YAL 2022 DYER PROFILE: LIFE IN THE LONG GRASS

We are so excited to be partnering with the amazing Life in the Long Grass for this year's YAL and they are collaborating with the wonderful Essence of Autumn.

Life in the Long Grass is run by Caroline and was born from the joy of creating and living in rural Ireland. They spent several years restoring our one-hundred-year-old derelict farmhouse, before they set up a dye studio in the adjacent field so they could live by the values that are important to them:  Ethical yarns, local employment, slow living, care, and quality  –  when all this came together, LITLG was born.

Their yarns are chosen careful to make sure they come from farms with ethical practices in Uruguay, Peru, England, Argentina, France, and Portugal. These farms are mulesing-free which means fair and humane treatment of their sheep. 

We love Life in the Long Grass for their meticulous detail and care to ensure quality and to enjoy the process. This means that all batches are as similar as possible and LITLG enjoy the slow, stress-free process of creating them.

The dye studio is open and bright, purpose-built to let in as much fresh air as possible to ensure a comfortable working environment for their wonderful team of dyers and packers.  

They dye with a mixture of non-toxic acid dyes, low impact fibre reactive dyes, and natural dyes – and the colour is set with a food-grade setting agent.  All their colours are double set to ensure that the colours don't bleed once you block and knit with them and their water is also re-used to minimise wastage.  

All of their packaging is recycled kraft paper and their publications, which you can find on their website, are printed on recycled paper.