If you haven't been, they're in Lowell, MA in the historic mill district. Their building is a treasure of a place, and huge! It's now home to dozens of artist studios, a musicians' studio and music school, a restaurant, their entire company, a yarn shop, and more. This is several city blocks' worth of interconnected real estate with an 1890's feeling. Really amazing. Their "Hub Mills" yarn shop is chock full of their yarns as well as several other very high-end brands making for shopper heaven. I particularly loved the cashmere display with 6 shelves of cubbies! I could have died happy just with the shopping.
On to the office of Betsy Perry, the President and sole owner of CEY. She is a cheerfully dynamic woman, and welcomed me warmly into her office. Her office has huge windows original to the historic building forming one wall, making for a spacious, naturally lit workspace. Well-placed industrial antiques and turn-of-the-century knitting accessories gave the otherwise efficient room a clear personality and purpose. We visited about Lowell and her company for a few minutes before getting down to work.
I showed some sketches of patterns for their recently-added Verde Collection of eco-friendly yarns, and Betsy was very supportive. We decided to work on a project together with a long ramp-up period. And then it happened.
Judy, an employee charged with trunk show and designer management responsibilities, brought in the fall color cards for Woodland and Chesapeake (limited color cards below). OMG! Woodland is a DK wool with nettles, a natural moth and bug retardant. It's soft with a slight halo, and a faintly marled color absorption. It comes in cozy, cottage-y colors that are heavenly. Chesapeake is a worsted 50/50 blend of cotton and merino in richly saturated colors with a distinct marle. With its high cotton content, it exhibits excellent stitch definition.
Chesapeake -
5903 Mephisto
5904 Scuba Blue
5912 Meyer Lemon
5920 Oxford
5925 Tokyo Rose
5938 Bracken
5948 Bronte Blue
5949 Arabian Night
5955 Shanghai Red
5957 True Blue
5979 Catawba Grape
5981 Tendril Green
5985 Mandarin Orange
5995 Rosetti Purple
5998 Metro Green
Woodland -
3101 Ivory
3103 Silver
3138 Bracken
3148 Prussian Blue
3150 Sunshine
3155 Carnelian Red
3175 Charcoal
3177 Ash
3185 Orange
3192 Celestial
3195 Violet
3197 Fern
It's an abundance of riches to have so many exciting yarns in wonderful colors at hand. Where to start? After some deliberation I realized I can start anywhere. It's all that good.
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