The Start of Round Table Yarns

One of my goals this year is to "do" more fiber festivals, meaning getting booth space. And I wanted to do a bit more than "just" have my patterns in my booth. I considered trying to coordinate with other indie dyers (or even larger yarn companies) to create kits with my patterns to sell at festivals. But then another option came about.

One of the women in my local knitting group (with whom I've vended before) was planning to branch out her dyeing to yarn (previously she had dyed only fiber) so we had talked about which yarns might work best with my patterns and she had gotten some sample skeins from one company. Because of various reasons, she decided against dyeing yarn and gave me the sample skeins, with the idea that I could use them for swatching. Well, I had this bag of undyed yarn hanging around. It was calling out for color.

So I gave it some.

And discovered that my idea that I'll "never get into dyeing" is one of those "never" statements that comes back around to mock you (or me rather). Oh my gosh. Dyeing is so much fun! And I'm only just getting started. I've already got a lot of things/colors that I want to try out but I'm starting slowly and trying to really "get" just a few things first for a solid foundation and then I'll build from there.

Of course, I went through the sample yarn in just a couple of days so I needed more. So I placed an order with that company and not too long afterwards, this big box full of undyed fiber arrived on my doorstep. When placing the order, I carefully thought through which bases to get and specifically had my own patterns in mind while doing so.

I also considered names and at first thought that I would just go with something like KarenDawn Dyes (although saying that out loud doesn't sound all that great!) or just continuing with KarenDawn Designs since I do want the yarn closely related to my designs. But when I started naming bases and colors, I realized that I wanted to keep the medieval theme going and decided to focus on Arthurian names. And that's when I realized I needed a different "brand" name for the yarn and Round Table Yarns popped into my head.

I started playing around with a logo design. And failing. Although my KarenDawn Designs logo is super simple, I like it. It works and it fits me. But I wanted something a little more for Round Table Yarns and I just wasn't getting it myself. So I reached out to a graphic designer. I wanted to work with one that specifically worked with crafting and better yet that was involved in the fiber community. I knew of several who have either been mentioned on Ravelry or who advertise on Ravelry, but one in particular stuck out (Elizabeth Green Musselman aka Dark Matter Knits). So I contacted her and we started talking about my ideas. It turns out that she was also a professor (in history) previously, and she totally "got" my vision.

The first drafts she sent me were pretty darn neat. She had taken quite a few different directions and I had to admit that it was hard to pick a favorite. I did narrow it down to three and asked for a few changes on each one. She graciously did so and sent back three revised logos. And that's when I realized that she was too good. All three logos were excellent and I didn't know how to decide. So I printed out yarn labels with each logo and wrapped them around my yarn. I still liked each of them but they definitely had different "feels" to each. Which direction do I want my yarn to go in?

So I took the yarn with labels to my knitting group last night and got their feedback. They were quite enthusiastic and had some wonderful ideas and a clear favorite. I realized that their favorite really was mine as well (although I was sad to say goodbye to the other two options). I did have a couple of small changes and Elizabeth once again graciously made them, turning a really great logo into a really awesome logo. When I printed out the new version on a yarn label, wrapped it around my yarn, and turned it around to look at it, there it was. A chill. Yes. This was it. This was the logo and the look for my yarn.

Elizabeth made a lot of little tweaks along the way to this logo and really paid close attention to detail and my comments. Although she truly gets all the credit for coming up with such a great logo, I really feel like we worked well together and if I ever want to update my KarenDawn Designs logo or do some other graphic design work, I know where to go.

I'm currently working on updating my website to include information about Round Table Yarns, adding the yarn to the Ravelry database, and of course dyeing up a storm. Once I have a good inventory (will still be a few weeks), I'll be listing yarn in my Etsy shop (I'll make an announcement before doing a shop update--watch in my Ravelry group and/or Twitter). And I'll be at the DFW Fiber Fest.

I'm really excited about this new business venture, but don't worry, I haven't pushed designing aside. I currently have a hat in testing and a cowl that's almost finished and will be ready for testing soon. Then I have a couple of slightly larger projects to work on. So many things going on and I can't wait to share them all.