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Miss Babs Hand Dyed Yarns and Fiber

Tuesday on the YarnThing Podcast with Marly Bird: Miss Babs Ausherman of Miss Babs Hand Dyed Yarns and Fiber

bg-logo-missbasIn addition to all the awesome announcements for the great things coming from Marly (listen in below for all the details), Miss Babs joins Marly to talk about the company she started.

Babs comes from a very creative family; her siblings range from glassblowers to sculptors to potters (as well as an engineer for good measure). She herself is both a knitter and a crocheter.  She learned to knit from her mother, who also knit, and learned to crochet in her teens.  While she didn’t knit and crochet for many years, she always did some kind of handwork like needlework with her mother.  She and her family moved to Tennessee and Babs was no longer working 60 hours a week so she took knitting back up.  After a while she started to spin which lead to dying the yarn.  She took a class learning about natural dying and started dying everything.  At this point, she had too much yarn for herself and started selling it at local shops.  In 2005, she stopped working as an adjunct at a local college and made the yarn dying her full time business.

The business really started going in part due to necessity.  Babs’ husband became disabled in 2006 and Babs became the breadwinner for the family.  After a rough first few years and a lot of hard work, Miss Babs Hand Dyed Yarns and Fiber is the thriving business it is today.  Miss Babs started as a kitchen dying operation.  She took over the workshop area from her husband in around 2005 and they have recently expanded to double their space.

Now to talk about the yarns!  Miss Babs dyes and sells five yarn weights; lace, fingering, sport, DK, and worsted, and fiber.  Each yarn weight and fiber comes in several fiber contents including merino wool, alpaca, silk and bluefaced leicester wool.  And the best part is the colors!  Miss Babs does several repeatable monochromatic colors.  These are the same every time she dyes them.  Miss Babs also does what she calls Babettes.  Babettes are one-of-a-kind, unrepeatable color combinations that are different every time.  A few are somewhat repeatable in that she will use the same colors in a similar way to get a relatively repeatable result.  You can see just a taste below, go to the Miss Babs website to see every color available now!

raspberrytruffle-2ply_largeuberraschung-alpacacita_large

Repeatable Plum                                        Uberraschung Babette

naughtyfairy-alpacacita_large

Naughty Fairy Babette

You can find Miss Babs on: their website MissBabs.com, Facebook, Ravelry, Twitter, and Pintrest.

Check Out Knitting Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with MarlyBird on BlogTalkRadio

And we can’t forget the Giveaway!  Leave a comment below that includes Miss Babs’ keyword for your chance to win!

 MarlyBird-AD-StitchesMID2013-v4 - Version 2

Let’s give some love to our sponsors! 
XRX Books, Knitter’s Magazine, STITCHES Expos
Craftsy.com/yarnthing
Indian  Lake Artisans
Fiesta Yarns
Drew Emborsky
Love of Knitting and Love of Crochet
Bijou Basin Ranch

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  1. Anita dodds says:

    Such a great interview Marly. I loved hearing Miss Babs’s story and how she grew her wonderful business. Hopefully I’ll be able to see her yarn soon at a fiber festival.

  2. Erin @ EK Can't Cook says:

    I have some Miss Babs from a Knitcrate (yay Knitcrate) but couldn’t even get close to her booth at Rhinebeck. It’s always nice to hear about strong women making it happen for their families! And making the yarn industry even more awesome!

  3. Amberly says:

    The yarns are really beautiful. The colours are so lively and full of personality. I would love to crochet or knit with some of Miss Babs yarn.

  4. D Louise Gerlach says:

    I’ve heard so much about Miss Babs yarn, but have never had a chance to work with them. The colors are SO lovely.

  5. Dina says:

    I am actually designing a shawl using Miss Babs’ Alpacacita in the Gold Digger colorway and it is devine! It was great to learn more about her in the podcast. Cheers!

  6. Celeste says:

    I listened to the entire podcast and there wasn’t a key word.

    I love Babs yarn! I first encountered it at SAFF. Now that I know it’s still mainly her doing the dye work, I want more because I consider it a collectible.

  7. Kate M says:

    Thanks for another great show. I LOVE to work with color. I rarely ever use the colors that are in a pattern. My favorite part, other than giving away things, is going into the store and working to select the colors that I am going to use for the special project. I can’t wait to check out the book! Thanks!

  8. JudyAnn says:

    As unusual, Marly, another great interview! I love her colorways and look forward to see them again at Stitches MW.

  9. kim dawson says:

    I have heard so much about Miss Babs and her Yarntastic yarns! It was so cool to listen to her story and about how her business grew from her love! Thank you Marly for getting this awesome dyer on your show!

  10. Chaitanya says:

    Great interview! I’ve heard wonderful things about Miss Babs yarns but haven’t had a chance to try them yet. The colorways look gorgeous!

  11. Vicki Lynch says:

    This was the second interview I’ve heard with Miss Babs. I loved hearing her story of how she got her business to the level of success it is at this point. Her yarn is beautiful. I plan to look at some in a few weeks when a friend and I go to a not so local , but fantastic shop,The Tinsmith’s Wife.

  12. shing Hsieh says:

    Miss Babs colorways are soooooo gorgeous. Haven’t ever worked with her yarn before so I hope I’ll get a chance to do so now! Even if I don’t win, I’ll hop on her website and order directly!!!

  13. Stephanie F. Asbridge says:

    My hands are tingling just looking at Miss Babs yarns! I love your work ethic, Babs, and that you are a real family woman. Marly, I truly gain such inspiration from these interviews you do with the different fiber artists, yarn dyers, hook/needle makers, and pattern designers out in our fiber world. I LOVE IT!

  14. Heidi G says:

    Thank you for allowing Miss Babs to share her story – it is always so interesting to hear how people begin their fiber journeys. I’ve worked with Yowza twice and would love to try another of the Miss Babs yarn lines.

  15. Kate says:

    I saw Miss Babs yarn in person at Rhinebeck 2013, and the queues were immense! Each time I picked up a skein it ws ‘Deep Sea Jellyfish’ on all the different bases. Miss Babs’ coloursense is just awesome!

  16. Linda says:

    I only been to one Stitches and it was the stitches south show but Miss Bab’s both was really beautiful and stood out. I love that she had so many items made with the yarn to show how beautiful they all are.

  17. Kerrie Seymour says:

    Great podcast. Love Miss Babs yarn. I bought some at Stitches south and love how inky and saturated the colors are on my chosen skeins!

Marly Bird

The One and Only, Marly

Marly is a knitwear and crochet designer (and yarn addict) that is here to help you learn how to knit and crochet in a way that's fun and approachable.

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