Interview: Rooster Yarns’ Pete Okell

1) What is the story behind Rooster Yarns?

Rooster Yarns was created by a knitting and crochet designer with the intention of producing beautiful luxury yarn supported by fabulous pattern designs that would give people real enjoyment from their projects. Rooster yarns has grown and developed since then but those principles are still at the forefront of what we do. We are now run by a father and son who have a long history in the wool and natural fibre industry. In addition to our yarn, we are also a distributor of Addi needles who provide quality knitting and crochet accessories which complement our yarns.

2) What are your hopes for Rooster Yarns?

Although growing, Rooster yarns is still relatively unknown within the UK and elsewhere in world. We are aiming to increase the visibility and awareness of what wonderful yarn Rooster has throughout the UK and beyond. And of course, we are hoping to continue to grow the great yarns we offer.

3) Tell us more about Village Living, your latest pattern collection. What was the inspiration behind that theme?

I mentioned earlier that it is not only important to us to have fantastic yarn but also beautiful patterns to support. Village Living was part of our ongoing commitment to this. The names and colours of the two yarn ranges used (Baby Rooster and Almerino Baby) meant we always wanted to create some original patterns for little ones, but we also wanted to have designs for adults too. I think the book is a wonderful interlinked collection of the two.

The name “Village Living” seemed to encapsulate everything that this collection was about and it highlighted the fantastic photography in the book. The natural fibres and colours combined really encapsulate rural village life in springtime.

4) Why do you think natural fibres are so important?

Natural fibres are important for so many reasons – they are sustainable, renewable, natural, and more responsible than manmade fibres. But for us at Rooster yarns, we believe their natural characteristics produce far higher quality yarn than manmade equivalents. Whether it is for warmth, softness, or durability, we believe that natural fibres produce better yarn and as a result all our knitting yarns are made exclusively from natural fibres.

5) How important is choosing the right colour for yarns, and what do you look for most?

Choosing the right colour is enormously important. There are many different things to consider such as current trends and styles, your existing colour range and what fits with that yarn. Above all though, we choose colours we like. So much effort goes into each range, you couldn’t do it if you didn’t like the colours.

6) Which is your favourite yarn?

It’s a tricky one – I don’t really have a favourite. We have five yarn ranges (Almerino Aran, Almerino DK, Almerino Baby, Baby Rooster and Delightful Lace) and I like different aspects of each of them.

7) What is coming up in the future for Rooster?

We are now working on our next pattern book which will support our Almerino DK and Almerino Aran yarns, and will be out in late autumn. In addition, we are busy producing six designs in our Delightful Lace range, so there is lots going on. Finally we want to get out and let as many people know about Rooster yarns as possible, so we will be at Ally Pally and other knitting and craft shows and events. Come and see us!

Find out more about Rooster Yarns at www.roosteryarns.com