Vrinda Yarn, Pada Sock

It's time to welcome a new studio to the SSYC family- Vrinda Yarn! I met owners Nikki and Jay this summer at TNNA which is one of the yarny tradeshows. Their booth was full of colors that I wanted to cast on immediately, and I really liked their business plan that involves sourcing their wool, milling it and having it superwashed in Uruguay. I have two options for you right now, Pada Sock and Shakti DK.

Jay is from Uruguay (he's the guy on the right), and early on he attended farming school where he learned to care for sheep. So when searching for a wool supplier for their budding company, it made sense to source from a place he knew well. Uruguay is a small country with ideal climate conditions for sheep to enjoy grazing outdoors. It also has three times more sheep than people, so the farmers know a thing or two about raising sheep, right?

Vrinda's Uruguayan wool is grown, scoured, combed and spun using the most sustainable, environmentally friendly methods they have available. The facilities where the wool is scoured and combed, as well as where the wool undergoes the superwash process, are powered almost entirely by renewable energy. They have modern effluent treatment plants, ensuring all the factory liquid and solid effluents are treated to meet the high standards demanded by government authorities. There are groves of over 5,000 trees in the land close to the effluent treatment ponds which are irrigated by the effluent treated waters from the mills. These trees will then become a power source for the mills' boilers, which are exclusively fueled by the wood, also a renewable source of energy.

In keeping with Vrinda's plan to be more naturally focused, they don't use nylon in their Pada Sock or Shakti DK. Instead, their signature yarns use the "opposing ply" spinning method to create a more durable yarn with no nylon. One of the four singles is spun in the opposite direction so that when the four are plied together the opposing strand gets tighter. The resulting yarn is more durable and takes the dye differently, creating the subtle barber pole effect seen in the finished yarn.

I'm so glad to be offering such an interesting option in the shop-  more environmentally focused, an interesting ply and the colors are just gorgeous. Heather, Rachael and I all cast on this yarn already. Both Rachael and Heather finished their projects and I have one sock done... yeah yeah, you know me. I'm always the last to finish! Ha! My sock is shown above using the Pebble Sock pattern and the Sequoia color. Rachael's Seahare hat uses DK in the Patagonia color with a Coral Reef pom.

Heather knit the Linnie baby cardi with her skein of Pada Sock in Infamous (enter to win a skein on Instagram). 

We all agree that this yarn line should be on everyone's must-knit list asap.

Comments

[Cindy Carpenter]

What about we who do not IG?

[Megan]

My other yarn source besides SSYC just started stocking Vrinda’s Pada Sock, and I fell in love with it— truly beautiful colors. I’m so excited that you all are carrying even more colors *and* the DK weight!!