Portrait - Bouclelaine
Solène Le Roux
I discovered Bouclelaine back in April 2018. After a few messages on Instagram, I discovered a gorgeous world of colors and texture, an interesting initiative to promote local natural yarns from Brittany, and two beautiful persons: Brigitte and Clotilde, the mother-daughter creative duo at the head of this project.
We collaborated on a first project that led to the creation of the Bucolique Cardigan. With this project, I discovered the rustic texture and incredible lightness of their Ouessant yarn. For the release of this pattern, they agreed to do a filmed interview that you can find below, in which they tell us about the different steps of creation and production of their yarn, the relationships with local farmers, the quality of Ouessant sheeps, the challenges of promoting local yarn in France and many other things! The interview is in French with English subtitles.
When I had the idea of creating a whole collection of patterns knitted with local natural yarns, Bouclelaine was the first name that came to mind. For this new collaboration, I created the stranded Hortensia Mitts and their matching hat.
These two patterns are knitted in their Merinos Angora yarn, made from angora rabbits fleeces from Brittany and Loire-Atlantique, the neighbour region, and French Merinos sheeps from Arles. The result is a very soft yet slightly rustic yarn, with small irregularities and a lovely halo that give it a lot of personnality.
For the release of the Terroir Collection, Clotilde and Brigitte agreed to answer a few questions again to tell us more about the Merinos Angora yarn and give us a little update on what they are up to these days at Bouclelaine.
What’s the story behind the Merinos Angora yarn base and its gorgeous new color palette?
Merinos Angora is the yarn base that started Bouclelaine, back in 2016 it was our first order at the spinning mill. At Bouclelaine, we are passionnate about colors, so we already chose to order the maximum number of colors that the smallest dyeing tank allowed. It’s one of our favorite task to look at color samples to create a myriad of possibilities that we are then so excited to receive.
You do more and more yarn festivals, you are everywhere these days! How do knitters react to your yarns?
We created our studio a little while ago and we are finally organized to get out of Brittany. It’s a great pleasure for us to meet knitters from all around France. It’s very important because we only do direct sales and in our online shop, despite my best efforts for the photos, it is not possible to picture the texture of a yarn. We heard a lot of good comments on the fact that having a booth is a great way to finally discover the yarn in person.
Did you notice that more people are getting interested in local natural yarns lately?
Because of our supply method which is tracable and ethical with yarn transformed in France, we attract people who, in the continuity of their lifestyle, are actively seeking natural yarn. But not only, and that’s what’s interesting because we are really happy to bring an ecological solution to people who don’t always have the time to think about it and are doing their first steps in local, short channel buying.
What are your projects at Bouclelaine these days? Any new yarns?
These days, we can hardly wait anymore for the 8 new colorways of our Roussin-Alpaga and the reassortment of Ouessant: 40 colorways with about 30 new! It’s the confirmation that at Bouclelaine we love colors. We are also still doing beautiful collaborations like with your Hortensia mitts and hats set, to expand our kits offers, and create an environment of nice people to knit in joy and feel happy to see the creation of beautiful things.
Useful links :
The Terroir Collection lookbook
Get the Terroir collection on Ravelry
If you’d like to meet Clotilde and Brigitte of Bouclelaine in person, to discover and knit with their amazing yarns and to spend a wonderful relaxing week with a group of passionnate knitters, then join us for the Brittany Knitting Retreat happening in September 2019! Click here to check it out!