Known for its neon-hued sock weight yarn, Lily and Pine is a well-recognized brand in the Alberta fibre arts scene. I was honoured when creator Erin Reidy took the time to chat with me about her work.
“I’m obsessed with socks,” she gushes. A former professional belly dancer, Erin learned how to knit after admiring another dancer’s handmade slippers. Once she discovered sock-knitting, she “never looked back.”
“There’s an art to making socks,” she says. “The way the heel turns, how you can fully customize them to fit your feet – it’s endlessly fascinating.”
“Plus, even with the most neutral, monochrome professional outfit, you can wear hot pink socks in your shoes and nobody will know!” Pre-COVID, Erin taught a sock-knitting class at Stash Needle Art Lounge in Calgary.
Erin started dyeing yarn for herself when trying to find just the right colour for a knitting project had her take matters to her own dye pot. In 2017, after suffering a back injury and multiple chronic illness diagnoses – “It’s like Pokemon, I’m catching them all!” she jokes – she found herself unable to work. Her husband suggested listing some of her accrued dye projects on Etsy “and just see what happens.” Thus, Lily and Pine was born. Erin’s yarn now comes in 36 different colourways on seven yarn bases, and can be found in local yarn stores in Alberta, British Columbia, and soon Ontario.
Lily and Pine yarns come in beautifully blinding “pastel neon” pinks, purples, yellows, and teals, with only a handful of neutral tones. Erin even has her own signature colour, a dusty robin’s egg blue she’s affectionately named ‘Erin Blue,’ as this shade “is literally my entire house,” she says, from walls to appliances. Even her beloved Volkswagen Beetle and her hair (she jokes she’s been a “natural blue” for about half a decade now).
As for where the colours come from, Erin finds herself “dreaming in colour” often. In fact, her well-loved Lemon, Aqua, and Hot Pink Fade Kits all came to her in a dream. “I try to stick to colours that I love for myself and that I can’t find anywhere else,” she says. For example, Erin hates red, and will never ever make a red yarn even when asked.
Erin’s favourite part of her job is sending her “little yarn babies” out into the world to be made into something new, she especially loves it when customers share their results at markets or on social media.
In Erin’s honour, I hope to conquer my trepidation over sock knitting this year.