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Our Story - Darn Good Yarn Company
When I was a little girl, my mom set up a crafting space in my basement. Equipped with a desk, art supplies and my imagination, this was where I went to escape. As I grew and life went up and down like it always does, crafting was my retreat from the everyday. It was the place where I really felt like I was home. I was with myself. I was with my thoughts. Things felt unified.
When I started Darn Good Yarn, I didn’t have a grand plan. I was interested in fueling that spark from my childhood. I had no idea what it was to become. I really didn’t think it would be much of anything. “Darn Good Yarn” was actually a joke between my friend Beth and me. Darn Good Yarn started from two boxes of recycled silk yarn that I stored in a corner of our spare bedroom. I soon learned that the people who make this yarn needed a better way to make a better living. They needed sustainability and safety in their day-to-day jobs. Falling back on my college education and experience in the Air Force, I realized that I could potentially bridge that gap and provide them with opportunity for a better life.
I made it my mission to show the world just how important these fun and quirky yarns are. It takes a special person to love their unique qualities. Darn Good Yarn isn’t your run-of-the-mill yarn. There are special stories of hard work, love and creativity wrapped into everything you find at Darn Good Yarn. From the artisan to the person who packs our orders, Darn Good Yarn is fueled by infusing Good into all parts of our business. From our warehouse to our employee benefit programs, our goal is to create a better world by caring and doing things the slightly harder way. In a world of short-cuts and cookie cutter experiences, we believe that when you slow down in order to build that this creates more sustainability and stronger communities.
I’m excited. Darn Good Yarn is celebrating fourteen years of business this year. While we’re very much a small business our “can do, make it happen” attitude has helped us save over a million pounds of material waste and help create hundreds of sustainable jobs.
During our 14 years, I found myself thinking back to the love of the “escape” and that feeling I get when I get my creative juices flowing. Now as a mom of an active and wonderful little girl, my traditional craft time has been cut down. So, now I’m on a quest to have that creative escape spill over and paint my everyday life. And I’m going to bring that to you! We are working to bring you products that inspire, are fun and have a great story to tell too.
Thank you for joining me on this crazy and fun adventure into my secret world that is Darn Good Yarn.
Starting at love,
Nicole
Our Beginnings
Nicole started "Darn Good Yarn" on accident. What started out as a side hustle in her guest bedroom and two boxes of recycled silk yarn has exploded into a world-wide company working to better the lives of our global community. Since the small beginning, we have grown into a strong and steady powerful business that stands to create a positive impact on the world.
Our Team & Community
Nicole, our accidental CEO as she calls herself, has gathered a strong core team of creative and empathetic people to grow Darn Good Yarn. What used to be a solo gig now is a company that employs 15+ people in Upstate NY alone! You can meet our team here!
The lifeblood behind Darn Good Yarn is our global community of talented artisans. Around the world, Darn Good Yarn employs people who have been marginalized or mistreated by society. With our co-ops, these artisans can find sustainable, safe, fair, and year-round employment to support themselves and their families. You can learn more about our artisans by clicking here.
Our customers are an important part of our community as well! We love our customers and are in awe everyday of their empathy, support, and kindness not only to our artisans, but to each other. We have built a close knit community for people to safely express their creativity! Click on one (or all) of groups down below and join the ever-growing community of like-minded friends.
Our Mission
Start at love means being compassionate with the intent to make a positive change in the universe. We believe the application of starting at love with everything we all do leads to a happier world.
Darn Good Yarn and its subsidiaries, commit to doing good in the world by operating a business with a foundation in the tenets of the triple bottom line framework.
Our goals are to:
- Support sustainable and fair jobs around the globe through ethical sourcing, and working with producers and organizations that have similar goals.
- Source products that promote job creation for individuals who are marginalized and under-served so that they can provide food, education and healthcare for their families. We also comply with warehousing and distribution models that provide safe employment to disadvantaged populations, including adults with developmental disabilities.
- Work with our suppliers, producers, and organizations to find all opportunities to serve the workers and artisans involved in our company, and to continually improve their safe and humane working environments.
- Focus on sourcing products and developing supply chains that benefit disadvantaged populations, including people groups that face issues of gender, caste, racial discrimination. We also seek to employ disabled individuals and veterans.
- Focus on sourcing products that have a reclaimed or recycled element integrated into their regular production process, whenever this is commercially feasible.