In 2015 we wrote a business plan for the beautiful, vibrant little yarn shop in this photo, to serve hand knitters, crocheters, weavers, and hand-spinners of yarn. Our dream was to stock the shop with 100% American-made yarns, but we quickly found that to be nearly impossible, because at that time most of the manufacturing of yarns had been sent overseas. We opened our shop with the most beautiful yarns we could find, but we continued to dream about super-soft, American-raised and processed Merino yarns. 
In 2019 we started dyeing our own yarn under the name Hand Dyed Diva, and sold that yarn in our shop. We continued to dream of American-made yarns, and when a representative from Meridian Mill House came into our yarn shop and asked if we wanted to carry their yarns, we said we'd love to - as long as they were made in the United States, were soft and delicious to work with, and were undyed - so we could dye them ourselves. Just a few months later, Meridian Mill House began offering those yarns, and we were their first customers. Around that time, we were also discovering many things about our personal histories. About Ladianne's grandfather growing up on a sheep ranch in Montana. You can see him in the photo, holding Ladianne's dad on his shoulders on horseback, on that very ranch decades ago. Sheri's own ties to the land, after having grown up on the farm her grandfather owned, continued to grow stronger. That's her on her little green tractor, preparing our garden area!
In 2020 we began the process of looking for a building to buy, with the idea that we would move our yarn shop into that building, and co-locate our dyeing studio there as well. Although we ended up buying a piece of real estate, and then planned to build a new building, construction prices, supply chain difficulties, and very restrictive lending made our project unviable at the time. It forced us to make some very tough choices - and we opted to close our retail space at the end of our five year lease, in summer 2022, and move our dyeing operation into a warehouse studio space. At the same time, Ladianne began her year as a Tory Burch Fellow, through the Tory Burch Foundation. In Fall 2022 we had a call with Jeanne Carver, the amazing founder of Shaniko Wool Ranch, the supplier of wool used in our Hand Dyed Diva brand of hand dyed yarns. We all came to the conclusion that we should offer finished goods to the public under a separate brand. That's how WoolTribe got started. We launched the website for WoolTribe, offering hand dyed beanies and scarves made with Shaniko Wool, in Fall 2023. Shortly thereafter, we decided to rebrand Hand Dyed Diva to WoolTribe Yarn, and sell it on a site specifically for our crafting community.
We'll share a secret with you - the WoolTribe logo is actually the initials "HDD," for "Hand Dyed Diva." We turned the letters into a monogram, and turned that monogram on its end - to look like a pictograph of a person wearing a beanie. At the end of the day, our journey to this point has been all about American fiber, the people who love it, and all the people and natural resources that go into making it available to you. We are so proud to be in community with you - and we appreciate all the support and love our amazing community has offered us through out the years. Our inner divas will always be with us! But it's time for the next chapter - one in which we're all part of a human tribe - part of the incredible history of the world, that has included all of us - and wool. We hope you'll continue on the journey with us as we make WoolTribe our new path!
With love,
Sheri and Ladianne
