We are very excited to announce our new Pop-Up Shop series! Each month, we will be featuring an indie yarn dyer or company, showcasing their yarn, and highlighting perfect patterns to go with them! We'll also share an interview with the owners and designers here on the blog.
Our first interview is with Aimée of La Bien Aimée. She started dyeing her yarn just five short years ago in her kitchen in Paris, France, and now, her yarn is a favorite in the indie world. These vibrant colors and soft wools are perfect for all sorts of projects, from intricate colorwork sweaters to the rich, deep, and cozy shawls we love to make. We are absolutely overjoyed to have La Bien Aimée at Jimmy Beans Wool!
Why did you start dyeing yarn?
I officially started dyeing yarn in early 2015 before starting my business in May 2015. I had dyed in my kitchen playing around with Kool-Aid back in the early 2000s just to understand the basics of dyeing yarn.
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| Aimée's San Tokki cardigan |
I draw a lot of inspiration from my travels and my surroundings. Luckily I live in a beautiful city, Paris, that offers me a lot of inspiration for colors. Some of my best selling colorways are linked to childhood, like San Tokki, which means "mountain bunny" and it was a song that my mother sang to me growing up.
Most Koreans know this song by heart. Another color that has become my signature color is Yellow Brick Road, which is a reference to the Wizard of Oz and my connection to my home state of Kansas.
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| Aimée modeling Yellow Brick Road |
I think that our customers really enjoy the color stories that you can make by putting our colors together. Also, I feel like our colors are easy to wear.
When did you first learn knitting or crocheting?
I was a child when I learned to knit, and it was my mother who taught me. I didn't take to it right away but came back to knitting as a young adult when I moved to France. It was shortly after that my mother passed away suddenly and I found knitting to be my way to reconnect with my mother again.
