We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Liz Kluthe a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Liz, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

I had been dyeing yarn for a couple months, but hadn’t had much luck with making sales in my Etsy shop. So I got a wild idea to take a bunch of minis in colors I could replicate to the local yarn store and ask if they wanted to carry my yarn. I had an idea of how much I would charge and what my turnaround time would be, but didn’t think they would actually want to seek my yarn.

It turns out they didn’t have mini skeins available for individual sale and we’re looking for a new local dyer to have in the shop. They became my first wholesale account and have ordered regularly ever since.

Liz, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I taught myself how to knit when I was a kid from a book. We had one lock yarn store with lots of big name brands and that is what I grew up using. I stopped knitting for a while and picked it up again a few years ago when I discovered hand dyed yarn.

After a bit I got curious about dyeing yarn myself and experimented with avocado pits and peels since those are good sage and can be used with your regular kitchen ware. I was hooked.

Unfortunately I had to wait until we moved to start using professional acid dyes for wool. Those dyes require dedicated equipment and space as they are not food safe. In addition you have to wear specific protective equipment so as to not inhale the dye powder.

Once I got set up I started experimenting with different dye styles based on the yarn and colors I liked to knit with. After a year and a half I think I’ve discovered a dye style that I vibe with.

My current style has soft color transitions with coordinating and contrasting colors and light or no speckles. Most of my colorways are deeper or more muted colors, with a couple brighter colorways occasionally. My tonal colorways tend to have more variation on color depth as I like the character it gives the final object when knit or crocheted.

The current trend with some indie dyers is to have collections around a set theme, or popular tv, book, or movie. I tried that and it’s not really my cup of tea, though I will release colorways in a mini collection if I feel inspired. I just tend to let inspiration find me and create as I go.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

My initial capital came from my personal savings account. I decided what initial amount I could spare that would let me purchase initial inventory, minimal dyeing equipment, and safety gear. I decided that if my business ran through that amount, without being able to support itself, that I would be done. Because of that initial decision I didn’t always have a lot of bare yarn in hand at the beginning and couldn’t support lots of orders. However, outside of that initial investment, my business has been self supporting with slow but steady growth.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

When I started out I started with and Etsy storefront with the goal to eventually have my own website in the future. Etsy is great if you can nail down your SEO and find your target audience. However, when I started the marketplace was saturated with other artists from the pandemic and sellers prices were all over board. I also didn’t like how the backend of Etsy was getting increasingly run by automations or bots. I was also directing almost 90% of all the traffic on my own, rather than it being brought in by Etsy. Because of this I took a leap and transitioned to my own Shopify site after 8 months.

I like the ability to customize my Shopify site as I like, take down or put up listings as I want, and the clarity on fees and billing. Shopify definitely takes more time and capital to set up at first, but it pays off in the end. However, you do have to drive your own traffics rather than depend on a marketplace or algorithm to help direct customers.

Contact Info:

• Website: Knittinglizardfibers.com
• Instagram: @knitting_lizard_fibers