Interview: Simi & Kurt Loyd of Boss Kitty

Two skeins of pink, speckled yarn from Boss Kitty.
Many skeins of solid colored yarn arranged in a rainbow.
Pink and yellow skeins next to a completed knit sock of the same colors.

What inspires your beautiful colorways? 
Things that make us ‘squee!’ Most of our colorways are inspired by pop-culture and nerd fandom. We see a rockstar superhero and do our best to present them in a squishy skein of fluff. However, we can be inspired by just about anything - our Undertone line is full of colorways inspired by nature in the PNW!

How do you select the names for your colorways?
Colorway naming happens at around 2 am when we’ve had maybe four hours of sleep that week and we’re floating on hopes, dreams, and caffeine. It’s a magical combination. Truthfully though, a lot of our colorways are named before they’re even dyed - depending on what inspired the color in the first place. Most of our greatest colorways have been TK creations; he’s pretty witty with the word play.

How/why did you choose the name "Boss Kitty?"
A wizard whispered it into our dreams one mysterious, stormy night. No, for real though - show me a cat that isn’t the boss. We adore cats and we love yarn!

Could you tell us a little bit about what inspired you to create your own yarn business?
In this day and age, pensions and 401k’s seem to be more of a fairytale than a reality. We got to a point where we realized that we were spinning our wheels working for other people, doing things that we weren’t passionate about. In Boss Kitty, we have found a creative outlet for both of us; Boss Kitty gets to dress up, knit to her heart’s content, dye bright, pretty yarn and submerge herself in a community that she really feels at home in. TK gets to create top of the line art for the business, put together a brilliant marketing structure, and play with all sorts of production gadgets. The most important part is that we get to do these things while creating a secure future for ourselves over the next 50+ years (we hope)!

Simi against a blue background, wearing sequined cat ears and a checkered bow tie.
A collage of photos of Simi, Kurt, and their two cats.

Who's on the Boss Kitty Team? What do they do?
It’s a super-tiny shop… there’s Boss and TK (Mr. Boss), Hazel (our mostly round and very bossy Chief Feline Officer), and Khan (the Destroyer). We produce the yarn and the cats peruse the inventory when we’re not looking.

Are you a knitter, crocheter, or bistitchual? 
Boss is really the only fiber artist in the house, though TK swears this is because if he picked up a set of needles Boss Kitty would be devastated at how rock awesome he would be in no time. While she knows how to knit, spin, and, technically, crochet - she really focuses on knitting. Crochet is a skill that she has barely scratched the surface of and is very excited to dive into.

What do you most enjoy about stitching? 
I (BK) love the idea that I’m creating something out of what is ultimately just a piece of string. Like life, it’s one long knot that hopefully ends up looking fabulous by the end.

Do you do trunk shows? If yes, when you partner with a yarn shop to do a trunk show, what qualities do you look for?
Trunk shows are a blast to do! When deciding on where and when to do one, we always make our way to the shop first to be certain that they are organized, that their product is neat and well presented, and that there is actually some traffic that makes its way through the store. If your store looks like hell, your staff can’t be bothered to face inventory, and you average about five sales a week, maybe we’re not a good fit. Up to this point, however, we have yet to find that remarkably disastrous store. Good on you, yarn shop owners!

If you were to suggest a yarn base for a beginning stitcher who has fallen in love with your yarn like we have, which base would you recommend? Why? 

This is a tough question because currently we only carry one type and weight of yarn - fingering weight 75/25 SW Merino/Nylon. You know… sock yarn. While this yarn is super freaking awesome and can be used for just about any type of project, it isn’t what we would normally recommend to someone looking to knit or crochet for the first time. In the near future, we intend to carry some yummy DK and possibly worsted weight merino and BFL yarns, as well as some fancy luxury goodies (mmmm silk). In the meantime, we would recommend beginners who want yummy yarn on their hooks or needles try out other great indie yarn companies like Willamette Valley  Wool or Candy Skein! (Tell them we said ‘Hi!’ and then please come back.)

What advice would you give to others wanting to follow their creative dreams?
There is only one difference between you and the folks who do this for a living (or supplement their living with it), and that is that they are doing it. That’s the only secret to making it happen… MAKE IT HAPPEN! Learn all you can about every aspect of your business, then surround yourself with folks who are better at the things you are weakest at (in our world that’s a good bookkeeper!). If we were to offer advice other than “Do It!”, it would have to be that you should prepare yourself for the long haul. If you make a dollar, spend $.95 on the business and grow slowly.

Red yarn hanging on a drying rack after dyeing.
Speckled hanks piled on top of dried yarn.
Skeins of purple and red yarn with a sparkle base.

What is your favorite method or style of dyeing?

The messy kind? Naw, it’s all messy. Boss Kitty LOVES dyeing speckled yarn. She feels like her inner five year old gets to come out and spray pretty colors all over the place - ya know, that thing you were never allowed to do as a kid. We’re grown! We do what we want!

