Note from Carla about Knitting for Olive
October 04, 2026 · Carla Billingsley
You may already have seen the news that Knitting For Olive has been purchased by a private equity company. The news has been all over social media and many people are quite upset about it.
Quixotic Fibers has been in business for over 11 years. Since the beginning, these types of acquisitions have been a serious problem for our business. Bringing in a core yarn line is a major financial investment and requires a lot of work. We need to purchase a sizable stock to have the colors and quantities that customers need and we need to make store samples to show how the yarn works up for both knitting and crochet.
Many years ago, I invested heavily in a Rowan yarn because … Rowan. New management then decided to take the Rowan brand in a completely different direction, leaving me scrambling to find a substitute.
We once had an entire wall full of Dream in Color hand-dyed yarn when it was still with the original owners. After it was acquired by Jimmy Beans Wool the colors changed dramatically and it was no longer the same palette that we had always loved. We made the decision to stop carrying that yarn before Jimmy Beans was purchased by private equity, but it took us many months to clear out the inventory.
Quince and Co. was acquired by Lion Brand and now when we order their “Lark” wool we have no idea what we are going to get. Their customer service representative admitted that they had changed mills at some point. The new mill produced a completely different yarn. When we asked what colors were still available in the original version of the yarn they could not tell us. They don’t know their own stock and there is no one who can go into the warehouse to check.
It’s only been a few months since we brought in Knitting for Olive. Emilie in particular loves the yarn and the palette. It has been one of the hottest yarns in the knitting community over the past year because of the quality, the color palette, and the vision of the passionate knitters who wanted to create a collection where all of the yarns are the same weight so that they can be used interchangeably in the same patterns.
I didn’t need to see the fury all over social media to be upset about this. Experience tells me that this is a major problem for us. The change will not be immediate and obvious, but I have no interest in sticking around to see what they do to make KFO more profitable. They can’t improve the quality or the color palette, which came from the personal vision of the founders. Yarn development is a craft and an art, from the sourcing of the wool to the weight, the twist, the spinning method, and the quality of the machines used for the spinning. The best yarns are created by dedicated, experienced stitchers who know what makes a yarn good. Neither private equity nor AI can duplicate that intensely personal and tactile expertise.
We are going to end this as quickly and painlessly as possible by putting all of the Knitting for Olive yarns on sale. They are now 20% off as we still have a large selection to choose from. As the selection thins there will be further reductions.