The Story

 Ex Libris is a Latin phrase, often found on bookplates, that translates roughly to “From the Library.” Ex Libris Fibers are bookish and moody yarns, dyed in small batches by a former librarian - me, Rita!

After finishing a degree in art and finding myself a little lost, I learned to crochet during the glory days of Craftster and early Ravelry. A friend taught me to knit years later, and I fell hard in love with knitting and with crafting communities. Learning to dye yarn was an immediate side effect of beginning to work with indie dyed yarn and being overly picky about color (and how hand-dyed yarns work up).

My Oregon knitting friends and I got together to play around with dye one weekend; another weeknight I took a class at the Steel City Fiber Collective, and all spare time was filled with constant experiments to find the science behind perfect dye recipes. When I began turning favorite stories and books into colorways in 2018 while a librarian, Ex Libris Fibers was born! 

Work as a librarian enforced the ideas that community and story sharing are two of the most effective ways to build empathy and impact change. Ex Libris Fibers aims connect people with new stories and build community around gorgeous, book-inspired colors that are just as amazing to stitch with as they are in the skein so that you can stitch sustainable, slow, heirloom garments.

All yarn is dyed with professional acid dyes in a dedicated, commercial dye space with obsessive attention to detail and standardized, carefully-measured dye recipes.

Photos: Porter Loves (headshot), @velogusto (booth)