Having spent the past ten days in New Hampshire talking to shepherds, mill owners, engineers, and others about my next project I can’t stop thinking about how to keep this project local in terms of the sourcing of the materials — not to mention labor too. I’ve been getting lots of advice about blending wools and dying versus natural colors, treating fibers for moth protection, everything — I think. So when I came across Larry Designs tonight I was relieved that they successfully source locally in BC.
Larry Designs is designed and created by Terri Potratz — she knits everything herself and from what I can tell from her Tweets she is into bulk fleece as much as I am!
She sources her raw Alpaca from a farm in the Cariboo and it’s processed in a plant that stays away from harsh chemicals for removing vegitative matter. After felting on a tarp in my parents’ great lawn for a whole day I was reminded why the studio I had in college was so great — less contamination!
Terri doesn’t dye her fibers — they’re all the natural colors of the Alpaca, however, I have to note that some of the chaining patterns, like the one below, remind me a bit of what Yokoo’s doing with colored yarns.
I like how these look and I also recommend checking out the lookbook as every image makes you want to curl up with a big scarf.
On the Larry Designs site there are also great photos from an installation of the accessories in a gallery setting, Grace-Gallery, which seems more like a creativity lab of sorts.
The photos are awesome as well — all by Peter Holmes I believe.
I’ve now added a Larry piece to me list of Winter needs — we’ll see how far through the list I get this year!
Terri Potratz
Thanks for this lovely post! Sourcing locally drives the heart of my business.
I also checked out Yokoo’s work – amazing designs. She is using acrylic yarn which has very different properties than alpaca fiber. Acrylic is a synthetic material and ideal for patterns with finer definition, as it holds its shape quite differently than a natural fiber.
Good luck with your project and let me know if I can be of any help!
pokate
Thanks so much for writing, Terri — I went to an amazing talk put on by the New York Women Social Entrepreneurs group about sustainable communities hosted at ABC Carpet & Home, which really motivated me to make local sourcing or at least responsible sourcing a focus in my project prep. Women including Patti Carpenter, Amy Chender, Rebecca Kousky, and Liz Wald spoke about their experiences at ABC, Nest and Etsy too — it was quite inspiring! Thanks too for your offer of help — I may need all the help I can get!
Stitches
Now I feel stupid. That’s carleed it up for me