Interview with Red Door Fibre Studio

 

A sneak peek at the limited-edition Twilight collection by Red Door Fibre Studio, launching today (December 6, 2020!)

Bringing Fandom to Yarn: Speaking with Kate Campbell of Red Door Fibre Studio

While exploring artists tagged in a #FridayFollow post one August morning, I stumbled upon Kate Campbell's Instagram profile featuring her newly-launched hand-dyed yarn shop, Red Door Fibre Studio! It took about 20 seconds of scrolling through Kate's colorful profile to realize that I was absolutely smitten with her style: Kate brings fan art to a new level by translating iconic movies and characters to limited-edition yarn collections! In early autumn, she released a *stunning* collection inspired by Studio Ghibli, which led to us collaborating and creating the Soot Sprite Blanket. 

Kate is launching a new collection inspired by the Twilight series today (12/6/20), and I know it will be another instant classic! 

Without further ado, it's time to grab a cuppa and get comfy as I chat with Kate about Red Door Fibre Studio.

Could you tell us a bit about how Red Door Fibre Studio came to be, where it all started?

We (I say we, but it’s really just myself) started Red Door out of a need for something more freeing than what I was already doing. I have a deep love for how all art is interconnected with one another, and my previous business concept just wasn’t cutting it for me.

I ran a small knitwear company, and since COVID cancelled all of our markets for this fall, I needed a way to fill my time and bring in our second income! I had researched hand-dyeing for over a year before actually taking the plunge because we were only renting at the time and my landlord wasn’t fond of the potential mess dyeing tends to make. Once we bought our house in early June, the building blocks started getting laid down hard and fast!

Kate Campbell holding yarn hanks from her limited-edition Studio Ghibli collection in her in-home dye studio!

What does a typical yarn-dyeing day look like for you?

I am a *planner*... until it comes to creative outlets. So I have lists of what colorways to dye/already completed, bases or materials to order, and even snacks I want for the next week! I don’t keep myself married to a dye schedule though, otherwise it sucks the life out of me.

So I take my list of colorways to dye out to my garage sometime between 7-8am during the week and pick what I can finish. I do my absolute best to listen to my body and my mental state to see when to stop for the day! There’s a set rate I need to dye at to get all orders out on time, so as long as I hit more than my rate for the day (constant over-acheiver over here), I can turn in whenever! I love the flexibility that comes with this job. If I wanted to run errands unbothered in the afternoon, I could simply wake up earlier, finish everything before lunch, and then not have to worry about whether I need to get back to my pans!

Gorgeous yarn AND cinnamon rolls - I just cannot handle the cuteness!

What are your favorite yarn bases to work with? (I'm a *sucker* for worsted weight!)

I’m a DK girl through and through! I love the drape of this base. It also doesn’t hurt that it knits up faster than fingering weight… I’m afraid I’m not too patient!

You have such a knack for translating popular culture into brilliant colorways! How do you decide what each collection will be about?

Oh wow, thank you! I started Red Door because I was lacking total creative freedom (as well as the other reasons like I talked about earlier) and I have an obsessive personality when it comes to movies or tv shows or any other media, really. I wanted to shove Red Door with as much joy as humanly possible, so I base our collections off of things that I love. Animal Crossing, Studio Ghibli films, Avatar: The Last Airbender (an animated kid’s show!) and I have so many more ideas up my sleeve. My key is to always stick to things I know like the back of my own hand!

How do you balance having to produce yarn for your business with indulging your creative side?

My whole job IS my creative side! Because I base our collections off of things that I love, I get to indulge every single time I hit the dye pans. This is where that whole “obsessive personality” thing really kicks in. I’m a true believer that all art is not complete without other art. Like how movies lack emotional depth without a perfect soundtrack overlaying heartfelt scenes. How fanart (or even memes!) from TV shows and book series’ help us relate even further to the characters. And even how our yarns are really just hanks on a shelf until fibre artists get a hold of them to turn them into something even more beautiful. My creative heart is filled to the *brim* with happiness every time someone sends me or tags me in one of their makes. 

It also helps that we do a monthly mystery yarn club, The Villagers Club, based on Animal Crossing Villagers! This way, I get to dye up a new colorway even in the middle of fulfilling pre-orders!

Lastly, what do you have on your needles at the moment?

So. Many. Things. But we’ll stick to the one I’m actually making any progress on! I’m knitting up Hermione’s Everyday Socks in our colorways Kyoshi Warrior and Katana (for a contrasting heel and toe).

Where can people find you and your yarn?

You can purchase my yarn online at Red Door Fibre Studio, and you can follow me on Instagram at @reddoorfs.