Hi, I’m Coley, the yarn dyer behind Pasley Knits Yarn Company. I first learned how to knit when I was in High School, but my obsession and love for the art really didn’t come to fruition until 2019 after coming home from a backpacking trip through South America. That is when I discovered the amazing knitting community on Instagram and learned about hand-dyed yarn. I went down the rabbit hole watching as many tutorials as I could to learn how to dye yarn myself and after two years and many learning curves later, I opened my own shop.
I grew up on the beautiful west coast of Canada and spent most of my childhood summers at my family’s cabin. My happy place, my sanctuary, and most possibly the most beautiful place on earth, it’s been in my family for over seven generations. It’s the place I named Pasley Knits after and was one of our first colourways, Pasley Island.
Before Pasley Knits, I spent the majority of my early 20s working as a web designer and photographer. I feel really lucky that I got to travel around the world, across North America, Oceania, Asia, and South America, which I documented along the way on my blog and youtube channel. I got to live in Malaysia, doing my divemasters at a conservation research center working on coral reef restoration. I love scuba diving and everything to do with the sea, which is why so many of our colourways are inspired by the ocean.
In particular, I am obsessed with crabs. Ever since I was a little girl growing up on the coast flipping rocks over to find them. When I lived in Malaysia it became quickly known that I was the girl on camp determined to find crabs anywhere I could on the reef. That’s why I made my logo a lil’ knitting crab! I knew I had to pay homage to my favourite sea creature.
When Covid hit it was a huge adjustment for me, and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to feel fulfilled with my life now that I was home. Knitting, and this community, was a huge part of me finding my feet. Seeing what people create inspires me and I feel honoured to play a part in the projects people make.
Other than that, I’m just a girl who likes to read books, grow veggies, scuba dive, and dance to Taylor Swift in my underwear.
I also want to acknowledge and thank the Katzie, Tsawwassen, Kwantlen, and Musqueam First Peoples on whose traditional, unceded, and stolen territories I live, work, create, and knit.
Canada has a long, horrifying history in regards to the treatment of indigenous peoples and I encourage everyone that reads this to take the time to educate themselves on these horrors that still impact over 1+ million indigenous people in Canada today. A portion of every purchase you make of Pasley Knits Yarn is donated to the IRSSS, a Canadian organization with a twenty-year history of providing services to Indian Residential School Survivors.
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