56 A tight knit team Morgan Spicer, Graphic Designer at King Cole, speaks to Craft Focus about the company’s exciting year ahead. Knitting has never looked more cool! Tell us a little bit about the company. Where are you based? When did the company start? King Cole is proud to provide yarn, patterns, and haberdashery to any crocheter or knitter from beginners to advanced. We opened in 1935 and we have remained a family business ever since. We are in Skipton, the ‘Gateway to the Dales’ in North Yorkshire. The town is named for its historical affiliation with sheep and the wool trade. Who founded the company and why? King Cole was founded in 1935 as R J Cole Ltd in Bradford by Reginald Cole. It’s had quite an evolution as well as many moves from Keighley, to Crossflatts, to Silsden, and finally Skipton. In 2012, we won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for our expansion into the export market with an enormous burst of growth. We’ve always had a tight knit team here at King Cole, many of our staff have been here for decades and have built very strong bonds with our teammates and customers. How has the company evolved? Over the last few years, we’ve expanded a lot more into the international market of yarn. Our presence has probably grown due to being present on social media, and we have a strong newsletter subscription list with regular emails for every launch. We have quite a few partnerships with some wonderful international yarn shops, and we regularly attend trade shows and visit our international clients when we can. What do you specialise in? We’re well known for our variegated acrylic yarns, but we produce an enormous range of yarns from natural plant fibres like bamboo and cotton to animal fibres like alpaca and wool. We’ve got quite a few blends of yarns that include both man-made fibres and natural fibres. We’re particularly excited about our blends such as Majestic DK and Drifter DK, because they’re cost-effective, durable, but also give the warmth and drape of natural fibres. Talk us through the current products you’re particularly excited about. Do you have a favourite? We’re delighted to be producing quite a few recycled yarns now. Our latest one is Wildwood Chunky a 100 per cent recycled wool yarn in gorgeous colours. Pattern support for Wildwood Chunky includes garments, accessories, and homeware. Hobby & crafts have boomed over the last two years! Have you noticed any new trends? Yarncrafting certainly has boomed over the last few years and crochet has become very popular with younger demographics. It’s great to see fresh conversations about handcrafting as a sustainable art form and how important it is to be paid fairly for handmade items. Seeing crochet in high street shops always gives me an emotional response, I always have a look to see if it’s actually crochet or if its machine made and just looks like crochet. Granny squares have become popular
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