2021 has been a year already, y’all! So much change and upset and strife and progress. Ups and downs and all arounds have abounded this year so far. Our heads have been spinning, sometimes happily, and sometimes in horror. As we were developing our April colorway for HerStory, the truly historic appointment and confirmation of Deb Haaland as the first Native American US Secretary of the Interior happened, accompanied by happy head spinning. According to her website, Haaland is a 35th-generation New Mexican. Can we just take a minute to read that again, and appreciate the fact that her people have lived on and been stewards of this land for THIRTY-FIVE GENERATIONS, long before there was a “United States of America;” long before white colonizers crossed the ocean and “discovered” the land that was to become the USA?!? It’s mind-boggling that she is the first person of Native American descent to be in charge of the actual land that the USA occupies, but we are hopeful that this is a mark of big progress and better representation in our government. 

In Indigenous cultures, here in the USA and beyond, a connection with the land on which one resides is a deep and spiritual one. Being good stewards of the land, giving thanks to the land, and honoring the relationship of all living things to the land on which they exist is integral to Indigenous beliefs and cultures. Appointing a member of a Native American tribe (Haaland is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, and also has Jemez Pueblo heritage) to oversee the care of the land in this country that has a history of oppression and of stealing land from Indigenous peoples is a huge mark of progress.

Our April colorway, Sea of Change, is an homage to Deb Haaland and to that ceiling her appointment has finally shattered. If you look closely at your skein, you’ll see that all of the colors of the sea are represented: the deep blue of a calm sea and the stark whitecaps of a turbulent sea. Making big change never comes without big waves, and we don’t anticipate that the appointment of a Native American to this position of high power and influence will be smooth sailing, particularly since this will be a huge change from the corporate-centric focus of the Interior Department in recent memory, but we are beyond excited to see how Deb Haaland honors her roots and paves the way for more Indigenous representation in the US government.

Like many of you, we watched the US Presidential Inauguration with knitting in hand and tears in our eyes. We knew it would be a historical day, but what we didn’t expect was to be absolutely blown away by the aesthetics of it all, particularly by the mostly monochromatic masterpieces worn by some notable women, and by the powerful and hopeful poem Amanda Gorman shared with us, The Hill We Climb.

Much about the past four years, (and this past year in pandemic in particular), has felt heavy and hard and sad and just plain grey. But on January 20th, we were treated to a visual symphony of strong, powerful, intelligent, amazing women who brought the light and gave us something that we sorely needed: hope. Did they all discuss wearing monochrome? Do they have a text string, where each put dibs on the color they most wanted to wear (and, can we get a peek at this text string, PLEASE?!? We promise to behave!)? Did they know that we would be gasping and texting our friends each time one of them walked down those stairs? Did they realize just how much light they were letting into the world, with their bold embrace of color and of themselves? Did they think about that fact that to wear something bold, as a woman, you are saying: look at me! I am worthy of being looked at, I am worthy of being a topic of conversation, of being an inspiration, and mostly, of just being.?

As we created our Brave Enough colorway, we poured through images of that day, with tears in our eyes. We listened to Amanda Gorman’s poem again and again. 

“We will rise… 
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover. 
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid,
the new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

We drank in all of that beauty, and all of those words, adding each color until a rainbow was created. Because what better way to celebrate hope than through a rainbow?

Persistence is our February colorway. Picture the most exquisite Hydrangea you have ever seen, the way the colors fade one into another, the pinks and blues and purples into the green of the leaves and stem. Now picture the most talented and tenacious organizer you have ever seen, a person who can turn a political disappointment (albeit a disappointment fueled by historical gerrymandering and voter suppression) into what has arguably proven to be the most consequential and important voting outcome in modern history. 

We are talking about, of course, the incomparable Stacey Abrams (1973-present). We don’t often honor the women you might expect us to in our HerStory; one of our goals is to find those women who have been lost to traditional history, whose stories have not been told, no matter how large the influence of their work/lives have been. But after the turmoil of the 2020 election, particularly what happened in Georgia, we just could not not talk about Stacey Abrams. She is such a force. Such an inspiration. Such an admirable leader. Plus, she writes romance! As romance junkies, we literally cannot even express how much that means to us.

One of the meanings of the Hydrangea is perseverance and gratitude. Unity and togetherness. Stacey Abrams and her team are full to the brim of all of those things. In the 2 short years since she lost the governorship of Georgia, she dug her heels in, gathered a diverse team, and DID THE THING. That thing may well prove to be what literally saves Democracy. Our February colorway, Persistence, is an homage to the Hydrangeas that are starting to bloom in the Spring. To the hope that Stacey Abrams and her hard-working team have caused to bloom in our hearts. To the work that is left to do, and the voices we need to lift up in order to get that work done. As we move forward in the US and work at a more positive and just society, our hope is that you look at and work with this yarn and feel that hope and joy and gratitude that Stacey Abrams embodies. That we all do what we can to uplift each other, and allow those voices that are so necessary to be heard. And to a future in which all of the votes by all of the people count in the same way.

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (1930-), our first HerStory recipient of 2021, was a born leader. She was the first democratically-elected female head of state in the world, and remains, to this day, the longest-serving female head of state (she was President of Iceland for 19 years). 

Finnbogadóttir was born into wealth and privilege, and thus had a young life full of education and opportunity. She was a public figure before going into politics, teaching French and Icelandic culture on the state television station in the late 1970s. When she decided to run for president in 1980, her status as both a woman AND a divorced single mother weren’t enough to detract from her charisma, personality, and talent, and she was elected over 3 men.  

In no small part because of Finnbogadóttir’s work and standing in the world, Iceland is now considered by most to be the world leader in gender equality. In recent years, Iceland has passed laws to ensure gender balance on boards and to secure paid paternity leave. Almost half of all political candidates in any given election are women, and universal early childhood education is a nationwide priority. In 2013, a law was passed that required companies to ensure that a minimum of 40% of their boards are women. All of these laws and policies are created to make the world more equitable, and offer more women, from all backgrounds, the opportunities to achieve success. 

In Iceland, there is a concept called “fyrirmynd“. It’s kind of like a role model, but more: the term encapsulates the concept of being an example to others to live one’s life with authenticity and strive to do what’s right and good, not only for one’s own self, but for one’s community as well. Our Lava colorway is inspired by the beautiful lava fields one can explore in Iceland, and by our first HerStory recipient Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, the Mother of Iceland. Her cool head and fire within as she broke through that glass ceiling and paved the way for so much goodness, all while typifying that fyrirmynd.