About Us

Hand-Dyed in Minnetonka, Minnesota

The Painted Skein is an independent hand-dyed yarn studio based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Each small-batch colorway is created through a multi-layered dyeing process designed to give every skein depth, movement, and a distinctive finish.

The story of Painted Skein began with a lifelong love of color, transformation, and making things by hand.

A Life Built by Hand 

Some people see a ball of yarn. I see a canvas.

I have always been drawn to transformation — the moment an ordinary object becomes something extraordinary. I thrift old furniture and bring it back to life through refinishing, reupholstering, painting, and decoupage. In my twenties, I designed and sold a line of baby hats and headwraps, each one built through the same kind of hands-on process I still love today: choosing fabrics and textures, layering colors and prints, shaping each piece, adding details, and turning simple materials into something expressive and full of personality.

During the pandemic, I created a five-foot paper mâché octopus that was featured in a local art museum. I once made bird wings for my daughter's costume by hand placing and gluing every single feather, one by one. That kind of slow, detailed, almost obsessive process has always been part of who I am as an artist.

Transformation is simply what I do.

Art is in Every Skein

My work has always been rooted in process. Thousands of strips of paper, hours of sanding, multiple coats of paint, layers of paper, repeated steps, and slow, careful building — that commitment of time is the DNA of everything I create. I have never been drawn to shortcuts. I am drawn to the kind of work that becomes richer because of the many steps it takes to get there.

How Painted Skein Began

When my best friend opened a yarn shop, I discovered hand dyeing — and everything clicked. Here was a craft that combined color, chemistry, and artistry into something tactile, dimensional, and alive. I was hooked.

What started as curiosity quickly became an obsession with the craft. I am an indie yarn dyer and solo maker based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota, and every skein of hand-dyed yarn that leaves my studio carries my full attention.

Colorways Worth Collecting

Painted Skein is built on that same multi-step, multi-layered approach to making art. Each colorway takes time, intention, and a lot of hands-on work to create. I mix up to 20 individual colors for a single colorway, and some skeins go through the oven up to five times to build the depth, complexity, and dimension that cannot be achieved in one pass.

The result is hand-dyed yarn that does not just look beautiful — it looks like nothing else.

The Meaning Behind the Logo

The Painted Skein logo is a fingerprint — a symbol of the handmade nature of this work and a reminder that no two skeins are ever exactly the same.

Every colorway is created by hand, through layers of color, heat, timing, intuition, and small decisions made throughout the dyeing process. Even when I repeat a colorway, each skein carries its own tiny variations, marks, and movement. That is part of its beauty.

The fingerprint represents my hand in the work, but it also represents the individuality of each skein. Each one is essentially one of a kind — made to become part of something equally personal in your hands.

Sustainability

At Painted Skein, sustainability is woven directly into the core of the creative process through a deep commitment to slow fashion. Rejecting the fast-paced cycle of mass production, every skein is an intentional, artisanal masterpiece shaped by complex, multi-process hand-dyeing techniques. By curating thoughtful colorways on carefully selected fibers — from soft merino wool to other protein and plant bases — each piece is crafted not just for longevity, but to become a treasured heirloom designed to be worn, loved, and passed down for generations.

Inspiration Cards

For select collections I include an inspiration card with each colorway that shares the story behind the skein — the artwork, image, mood, or idea that sparked the palette. Because Painted Skein is rooted in process and storytelling, these cards are a small window into how each colorway came to life. They connect the yarn back to its original inspiration and give you a piece of the creative journey to keep with your project. Each card is meant to make the skein feel even more personal: not just yarn, but a color story you can hold in your hands.

The Yarn Is the Art

My customers are knitters, crocheters, weavers, and fiber artists who create works of art with their hands. I want the yarn they reach for to be worthy of that work — special enough to inspire, beautiful enough to display, and crafted with enough care that they can feel it.

Every skein I put my name on is made to stand out, because this hand-dyed yarn is my art. The process is labor-intensive, but it is truly a labor of love — and that is why I do it. Handmade with love as an indie yarn dyer in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

Welcome to Painted Skein.