Well, this is exciting: Amor, owner of Amores Yarn Studio and Shop, is the first Variegated Yarn Tales interviewee who I had the pleasure of meeting in person!
She is a such a warm and delightful person, and I could literally talk to her for hours. (And I did at her yarn shop, Amores in Santa Fe!) Please enjoy her interview and get to know her a little better, learn more about her fabulous yarn, and her great tips for beginning knitters.
What inspired you to start knitting or crocheting?
I was lucky enough to grow up with both my mother and grandmother. It was always the three of us. In the spring/summer my grandmother loved to sit outside to catch the gentle northern New Mexico breeze and warm in the sun. This is where she taught me how to crochet. We made polka dots with scraps of yarn that she had collected over the years. Her specialty, as a younger woman, was gorgeous fine fine gauge crochet lace. I personally never achieved (or attempted) that caliber of the craft. But she did plant a seed that I am infinitely grateful for.
I didn’t really take it up in any dedicated fashion at that time; I was too busy being a kid, of course. I dabbled with crochet and then knitting during both of my pregnancies. But the yarn bug really bit in graduate school…where I went from novice knitter to certifiably obsessed in a few short months. I remember having trouble going to sleep because I just wanted to finish a few more rows. Eventually my favorite form of procrastination became a career. I can’t explain why…the knitting, the dyeing, the yarn life just fits with me in a way that was so natural and crystal clear.
Has knitting or crocheting got you through a difficult time in your life? If so, how did it help?
I would say that knitting taught me how to listen to myself and gave me the mental space to choose my path, outside of the expectations of others. For a very long time I was on a path toward higher education (a path I had invested a great deal of time in), but I wasn’t looking forward to the destination I was moving toward. The radiant and colorful explosion of the knitting and yarn industry with Ravelry, coupled with my love for fiber arts, created a space for me to imagine a life in which I could professionally embrace what I loved. So I would say that knitting helped me through the very sensitive rite of passage that we all come to, when we choose who we wish to be. It was then that CRAVE YARN was born. Now, five years later, that direction continues to open up in new and thrilling ways.
What keeps you obsessed?
The sheer volume of projects I want to start and finish, and designs of my own that I want to manifest, is enough to keep me googly eyed for three lifetimes (minimum).
What’s your favorite project that you working on right now?
I’m really enjoying my dye studio these days where I’m working on one-of-a-kind colorways (OOAKs) two days out of the week. The meticulous record keeping that goes hand in hand with hand-dyeing can sometimes restrain the art of color. These OOAKs are my rebellion against the log book. I don’t take notes, I embrace the fact that none of the colors will ever be repeated, and I thoroughly indulge my craft. I’m loving every single color pour and I fall in love instantly with every single colorway. Though I wish I could knit them all up, it’s not so hard letting them go to color-loving customers, because I know the following week I’ll have 10 new colorways to fall in love with. It’s really very liberating. This color exercise definitely releases lots of little rainbow endorphins in my brain 🙂
What project are you most proud of? Why?
I am most proud of my brick and mortar, AMORES Yarn Studio + Shop, which I opened just a few months ago in December 2017. AMORES is a petite modest little nook of a space that I am madly in love with. The shop is another example of trusting my vision. I think a number of people in my life, not yarnies, worried that a physical shop was too risky or perhaps that it was an out-of-date model. But AMORES is not your typical yarn shop, it is also a design studio and showcase of all of my work over the last five years. It is ultimately a creative and welcoming space for me and my customers to explore color, share knowledge and, above all, to build community. In the last 4 months I have been stunned and delighted with the enthusiastic embrace I’ve received from the Santa Fe, and larger northern New Mexico community. I am reassured daily that it was absolutely the right next step in my path…and I LOVE LOVE LOVE every minute I spend there.
What’s the best knitting or crochet advice you have received?
I hear a lot of beginning knitters talk down their skills and they underestimate their ability to make beautiful things because they are just starting out. To those knitters I would like to say, the most elegant projects are often the simplest ones. The projects that allow the yarn to be seen, that create a smooth and uncomplicated fabric. This is something even the most advanced knitter understands intimately. And those are the projects that are available, skill-wise, to beginner’s and advanced knitters alike.
Does pop culture ever influence your knitting?
I don’t know if you are referring to the world beyond the knitting community, specifically, but I would say that knitting has become so dynamic and the community so huge that we really have our own pop culture stage these days. And in that way, YES! I really love Instagram and I am always inspired by all the new designs I see popping up from knitters all over the world. They do inspire me to think about project shapes that I may be neglecting, or playful uses of color that hadn’t yet occurred to me. For example, I did so many triangle shawls for a time that I found my imagination was blinded to the beauty of wide rectangle wraps. After seeing some stunning examples on Instagram and Ravelry I was moved to start working on a few new rectangular designs of my own and I’m loving every stitch.
Crave Yarn specializes in fine weight yarns (fingering and sport); any advice for people who may be intimidated by the lighter weight yarns?
I do love light weight yarns, especially as a dyer. They simply take and express color in a way that is unique from heavier weight yarns. We all fall in love with fingering weight skeins…the colors are just so rich and alive. But I know not everyone wants to knit on size US3 needles. That is why I am a passionate proponent of multi-strand knitting. When you hold multiple strands together you create a fabric that is airy, squishy and plush…more so than working with a yarn that was manufactured to be heavier in the first place. And when you’re working with variegated yarn, multi-strand knitting also makes the color play so much more dynamic. The fact that such projects can be knit on larger needles and finish up in speedy fashion allows you to have your cake and eat it too. Right now I’m working on a number of projects that utilize “cable-ply knitting,” a method of three-stranded knitting accomplished with a single ball of yarn; as opposed to having three balls of yarn rolling around in your bag getting tangled, you create three strands from one as you knit.
What’s your hope for what AMORES Yarn Studio + Shop will be for the crafting community?
Above all I want AMORES to be dynamic. I want to showcase new colors and new designs on a regular basis. I want people to feel like each and every visit holds new inspiration for their own knitting life. And I want them to feel welcome to explore their love for yarn and color at their own pace, knowing I am happy to answer their questions or troubleshoot project issues with them. I want people to consider me a friend and partner in yarn and know that they are the reason I opened the shop in the first place…it’s all for the people and community.
Aside from selling your beautiful yarn, will your store be offering classes?
I will be offering “Community Workshops” that will provide introduction to bite-size techniques that knitters of all skill levels will benefit from adding to their toolkit. The Cable-Ply knitting is a good example. There is no charge for the workshops, and supplies for the class are offered at a discount to workshop participants. Workshop information can be found on the shop website. I just love the moment when a knitter’s eyes light up upon realizing the wide potential of a simple new technique.
Follow Amor on Instagram here.
If you would like to be featured in the “Variegated Yarn Tales” column, please join the community and read our guidelines here!
0 Comments