Thea Colman (BabyCocktails): I buy yarn that speaks to me

Written by Thea Colman / BabyCocktails

I learned to knit when I was a kid, from my Grandma Pearl - and then I took lessons when I was a teenager at Claytons, a small shop in Princeton NJ. The fun part about that is that Kirsten Kapur (who would become a good friend of mine in the knitting world later), worked there around the same time!

Thea Colman, knitting pattern designer

I started designing when my kids were little. I had been in corporate advertising for many years, working on national campaigns - such as "Got Milk", but when I had kids I needed to quit. I was way too restless to watch my kids at all their things and wasn't really into the playground chatter, so I picked up knitting again and even joined a group on Sundays, where my knitting friends pointed out that my inability to follow a pattern as written already had me designing, and they encouraged me to try writing things up and publishing them.

BabyCocktails was something I had begun with my good friend Gabriella (We are still close - she's the model I use often). She was also home with her babies after previously working a big job. A few of us would get together at cocktail hour on our street, toss all the kids together and make drinks - and we called that get-together BabyCocktails.

Gab and I wanted to start a little business on the side, so we bought the domain and I started blogging. By the time I began publishing my knits, I had established the blog, had followers, and the little business never happened, so I kept the name and it became my own business! Plus there's a whole other story about a porn star named Thea Coleman, so I decided not to use my name…

Last Word vest by Thea Colman.

Early in my design career, I noted the difference in how I felt working in a large, generic yarn vs working with fiber from a person who could talk to. As I got a bit more well-known, I realized that my work could bring eyes to businesses I care about and help out people who were doing work I respected. One of my favorite things about this business are the collaborations, and it's important to me that I believe in the products I promote. In both yarn and politics, I tend to use whatever voice I have very intentionally to make any difference I can.

After my Beekman Tavern sweater launched, Alice Field of Foxhill Farm ran up to me at Rhinebeck and gave me the biggest hug ever, telling me that my pattern had made a huge difference in their year. That stays with me. My designs can matter to a smaller business, and that's an amazing thing I can do.

I buy yarn when I see it, and it speaks to me, usually at festivals where I can talk to the farmer/owner and be sure that it will be a good experience for both of us. I'm also very careful to pay for my own yarn and to never promise anything, since design is not an on-demand skill.

Also, I really just like the yarns I've used over the years better than some of the more polished fibers out there. I've never really been a factory-spun MCN girl.

I'm glad to see it. I realize that there are all kinds of gorgeous yarns and knits out there, but I honestly felt a little bummed when Rhinebeck kind of went from what I felt was a celebration of farms and the huge variety what we do with local yarn, back in the early 2010s to seeing the same sweaters - although beautiful, neither designed nor knit in farm yarn, all over the fairgrounds every year.

Cinnamon & Bourbon Sweater pattern / BabyCocktails

I do feel like people have begun to appreciate wooly and local yarn again, and I'm glad you are bringing a bit more awareness to the roots of what the NYSW is all about. Perhaps more desingers might realize that working in a local yarn is a possibility - even if people can't use the exact fiber in the sample, there are lots of other farms across the country they can support!

I haven't begun my knit for Rhinebeck next year, but I have an entire catalog of sheepy sweaters out there! Right now I'd bring eyes to my Last Word Vest, which was knit in Ashen by Amy of Ross Farm Fibers. She's had a fire, but has lots of Ashen to sell so I added a discount to the pattern to encourage folks to take a look and give her some support.

My Cinnamon & Bourbon sweater and Mitts are designed in both Wing & A Prayer and Sawkill Farm fibers, so that's a fun collab. I've worked in Sawkill Farm a few times for my RB sweaters - Cava and Widow's Kiss are two others. I just designed a hat for Tammy last year called the Boston Bog. It's hard to find Fox Hill Farm at the festival post-covid, but my Ghost in the Orchard Vest is still one of my favorite designs ever. I can't possibly list all the projects I've done with Green Mountain Spinnery, but they're all on my Ravelry page, and cover a whole wardrobe's worth of options.

I love all those businesses and the women I know at each.

Discover more of Thea’s patterns on her website here.

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