For the love of a good dye job
Posted By Chad Ingram
Posted 5 months ago
When Kim McBrien's friend fell down the stairs, bruising her behind, McBrien named a series of yarn colours after the incident.
A yarn dyer with a quirky sense of humour, the Carnarvon-based artist and her husband Ron Evans made a set of four skeins documenting the hue changes of her friend's bum bruises: "impact," "bed-ridden," "doughnut" and "repentance."
That series now sits alongside other – less painful – colours, such as "Held my breath too long," "I am not a shrimp," and "Flamingos are not munitions experts."
Together, McBrien and Evans have formed Indigo Dragonfly, a yarn-dying business based out of the kitchen of their home.
"Basically we dye it and then look at it and nine times out of 10 if [the name] makes me smirk, that's it," McBrien says.
The dye job came up when the couple moved to the Highlands in the spring. McBrien had lost her job in Toronto and heard about a position as Arts Council coordinator.
Both were cottagers in the Carnarvon area.
McBrien got the arts position, but since it's part-time, she was looking for something else.
So two days a week, McBrien and Evans boil yarn, adding dye with turkey basters, making one-of-a-kind colours that they sell primarily over the Internet.
"We do most of our marketing through social media," McBrien says.
Her company is on Twitter, Facebook, has an email list and a blog.
The digital outreach efforts have worked; Indigo Dragonfly ships yarn to such far-off locales as Australia, Greece and the United States.
Because they're such a small business, McBrien says they can do all sorts of special orders for people.
"People bring in yarn and fibre, which we overdye … I really like that; people provide me with challenges," says McBrien, who has been dying yarn for herself for 20 years.
"I'll do it as long as I can or until I fall out of love with it," she says, "as long as people still like the yarn, I'll keep doing it."
Skeins of unique, hand-dyed yarn from McBrien range from $20 to $40 each depending on the fibre used.
To see more of Indigo Dragonfly's work, go to: indigodragonfly.wordpress.com; on Twitter @indigodragonfly or by email at indigodragonfly.k@gmail.com.
