We recently connected with Bethany Evans-Brown and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Bethany thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.
When I started Woolberry back in 2016 – I had a dream of donating a portion of our sales to an organization that will help those who do not have basic needs met. My sister used to work for an organization called Charity:Water who builds wells and water systems for remote villages and those with unclean drinking water. When we first started, I wanted to build a single well with Charity:Water but I felt like this goal was so lofty and out of our reach since well projects start at $10,000. Over the last 6 years, we have been able to fund 5 well projects and are looking forward to building more as the years progress!
In 2020, we also decided to start monthly sponsorships for women working in Rwanda for a yarn and fiber company – Handspun Hope. We are currently supporting 13 women paying for their wages, health care, education for them and their children, as well as mental health counseling since most of the women have lived through the tragedy of the Rwandan genocide.
We try to be as generous as we can both as individuals and as a company – we want our legacy to be one of generosity not personal gain.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
We are Woolberry – a family-owned yarn company specializing in hand-dyed yarns sourced from ethical farming practices. Bethany and Rhys run the business together along with our team of incredible employees. We focus on creating collections of colorways for makers that are elegant and timeless for intentional making.
Bethany has always been a creative soul interested in all hands-on activities. From taking apart calculators when she was 4 years old to pretending to have a dance company and write fake checks for her “customers” – everyone always knew she would end up doing something very creative. At the age of 12, Bethany learned how to knit from a summer program at her local library and after a few years of knitting on and off – she began knitting almost every day from the age of 16. Woolberry began in 2016 after Bethany and Rhys moved back to the States from New Zealand. A time where Bethany was surrounded by all things fiber, wool, sheep, etc. After looking for jobs in the year, Bethany knew she needed a change from her day-to-day life. So on a whim, she decided to try dyeing fiber and yarn and fell in love with the process! Woolberry started in the basement of Bethany’s parents’ home with a single burner in a small kitchenette dyeing 1 skein of yarn at a time.
Now 6 years later, both Rhys and Bethany work in the business and they employee 5 lovely women who are all passionate about the fiber industry. Over the years, as Woolberry has grown and expanded, we have kept the commitment to providing our customers with the highest-quality and humanely-sourced wool available. All yarn is dyed with professional low-impact acid dyes. We try our best to make as little impact on our environment as possible. All water is recycled throughout the dye lots to help reduce water waste and dyes are fully exhausted before any water leaves the dye pots. In addition, all of our packaging material is recyclable. Please recycle and reuse our products.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Woolberry has always placed a high importance on building a community of people passionate about the fiber industry whether that is through knitting, crochet, embroidery, or weaving. We want everyone to not only feel welcome in our space but also feel like they are an important and valued member of our community. We try to treat everyone with the utmost respect and also like to do fun online events that bring us all together – virtual retreats, mystery games, and monthly zoom nights where we get together and knit/crochet. We try to be our most authentic selfs on the internet since most of our customers have never met us in person and I think people appreciate that about us.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Back in 2017, I was pregnant with our first child and was struggling with the pains of pregnancy while trying to still run my business. Rhys, co-owner of Woolberry, was still working full-time at his job in the construction industry as a project manager so the main portion of the business was all on my shoulders. We had a shop update that sold around $200 and thought that was going to be the end of our business. But Rhys and I sat down regrouped and worked through how we could market our business better, create a better product, and connect more with our audience. We began to see slow growth and now in 2022 we are a million dollar company employing 5 other women and giving thousands of dollars each year to charities.
Contact Info:
- Website: woolberryfiber.com
- Instagram: @woolberryfiberco
Image Credits
Family photo: Lisa Joy Photography All other photos: Woolberry Fiber Co