Sonder Yarn Co. is a new independent company offering hand-dyed and bespoke yarns, located in Montreal, Canada. It's difficult to summarize just how Sonder Yarn Co. came to be but sometimes, when you finally arrive at a place, you realize you were headed there all along.

Melissa's own road to Sonder took a meandering path through graduate school in Clinical Psychology, certification in web design, project management in the paediatric healthcare field, and a decade-long run as one of the founding owners of Espace Tricot, a local yarn shop in Montreal. The LYS years were among the most rewarding of her life, igniting a passion for entrepreneurship and providing opportunities for the discovery and development of new creative outlets and skills. One of those was dyeing yarn and she couldn't be happier to now make this a career.

Educated in sciences and fine arts, Tanya moved to NYC in her early years to pursue a career as a commercial photographer. While there, she worked as a printer/photographer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was co-owner of the digital imaging company Abiggerboat Inc. From there, Tanya spent several years living in Vermont before settling in Montreal where she worked for a decade as the Executive Director of a local non-profit organization. After years spent in darkrooms watching latent images emerge on photographic paper, she now enjoys watching colours develop on exquisite fibres in the light of day. 

Like many hand-dyers Melissa and Tanya came together as friends, started experimenting with colour and fiber in their kitchens, graduated to producing hand-dyed yarns for Espace Tricot, and finally actualized their dream of owning and running their own yarn company in October, 2021.

Beyond producing a beautiful and cohesive palette of hand-dyed tonal colourways on a growing range of carefully selected bases, Sonder Yarn Co. also curates a selection of bespoke yarn lines milled and dyed to their specifications in the UK. These hand-dyed and custom yarn lines are designed to work independently or to marry seamlessly - whether you love a good superwash blend of cashmere, merino, and nylon, enjoy adding texture in the form of mohair and Suri Alpaca, or prefer soft and rustic blends of British sheep breed fibres,you’ll find much to inspire you in Sonder Yarn Co.’s comprehensive and sophisticated collection.

The name of their company is inspired by the definition of ‘Sonder' in John Koenig's "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows” (-n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own) and was chosen in an effort to highlight the idea that we all, individually, have stories, experiences, and realities, that others can't possibly know. Many use craft and making to help process and express these; sharing our stories around a common passion can play a small role in helping us appreciate our myriad differences and similarities. Everyone has a story.⁠⁠  Sonder Yarn Co. is honoured to become a supporting cast member as you knit yours.

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You can also follow us on Instagram (@sonderyarnco).

xx Melissa & Tanya