Lanivendole – A Stormy Blend

We’re proud to be the exclusive retailers of Lanivendole A Stormy Blend in the Netherlands. Besides Lanivendole A Stormy Blend, you can find the other bases we carry here.

Lanivendole is a small yarn company from Genoa, Italy. Their aim is to create unique yarns containing local fibres.

Their yarns are made with a short-chain production, that is 100% traceable: it begins with fibre gathering directly from local breeders, The wool is blended at two experienced mills and ends up in the studio where the hand dye yarns are skeined into small batches.

Quantities of each yarn type is limited as it directly depends on the yearly yield of the fibres selected, how large the herd is and the mill’s production capability.

This production method is very important to Lanivendole as they have control over each stage of production and can achieve very high-quality standards, by working closely with the skilled mill keepers to get the best out of each blend of fibres; in fact, each batch coming out of the mills is slightly different and hence unique, just like a precious wine that varies from one year to another, The same applies to the dye lots, that reflect the artisanal process. So, each skein is able to tell a story, through materials and colours.

The origin of their project goes back to the years of teaching spinning and textile arts, a fulfilling activity that enabled the girls to travel around Italy getting to know the job of many herders who decided to recover local wool breeds and set up precious fibres farms. During that period they decided that they wanted to promote this hard work  –  high-quality yarns with an artisanal soul.

This is why they decided to have the yarns spun in small skilled mills of Italian textile district manufacture, that can process reduced amounts of fibre and get high rates in quality and keep intact the structure and character of the noble fibre at their best. By taking this path it is possible to keep the exact perfection and repeatability of commercial yarns but to create niche fibres with a strong character

During a trip to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival a few years ago the girls started to figure how they could transform this little treasure of knowledge and contacts that they had been building into a project, that would speak of the precious fibres found out in locally, of the manufacture with hundred years of experience in spinning, and above all of the unique and artistic character inherent artisanal products.

One evening, they were sitting at dinner in Florence talking about all these ideas with some friends, and one of them just described them as LANIVENDOLE – women who sell yarn in their dialect – and this remained their brand ever since.