I have had the privilege of being a part of Koigu's history for the past five years as their marketing and shipping coordinator. Through this position, I have learned so much about the history of Estonian handicrafts, modern knitwear and small business success.
The name Koigu was chosen to honour the ancestral home of the Landra family, which is located in a small hamlet of Otepää, Valga County in Estonia. Outside of Estonia, Koigu has now become synonymous with vibrant hand-painted merino yarns within the global knitting community. The founder of Koigu Wool Designs, Maie Landra (née Kiilaspea) was first known in the Canadian Estonian community for being a celebrated ink artist and painter as part of the Eesti Kunstnike Koondis Torontos (Society of Estonian Artists in Toronto).
In the early years of the Koigu farm here in Canada, Maie and her family raised sheep and used the home-grown fleece in elaborate woven tapestries and colourful knit fashions. A wide selection of colours of merino yarn was difficult to find in the late 80s and early 90s. Thus, Koigu yarns were born out of necessity when Maie wanted to create more colourful fibre art. As the hand-knitting market grew, so did Koigu. Maie's daughter, Taiu, joined to help scale the business and bring their colourful merino yarns to other fibre artists. Taiu soon found a textile mill to partner with, bringing their first major yarn, Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino, into existence! Koigu Wool Designs began to sell their unique merino yarn at trade shows and wholesale to yarn stores along with beautiful hand-knit designs.
For the first five years, Koigu's Painter's Palette Premium Merino was dyed in the kitchen of the Landra farmhouse and dried on the pine trees or hung over the bathtub. As demand for this unique and beautiful yarn escalated, the family built a wool shed where all three generations of Landra women have space to work together; Maie finally had the studio of her dreams to design and create alongside Taiu and granddaughter Kersti. Taiu and Kersti have been at the helm of the Koigu business for the past several years with Maie still offering creative direction and designing new knit patterns alongside them.
Koigu now has over 10 different weights and fibre contents of yarn in hundreds of colourways, both solid and variegated, with multiple colours. They have been published in renowned publications such as Vogue Knitting and their yarn is sold in yarn stores around the world. While demand is as high as ever, Koigu yarn is still painted, hanked, labeled and shipped by the Landra women and a small handful of local employees. While they use the efficiency of machines where they can, every skein sent out into the world is lovingly painted by hand and is a truly unique work of art.
You can find Koigu yarns and publications at your local yarn store and find patterns & learn more at koigu.com.
Merike is a recent graduate from the Creative Industries program at Toronto Metropolitan University. While not working at Koigu, she does freelance graphic design for small businesses and runs a few small businesses of her own on the side. Merike is the host of the podcast “Hey! Hi, Who are you?!” where she features local creatives in a casual interview format. In her day to day life, Merike loves sustainable fashion, traveling, drawing and animation and crafts of all kinds. You can find Merike Hess and her work online at thelittlesea.com and find her podcast on all podcast platforms.
