Steph Gorin is the entrepreneur behind Loop Fiber Studio, based here in the Hudson Valley. She is known for her innovative YIN YANG yarn collection, which will be featured in a trunk show at The Endless Skein. Steph will be in our store to kick off the trunk show on Saturday, July 9, 2022, and the show will continue through the end of the month.

Steph spoke with us recently about her adventures in wool.

How did you end up switching gears from your previous career in international development to working in the fiber arts?

I was in D.C., working in international development, when I was hit with the fiber bug. Learning to knit had been my mother-in-law’s idea- something we could do together. I reluctantly agreed and decided to knit a scarf for my first project. Ironically, choosing yarn for the scarf was the thing that set off the unravelling of my career. 

I decided to replace a scarf I had adored and then lost years earlier. I looked for similar yarn in half a dozen yarn shops with no luck. What I didn’t know then, was that my long-lost scarf had been hand-knit with handspun, thick and thin yarn. After a clumsy attempt at describing it to one LYS owner, she told me the yarn was likely handspun. 

My search immediately changed from finding yarn for my first attempt at knitting, to finding a spinning instructor. Once I learned to spin, it was all I wanted to do. For the first time ever I started watching the clock at work. When I got home, instead of reading for my classes, I spent hours each evening spinning yarn on my first wheel. 

And down the rabbit hole I went. It didn’t take long before I quit my job, dropped out of school, and bought 100 pounds of spinning fiber. Loop Fiber Studio was born.

What do you love most about working with fiber?

I’ve always been creative, and had dabbled in photography, drawing, acting, and creative writing as a young adult. Nothing really stuck, but I always held on to a desire to find an outlet for my creativity. When my spinning instructor showed me how to blend colors and textures on a drum carder, I had an epiphany. It reminded me of the first time I’d watched an image magically appear on photo paper in the darkroom. I instantly connected with the medium. Working with fiber was so immediate and so accessible. I had no idea that “carding,” something I had never heard of before, would become the center of my universe for the next ten years.

How has Loop Fiber Studio evolved over the years?

I originally started Loop because I was spinning loads of yarn and was more interested in spinning than knitting with any of it. So I started to sell my handspun on Etsy in 2006. Next came the art batts. I was incredibly fortunate that one of my first customers was the editor of Spin Off Magazine. She put the batt she bought on the cover of the Winter, 2007 issue! Over time, my carding and spinning became more “radical” as I joined the art yarn movement that was taking off at the time.

In 2009, I relocated from D.C. to the Lower Hudson Valley in New York. I rented an enormous space in a repurposed pre-Civil War textile mill. I purchased my mini mill carding machine, and began experimenting. After several months, I’d developed a couple of new products. Loop’s “Spontaneous Spinning Clouds” and “Bullseye Bumps” were added to the shop’s offerings. I spent the next eight years primarily selling Bullseye Bumps and art yarn on Etsy and vending at various fiber festivals. 

After a decade in the fiber world, I realized it was time to expand Loop to include products for hand-knitters. The resulting collection is called YIN YANG Yarn and I introduced it in 2018.

Tell us about your YIN YANG collection. What inspired the idea?

When I decided to design a yarn collection, I wanted to offer something to knitters that was new - not an easy task in such a long established industry! I wanted to design a yarn that could transform the most basic pattern into a truly special garment. I also knew that I wanted the yarn to be marled since I had always used solid colors as building blocks in my other Loop products. 

As I was playing around with ideas for fun two-color marls, I realized that I didn’t want to use the two colors in equal proportions like traditional marls. I accomplished this by adjusting the number of plies of each color. Then I created a sample of the yarn with one of the colors being dominant and another sample with the other color being dominant. As I was deciding which version I preferred, I realized that I could offer both. That’s when I got the idea of the collection consisting of pairs of inverted colorways.

Please explain what you mean by “inverted colorways.”

Think of the Yin and Yang symbols. The Yin symbol is black with just a little white and the Yang symbol is white with just a little black. This is the concept behind the YIN YANG collection. In each pair, the colorways are inverted versions of each other.

All of the YIN YANG inverted colorway pairs have fun names that go together like, “A Place for Everything” and “Everything in Its Place,” “Kiss” and “Make Up,” and “Have Your Cake” and “Eat It Too.”

Do you have a favorite knitwear designer?

There are so many amazing designers it’s hard to pick a favorite. I love Stephen West’s free spirit and playfulness. Teti Lutsak’s earthy, organic designs inspire me, especially the ones with colorwork. I also really love Caitlin Hunter’s sweater designs. The vibe is very cool and I love her intricate colorwork motifs.

Who are some designers you’ve collaborated with?

Mina Phillipp designed her beautiful “Far and Wide” shawl using four YIN YANG colorways: “Far” and “Wide”, and “Once” and “For All.”

Kelsey Stephens’ stunning “Culloden Cowl” uses YIN YANG as the main colorway and her own brand for contrast colorways. 

Corrado Lark designed his “Flip It and Reverse It” shawl using YIN YANG yarn in “Peace” and “Soul” (not an inverted pairing). 

I have some other collaborations in various stages and hope to begin designing my own patterns soon.

Can people visit your studio?

I don’t have a brick and mortar shop and no, my studio isn’t open to the public. It’s my creative space, my office, and my shipping center. It’s also my haven.

When I first started my business, I thought the name Loop was very original. That makes me laugh now! People always assume I’m a yarn shop - this Loop or that Loop in one state or another. I explain that the other Loops are yarn shops, while I am a maker.

What elements of the yarn manufacturing/dyeing/spinning process happen in your studio?

Before I designed the YIN YANG collection, everything I sold was made by me, in my studio. I have no employees. In the early years I used just a spinning wheel and a bunch of drum carders. Now I have a mini mill carding machine as well. I make all Loop products for spinners on this machine.

The yarn collection is different. I designed the collection in my studio, making and testing color combinations and yarn weights by hand. Once each colorway is ready with specs, I send the fiber and instructions with specs to the mill for yarn production.

Can you give us a hint of what’s on the horizon for Loop Fiber Studio?

I am excited about the YIN YANG collection and the reception it has received. It is still quite new, so it’s still growing and I have lots to do!

Apart from YIN YANG, I hope to start designing patterns for my yarn. The inverted colorway pairings are really special and I want to offer designs that will really show off all that it has to offer.

Be sure to follow Steph on Instagram @loopfiberstudio!

Meet Steph in person at The Endless Skein on Saturday, July 9, 2022, or stop by the shop during store hours from July 9-31, 2022 to check out Steph's YIN YANG yarn and samples!

YIN YANG yarn will only be available in our physical store, not online, but we can take orders over email: info@TheEndlessSkein.com or by phone: 845-809-5500.

Visit our calendar to learn about other upcoming events!