A few months ago I met Ruth, founder of sustainable yarn brand Raincloud & Sage. Not only did I love the concept of her business, but I also really liked and admired her as a person and that is why I wanted to interview her for heiter magazine.

Please introduce yourself.

Hello, my name is Ruth and I’m a knitter and entrepreneur from Canada, living in Marburg, Germany with my husband and four year old son.

When did you start Raincloud & Sage and why?

I actually started Raincloud & Sage as a blog back in 2013 when I had just moved to Germany and was (in all honestly) a bit lost and looking for a place to fit in. I originally wrote a lot about my life in general, including my knitting hobby. As time went on the knitting side of the blog kind of took over and I transitioned to doing a bit of pattern design and freelance work within the industry. In early 2017, when my son was still a newborn, I was looking for a new creative outlet and (in a somewhat round-about and surprising way) that turned out to be starting this yarn company later that same year.

What made you transition from a blog to a yarn business?

This is such a good question! I was not exactly planning to transition my blog and start a yarn company. But through a friend of mine, I connected with a local shepherd here in Marburg and discovered that much of the wool from the sheep in this area wasn’t actually being spun into yarn at all but was rather being thrown away or burned. I was shocked to discover this and set out to see if I could turn a small amount of it into yarn. When I shared the story and yarn online it was so well received that I decided to continue making yarns and now, three years later I am finally able to work full-time with Raincloud & Sage.

What makes your yarns stand out amongst others?

One of the biggest differences with our yarns is how they are both sourced and produced. We focus on keeping everything as local and transparent as possible- our first yarn for example was completely sourced, produced and packaged within a 50km radius! Since then, we’ve branched out to work with other shepherds and producers here in Central Europe, but we’re always focused on how we can create our yarns with kindness to the planet as well as to the animals and humans involved in every step of the process. We also strive to be as transparent as possible and share all the steps very openly with our customers on our blog.

If people wanted to start working with your yarns but don't have a lot of knitting experience, what would you recommend to do?

I’m so glad you asked this question! I must admit that up until this point many of our yarns and pattern collaborations have been aimed at more advanced knitters and this is something I’m actively working to change. If people are willing to wait a little we’ll be launching a brand new collection of beginner-friendly knitting kits next year. Otherwise, I always tell people they can email me for personal project recommendations and tips.

Tell us a little bit more about your different offers (yarns, kits, services).

Our focus up until this point has definitely been on the yarns- we currently offer several 100% wool yarns in our shop, both dyed and undyed. In addition to that, we have a small collection of patterns and sometimes work with designers to offer limited edition kits for specific designs. This is something we are hoping to offer much more of in 2021, starting with the knitting kits (including pattern, yarn and needles) for beginners.

How often do you knit yourself? Out of the things you've knitted, what are most proud of?

Oddly enough I knit much less since starting this yarn company- who would have guessed? But I still find time to work on projects every so often in the evenings while watching movies or during a quite moment on the weekend. In terms of what I am most proud of, I think I would have to say my Willa cardigan, which was a collaboration with a designerfriend of mine, Sari Nordlund. The entire process- from sourcing the wool to having it spun, to working with Sari, to finally knitting it, took about two years and in many ways, I feel like the project is a testament to both the slow process of making our yarns and to the friendships I’ve made along the way in building this business.

What's next for Raincloud & Sage?

Oh, so many things! I feel like we are slowly moving out of these first three years of finding our place and building up our foundation to be strong enough to branch out and explore new and exciting projects. The most exciting things coming in 2021 are our new bulky weight base (which will be featured in the beginner knitting kits), as well as an exciting new yarn base that will be a blend of wool and alpaca, sourced and spun locally in my region of Germany.

What are the things that make you feel heiter?

For me (and specifically in the Fall) it’s definitely all the things that make up a cozy life at home- stacks of books and yarn, steaming cups of coffee, cozy oversized cardigans and taking long walks on rainy days.

Deutsche Version

Images: Raincloud & Sage

Interview: Katharina Geissler-Evans, heiter magazine

Optimism (noun): hopefulness and confidence about the future or the success of something (synonyms: hopefulness, hope, confidence, good cheer, cheerfulness, positive attitude)

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This is a love letter to the optimists of the world; the beautiful souls who are brave enough to choose to work for the best possible outcome despite terrible circumstances, to look outside of themselves and find meaning and beauty in the world in spite of potentially devastating heartbreak and loss.

Dear optimists, I believe that the world desperately needs more people like you, but it doesn’t always realise it. All too often, optimism and optimists are misunderstood. All too often, you’ll raise your hopeful offering to the world, only to be met with disdain and derision. In a world where cynicism is often confused with wisdom, assuming a world-weary attitude is the safer path; choosing a hopeful, optimistic outlook leaves your heart wide open and vulnerable to those who want to scorn you for standing out. It takes strength and courage to be optimistic.

Optimists are often accused of being naïve, unaware of evil, of living a sheltered and blessed kind of life. Optimism is often seen as a luxury that not everyone can afford. But in its truest form, optimism doesn’t mean always being happy, and it certainly doesn’t mean turning a blind eye to bad things. It’s not something you’re necessarily born with, or into, either. It’s a choice, and sometimes a daily battle, to stay open and receptive and keep looking outwards, to keep engaging proactively with the world instead of retreating inwards and strengthening the hard, protective walls you’ve built to try and shelter yourself from your fears.

I think A. J. Liebling was right when he said that “cynicism is often the shame-faced product of inexperience.” Some of the most famous optimists of the world are the very people who have endured the worst that life has to offer, living in Nazi concentration camps or in hiding and terror, like Viktor Frankl and Anne Frank. People who have achieved great and world-changing things, like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr., more often than not achieved what they did precisely because they had a dream, a sense of hope spurring them on to take action.

As Anne Frank said, “It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” Or, as Nelson Mandela put it, “Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”

In Man’s Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl described how you could tell when a prisoner in the concentration camp was about to die, saying that the characteristic that united them was total despair and loss of hope: “The prisoner who had lost faith in the future—his future—was doomed… he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay… He simply gave up.”

In other words, the world needs you, dear optimists, because your outlook is a powerful life-giving, world-changing force for good. Frankl’s theory of “tragic optimism” explains that optimism comes from the Latin word, optimum, which means “the best”. Through his experiences in concentration camps, Frankl became convinced of “the human capacity to creatively turn life’s negative aspects into something positive or constructive”, even in the face of great tragedy and horror.

We may not be able to change how we feel, and we certainly can’t force ourselves to be happy, but we don’t have to because that’s not what true optimism is about. What we can do, is to choose to change what we focus on, little by little, day by day. We look to you, courageous optimists of the world, to inspire us to find the #heitermoments in our every-day lives.

Sophie Caldecott is a writer, Intuitive SEO coach, aspiring podcaster and founder of A Better Place Journal. She lives and works in the UK.

Image: tobetold

Ruth: get to know the founder of sustainable yarn business Raincloud & Sage

Why the world needs optimists