciences, and was working in empirical educational research specialising in gender and social inequality.
At the same time, Verena had started her own business The Wool Club, now Sustainablist, and worked both jobs for a while before deciding to dedicate all her time to working on making everyday life more sustainable, fair and eco-friendly.
Hanna Lisa and Verena met via Instagram in 2015, they then met in real life a few short months later, at a knit night at their LYS Wollen Berlin! They hit it off and soon embarked on their first project together, a yarn crawl through Berlin.
 
Hanna Lisa had been interested in writing a book for quite some time, when she was approached by Anna, the dyer behind Gregoria Fibers. Anna asked if Hanna Lisa would be interested in writing a knitting book together. She loved the idea and suggested to add Verena to the team as a book sounded like quite the undertaking.
Verena:
“I've always had a passion and soft spot for all things fibre, fashion & knitting, and I do love me a pretty book! So when Hanna Lisa reached out about her and Anna's idea, I was thrilled and didn't have to think twice.”
Sadly, Anna had to pull out of the project before the crowdfunding due to health reasons.
As the idea began to grow and develop, both Verena and Hanna Lisa agreed that they wanted to create a platform which would enable knitters to find sustainably, ethically, transparently produced yarns and for designers and yarn companies with similar values to find each other.
They both agreed that there was a large gap in the market. US-based yarn producers seemed to focus around transparency in their yarn production, companies like Quince & Co. and Brooklyn Tweed were clearly defining where their yarn was coming from and what their processes were.
With Europe having such a strong wool history, they felt there had to be companies doing similar things. However it soon became apparent that, they weren't as popular and were quite difficult to find.
At the very beginning this little team of two sat down together and established how they wanted to work together.
Verena:
“Our mutual respect for each other and our contributions to Making Stories, at least from my perspective, is rooted in our very beginnings, and the time and energy we spent to really define what we wanted this business of ours to be, how we want to deal with disagreements and so on. This has paid off a million times.”
Hanna Lisa:
“I think one of the most important things for us was to allow for a natural evolution of what we wanted to do. We set up the first book WOODS so that it could be a stand-alone project. We did this intentionally so we could see if there was a demand in the market for what we wanted to do and whether we would enjoy the publishing work and the work of building something like that together.”
They also had long conversations at the beginning about their values, and agreed that all decisions within the business should be rooted in these values. It's something that has been essential to both who they are, and the company they are building.
This hasn't been the easiest of roads, as they have discovered that there are not a lot of companies out there who are operating in the same way. Open and honest and respectful conversations and the trust in each other have been cornerstones and absolutely key in making Making Stories.
More practically, when they were creating the first book, coming to understand the budget and financials of print was really important so that they could figure out how to organise not only the business, but also the crowdfunding.
If you missed our introductory post about the Making Stories Unravelled series, you can read all about it here.
Next month we're going to be diving in even deeper when we're looking at how Making Stories is structured and how we work with both yarn companies and designers. We really can't wait to share that with you!!
Until then, Woolly Greetings,
From The Making Stories Team!
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April 10, 2024 4 min read
Hi lovelies! Spring has sprung here in Berlin – as I am typing this (mid March), the buds on the chestnut tree out the window are a few days away from bursting, the forsythias are in full bloom, and our strawberry plants have started their comeback as well (leaves so far, but Aurin checks every day for berries :)).
So it's no surprise at all that today's blog post is very much inspired by the sun and the warmer days to come! I have put together a sweet roundup of 6 joyful spring knitting patterns, all of which I'd love to have on my needles soon. (If someone can get me an extra day or two per week to knit (oh, and to spin), I'd love that!)
The three yarns I've paired them with are my favorite spring / summer yarns: De Rerum Natura's Antigone, a delightful sport-weight linen yarn, Wooldreamers' Saona, a 50% Spanish cotton, 50% Spanish wool blend, and Natissea's Pernelle, our newest spring yarn: A 100% European hemp yarn!
April 02, 2024 3 min read 1 Comment
Hi lovelies! As you might know, we are slowly, surely expanding the portfolio of the shop – I am always on the lookout for wonderful sustainable yarns that might fill gaps we still have, and one that was on the list since last summer was an additional spring / summer yarn.
When I learned about Natissea, a French yarn company dedicated to organic plant yarns, from Audrey Borrego last year, I immediately contacted them to order some samples. As soon as I had Pernelle, their 100% European hemp yarn, on the needles, it was love – grippy, but not ropey, with a lovely drape that only got stronger after a good washing and blocking session.
The shade cards had me swooning too – a really comprehensive, well-composed range of colors with something for everyone in it, from neutrals to spring-inspired pastels to deep jewel tones.
So I was so pleased when Natissea accepted us as a stockist – and I am extra excited to introduce Pernelle to you. Our first 100% hemp yarn, perfect for summer tops, T-Shirts, and lightweight sweaters!
I reached out to Mathilde over at Natissea and she graciously agreed to answer a few questions about Pernelle. I loved reading her answers!
March 11, 2024 1 min read 2 Comments
Hello lovelies!
I am back today with a slightly unusual post that starts with a big, big apology to Liza Laird. Liza is a wonderful author (you might know her book Yoga of Yarn), knitter, teacher and yogi, and we were supposed to publish her beautiful poem "in and out", inspired by the ocean, in our Issue 11, "Seashore".
While I was putting the final touches on our layout, I realized that we had a spread too many (we always print in increments of 4 pages, or 2 spreads) and inadvertently cut the spread with Liza's poem instead of the photo spread I meant to delete.
We're a delightfully tiny team dedicated to all things sustainability in knitting. With our online shop filled with responsibly produced yarns, notions and patterns we're here to help you create a wardrobe filled with knits you'll love and wear for years to come.
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