The story of Twice Sheared Sheep is kind of a story about us, but it’s also kind of a story about you.

You see, Twice Sheared Sheep was born as a way to bring a little more joy to a craft that we both love. It was a grand mission to put a smile on every knitter’s face, and to help them feel that flutter of excitement deep in their chest each time they pick up their needles.

Our story began almost 2 decades ago when I was a young mother. I had learned to crochet as a kid and to knit right out of high school, but had moved onto other pursuits in the intervening years. It wasn’t until I had little toddlers hanging off my leg that I returned to knitting as a way to save my sanity. 

It was really the perfect craft. It was relatively inexpensive, compact and easily put away out of the reach of tiny fingers, it kept my hands busy, gave me the most incredibly creative outlet, and best of all, it came with a built in community of friends!
(Oh how I needed that community as a stay at home mom!)

Just seeing someone else knit or crochet at the park creates an instant bonding moment. You know everything you really need to know about them to make them instant family. They are creative, patient, and generous. After all, who else spends 3 months of their time to make an intricate sweater and then just gives it away to a loved one?! Yarn people are seriously some of the best humans on the planet. 

So, I became obsessed. I fell hard down the rabbit hole and tried every new technique I could get my hands on. I knit sweaters and socks and cables and lace. I tried fair isle and picked up a spinning wheel. Years later I even bought a couple of alpacas for my backyard (because that’s what you do when you’re a yarn obsessed lady right?).

But I spent most of those early years just ‘making do’ with the barest of materials, inexpensive needles, loops of yarn for stitch markers, and whatever yarn I could find at my local big box craft store. 

Then the whole world shifted when some kind soul gifted me my first skein of hand dyed sock yarn. 
It sounds kind of silly to say this, but that ball of sock yarn actually changed my life. 
It led me down a knitting journey that would someday become the Twice Sheared Sheep.

I realized that I CAN knit with inexpensive needles, scratchy yarn, and janky paper clips as stitch markers, but I didn’t WANT to. So many of my frustrations with the craft I loved were simply because I wasn’t using quality tools.

I CAN and do read my knitting very well, but I have to pay SO MUCH more attention to what I’m doing so I don’t make a mistake. What if I want to watch a movie while I knit, or chat with a friend, or what if I need to put it down every 5 minutes because a kid needs something from me right this moment?

Having to recount my rows or stitches over and over again took me twice as long and just made me cranky. 

I realized I loved my project so much more when my tools are effortless to use, when I am using my favorite needles, a luscious yarn, and my stitch markers glided across my needles like butter.

So while I was still functioning on the yarn budget of a stay at home mom of 5 kids, I set out to make myself the very best tools I could.
Tools that were not only functional but beautiful too.
Tools that actually made my knitting project EASIER, that let me enjoy the feeling of that luscious yarn passing through my hands stitch by stitch effortlessly.
Tools that let me knit complicated (or simple) patterns confidently whether I was running on full brain power or not.

Then I set out to share those amazing tools with all of my yarn community family (because that’s what family does).

And that’s when Twice Sheared Sheep was born.

Dear friend, I don’t want you to have to make do either.
I want you to be able to pick up your project and feel that magical flutter of joy in your heart. I want your eyes to sparkle when you see your tools and feel just as special as I know you are. I want you to know exactly where you are in your pattern whether it’s been 5 minutes since you last touched the needles or 5 years. 

I want your knitting experience to feel effortless.
I want you to have more stitch time and less frog time.
I want to help remove all of the potential stumbling blocks so that all you have left is luscious yarn sliding through your fingers and twining it’s self into your next masterpiece.

Because that’s what we are all about here at Twice Sheared Sheep – Every day to make things that we KNOW will put a smile on your face.
With every happy white package we ship out.

Some may say that we are in the business of making knitting supplies, but I know that first and foremost, we are in the business of making happy knitters.

~  Dawn