Saturday Spotlight: featuring Vida Lifestyle

This spotlight is super special because Victoria of Vida Lifestyle is beyond Awesome! A few weekends back I attended Voolenvine trunk show at Do Ewe Knit? During lunch with the ladies we met Victoria and well…I will let you read for yourself

1. So tell me how long you have been knitting and who taught you?

I started crocheting when I was about 8. My mom bought me a kit for my birthday and we learned to crochet together. We would take turns crocheting rows and we ended up making my doll a blanket. I still have it! For a long time, we just crocheted straight pieces, so we made tons of long scarves and started crocheting fun trims along the sides. I tried knitting and I didn’t like it. It just wasn’t happening for me. I was a true hooker from the start!  When I was 16, The Naked Sheep opened, it is my LYS on Staten Island. I remember the first day I walked, I was so overwhelmed with all of these beautiful yarns. I no longer wanted to crochet straight scarves. I bought a beautiful peach-colored cotton yarn and I wanted to crochet a lace baby cardigan. Everyone thought I was crazy since I never increased or decreased or did any decorative stitches before, but I like to go from 0-100 quick! It came out beautiful!!

Shortly after the owner of The Naked Sheep, Tracy, made me start knitting. I was so resistant, I just kept saying “ No, this is boring, I’m not doing it”. I was making a ribbed scarf. I stopped making it and told her I want to knit a sweater. Once again, I like skipping all of the steps. So there I went and made a knee-length chunky sweater with double breasted buttons down the front. I fell down the rabbit hole & the rest is history! I ended up working there for 5 years where I learned everything I know about yarn, knitting and crocheting! There were so many awesome people around me influencing me daily to become a complete yarn whore.

2. The yarn and dyeing it, how did that come about? I love that you use MCN as your base! YUMMY!

The yarn and dyeing came about suddenly. I was on vacation last summer in San Diego and I do a lot of brainstorming about things while I am on vacation. I was by the pool and I was like “HEY, I want to dye yarn”. So I started watching YouTube videos on how to dye yarn and I said “When I get back from vacation, I am going to start dyeing yarn”. I spent the vacation by the pool researching how to open a business and how to dye yarn. Seriously when I got back, I went to my kitchen and tried dyeing yarn. Turns out, it came naturally to me. I told you  I really like skipping all of the learning steps in a process. The first color I dyed was, Funfetti Spaghetti, and I am still dyeing that color because it’s always selling out. I became so obsessed with it. I spent every weekend dyeing yarn.

I really love my MCN base as well. There’s nothing wrong with a  little extra cashmere in your life! I only have yarns in my collection that I would knit with. I currently have 3 weights in my collection: Vida Sock, Vida DK and Vida Super Bulky. They are all so yummy, I love knitting with them.

3. Your ideas are so cute, I love the smoothie bowls, are you really a big fan of ice cream?

Thanks GG! YES, I REALLY AM A BIG FAN OF ICE CREAM. I have been my whole life. Everything is ice cream, ice cream, ice cream. Fun Fact: Even my AOL screen name when I was a kid was, IcecreamMousette. Ice Cream because I loved ice cream, Mousette because I am small. It only made sense! HAHA. I named my first collection, Dessert for Breakfast. All of the yarns are dessert flavored, they make me happy!

4. I saw your fade when we met, your colors are fabulous! Besides ice cream what inspires your color choices?

The fade was an awesome project. I loved blending all of the different pastel shades of Vida Sock together. I always say I am going to wear this to the Ice Cream Parlor! Besides ice cream and the rest of the desserts in the world, my color choices are inspired by pure happiness. I aim to dye colors that will make people happy when they look at them. Life can be really hectic and overwhelming at times, I think people look for a break from reality and want to be playful with their colors, I know I do! I don’t think buying yarn should be something serious, have fun with it! Add all the speckles, mix all the colors, just make it look beautiful! It won’t be your last project, trust me!

5. I saw that you will be having a Trunk Show at Do Ewe Knit as well as Knit-a-Bit and Chelsea yarns right? How do you prepare for that?

Yes, I am having a trunk show at Do Ewe Knit on August 12th, Chelsea Yarns in September and Knit-a-Bit October 7th! Preparing for trunk shows is a lot of fun, but it definitely requires a lot of work! Besides spending every weekend dyeing, labeling, skeining, I also spend a lot of time preparing for the presentation of the show. I recently just had a trunk show at Chelsea Yarns and since my collection is Dessert for Breakfast, I had the whole table set up with ice cream cones and candy jars, even some macaroons to eat for the shoppers! The best part of trunk shows is watching people frenzy over the yarn. And we all know what a good Yarn Frenzy feels like! I also have the best boyfriend, who is the best prepper. He preps all the yarn for dyeing and definitely skeins the best hank!

6. After checking out your website I am truly excited about the possibilities for you, what is next for Vida Lifestyle NY?

You’re so sweet GG! What’s next for Vida Lifestyle is all the things that come with yarn, right? We have Vida Stitch Markers and they are ice cream cones with yarn in it. I put them on every project. We are working on project bags and we will be releasing our first pattern for winter soon! You heard it here first!!!! We will have a new collection for the Fall, stay tuned to find out the new theme! We also have some collaborations up our sleeves. Oh wait, I forgot to mention, we have an exclusive color way for you GG! It’s called GG’s Orange Creamsicle Click To Tweet, your favorite ice cream! It will be launched on our site today for everyone to shop!

7. WHATTTTTTTT!!! That yarn and that color OMGAWD!! ok let me get myself together! Victoria!! My Goodness! Last question: if you could change anything about the dyeing process what would it be?

Well, I can say the best part about the dyeing process is definitely when you get some awesome speckles. On the other hand, I would love to expand our studio and have an area for each step in the process, like an assembly line! That speaks to me! It is going to happen sooner than I think because we are outgrowing ours!

I am blown away with this yarn! OMGeee. Alright guys run don’t walk and get you some Vida_Lifestyle yarn. Please leave me some GG’s Orange Creamsicle for me!

Knit on my fiber friends….Knit on

GG

 

8 thoughts on “Saturday Spotlight: featuring Vida Lifestyle”

  1. The colors were out of this world and never had an interest in knitting or crochet but my sister, GG, surely makes it so interesting with all the spotlights, the blog and her drop dead gorgeous projects. All the people that pour their heart into this craft is truly amazing. I’ll keep reading and maybe one day I’ll pick this up but in the meantime I’ll keep enjoying and supporting ❤️

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