What does a normal dye week look like for you?
We’re of a size where we are still dyeing in a home studio. A lot of what we do now is the upheaval of our comfortable home, followed by weeks of laborious cleaning and straightening, followed by another show - and the cycle begins anew. Lots and lots of coffee is involved. Hanks are hung to dry, covering our back yard and infiltrating any other room in the house that has a high, hanging rod or doorframe. It’s kind of like living in a factory.

In learning how to dye yarn - what did you find the most interesting? Any surprises?

The biggest thing is just trusting yourself. Boss Kitty has a lot of ideas that she doesn’t apply to yarn dyeing for months and months because she  overthinks it. Dyeing yarn is a lot like knitting or crocheting: it might not turn out how you anticipated, but almost every screw up is someone’s new favorite colorway. And if it’s not, you can always overdye it!

Do you ever experience creative blocks? If yes, how do you overcome this?
Obviously we do, because this questionnaire arrived to you a couple of weeks late. :)

Blocks are just dead end alleyways. You didn’t end up there on purpose; you ended up there because you were out walking. A dead end doesn’t mean that the walk is over. Just turn around, ask for directions from a friendly face, and reconsider the direction you thought you were headed. Eventually you’re back on the sidewalk and flush with new directions for your walk.

Zen and the Art of Coloring Fluff.

How does dyeing add happiness to your daily life?
It’s a respite from any other job we’re doing at the moment. It’s challenging, sometimes outright difficult, and often pretty tedious, but we still get a rush when the dyes have set and we see them *POP* into life for the first time. The sense of creation “by hand” lifts my spirits when anything/everything seems to want to drag them down. This is very expensive therapy that ends with a small profit. Who needs meds!?

What positive impact do you hope to have on the world through Boss Kitty?
We try to focus on the next person we meet and make an impact there. If we do that enough, a community springs up and takes them in. Sort of like collecting souls, but way nicer.

Our audience makes itself known to us in larger and larger numbers with each show (trunk, festival, or Twitch), so we tasked ourselves with building  a community around the “Knit Knerd” idea. Community is powerful in that it provides people with a safe place to ferment new ideas. If our ever-expanding nerdy fiber community opens someone up to, say,  a new hobby of crocheting Star Wars characters, then we have added another mark in the “Bringing Joy to the World” column. That’s all that really matters, right? Add some joy before you go.

Screen capture from one of Boss Kitty’s knitting streams.

You have a TWITCH channel! What inspired you to start streaming on twitch? What do you enjoy sharing and chatting about?
Twitch was something that TK came to Boss Kitty with, and there was substantial hesitation at first. Twitch is primarily a place where people play video games while dozens, hundreds, or thousands of others watch and chat along with them - not exactly what we envisioned for Boss Kitty. But then TK showed off the “Makers & Crafting” section. We spent HOURS watching woodworkers, crocheters, model builders, and crafters of all kinds sit, craft, chat, and have a great time along with their audience. It was life changing.

TK was a producer in radio and television for a very long time, which is a handy set of tools in the content age. We took the proceeds from a trunk show, purchased some relatively inexpensive lights and cameras, turned one of the bedrooms in our house into a production and crafting studio, and then flipped the switch on Twitch! To be quite honest, we had very low expectations, but the audience was there and they found us pretty quickly! We have allowed our audience to help create content by offering up suggestions for knit-a-longs (and crochet-a-longs), having our subscribers vote on the final project, then working with the audience on that knit-a-long piece for a few weeks. Along the way we’ll do tutorials for any tricky parts and eventually vote on the posted finished pieces, giving away a goodie or two to the winners!

So far, through the audience’s generosity, we’ve been able to use our Twitch income to make strides with our marketing, participate in larger crafting events, and bump up the quality of our stream. We offer a private chat server for any and all fans of the show and monthly subscriber giveaways of yarn, stitch markers, and other gifts we produce or have been given to us from other vendors. It’s completely interactive and a TON of fun for all involved.
(BossKittyLive.com - MON - WED @ 6PM pst - subscriptions are FREE for Amazon Prime users)

What's on the calendar for the rest of 2019 and into 2020? Any special events we should know about? 

We have one of our biggest shows just around the corner: Geek Craft Expo in Seattle, WA. Nov 29 - Dec 1st. Both of these shows are free to the public, so if you’re in the neighborhood come find us - it’s hard to miss Boss Kitty’s ears! As for 2020, we are currently scheduling out our trunk shows for the year. If you’re a  fan of Boss Kitty and you want to see us in your LYS, let us know (or let your LYS know)! We would love to explore outside of Oregon and see what crazy shenanigans we can get ourselves into.

INTERVIEWSJeananne AtthoweYarn, indie dyers, hand dyed yarn, creative life, Boss Kitty, Twitch streamer, knitting, crochet, color, inspiration, Handmade1 Comment