Hand dyed yarn, Inspired by travel.

At Destination Yarn we believe in the power of place to inspire creativity in all forms.  Through this passion for travel and color we translate paces and experiences into vibrant colorways just for you.

We believe in creating the highest quality of hand dyed yarn.  Each skein is carefully created in small batches.

We only use bases that we would want to knit with ourselves – luxurious yarns that are a joy to work with.

All of our base yarns are ethically sourced from museling-free farms. 

All yarn is dyed with professional materials in our professional dye studio in the West park neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio.  Everything is done with care in house – from developing colorways, through dying the yarn, through packaging your order.

We believe in supporting small business and shopping local.  From the manufacturer of our packing materials to the mills that process our yarns we choose to work with companies that we believe in.

About Jeanne Stevenson

Owner, Dyer, Designer

Jeanne Stevenson grew up around yarn.  Her grandma passed her love of the fiber arts on to Jeanne at an early age.  She learned to knit and card wool, and volunteered at shows with her local guild all before high school.  Jeanne put her early love of crafting and the fiber arts to the side, however, in pursuit of a  “real job.”

Jeanne earned a Masters of Architecture from the University of Cincinnati’s school of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning in 2004.

While in design school, Jeanne had the opportunity to study abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, travel through Europe, work in San Francisco, and drive across the country.  Through these experiences she discovered a love of travel.

In architecture school Jeanne also met her husband, Matt – although he didn’t abandon the profession for yarn and works as a designer – when he’s not wrangling their kids so that Jeanne can dye.

After graduation Jeanne worked as an architect in the field of Historic Preservation and discovered the luxury of free time again.  She quickly filled her extra hours with a growing obsession for knitting –  throwing herself into learning as much about the craft as possible.  On her lunch breaks she would walk to the downtown library to check out piles of knitting pattern books, read knitting blogs, and generally freak her co-workers out by knitting at her desk.

In 2005 Jeanne started a knitting blog to document her adventures in yarn and her Life in Cleveland.

Learning to dye yarn was the natural next step.  Jeanne began slowly with some kool-aid experiments including dying enough lace weight wool to knit her grandmother a Cherry Blossom shawl.  From there it was a slippery slope into professional dyes.  That Christmas Jeanne dyed yarn for all of the knitters in her life and a new passion began.

Finding color inspiration in photographs from her recent travels to Peru, Jeanne began to experiment with repeatable colorways and dye sequencing.  AutoCAD became a tool to model how the different painted yarn would knit up at different gauges.

In 2008 Jeanne launched Destination Yarn as a small etsy site with no expectations other than to fuel her growing passion for dying yarn.

However in 2009 the birth of her first child changed everything.  When she wasn’t balancing new motherhood she was focusing on creating and selling exceptional yarn.  Soon Destination Yarn was hosting trunk shows at local yarn stores and selling kits with yarn and patterns to Joseph Beth Booksellers.

Since then Jeanne has had 2 more children and Destination Yarn has grown into a full-fledged hand dyed yarn company.  Destination Yarn is sold at stores throughout the Midwest, has been featured by the Fiberista’s Club and Wool & Honey, and has been a vendor at high profile events including STITCHES West.  Jeanne has worked with pattern designers, run the successful Road Trip Yarn Club, and developed many new dye techniques.

Jeanne’s background in architecture and love of travel informs every part of her creative process. She uses her passion for design to create unique colorways which translate places into yarn.