About Us
The YMC team:
Andrea (aka The Enabler):
I have a background in Youth Work, Developmental Trauma and Family Therapy so wanted to combine my love of all things yarn with therapeutic intent. For the past 20 something years I have worked with and for the most amazing people. Young people, children, families, staff, colleagues and volunteers. Many of these amazing people have experienced horrendous childhood trauma and abuse, many of whom were still experiencing their trauma on a daily, hourly and at times constant basis. I was extremely privileged to walk alongside them, hear their stories and work with them to find some form of healing. Much of what I did was based on building a trusting, appropriate relationship and the ability to 'sit with' each individual person's story without judgement.
I started Yarn Me Calm because I know that after having a stressful day, you know the sort I mean, when you feel you have nothing left to give to anyone? I would come home and head straight to my yarn stash. I may not necessarily start crocheting or knitting, sometimes it was just enough to go through the yarn, touch and admire it. You know that feeling you get in touching yarn? Feeling the fibre, how soft and squishy it is and then imagining everything (or nothing!) that you can do with it. This is always the first step for me with using yarn for calming.
I wanted Yarn Me Calm to be more than just providing a product and a service, it needed to be about people.
Daniel (aka Mr. YMC):
Accountant extraordinaire! Mr. YMC keeps me under control in relation to expenditure, he reminds me when I need to pay my tax and looks after the books but more than this he is an integral part of everything I do and is my best friend and I couldn't do any of this without him by my side!
He is also an expert at expressing feigned appreciation of yummy yarn but real appreciation of my designs and makes!
Kylie:
Kylie is a sensational addition to Yarn Me Calm! She loves everything yarny and not only does she crochet but she knits too! Kylie is also a phenomenal amigurumi designer and it is fab to have her as part of the team!
She is a fab sounding board and encourages me to come up with new and exciting ideas and she has the same crazy enthusiasm I do about soft and squishy, tactile goodies.
A little history:
We started in mid 2018 and planned to open online only for the first 18 months with a view to open a brick and mortar store. But then.....PANDEMIC!!! So the careful planning went out the window very quickly. Being in Melbourne we spent a lot of time locked down and the yarn has slowly taken over several parts of the house as we have grown our range!
We changed out Logo in 2021 after my amazing cousin Craig, designed a new one for me. He absolutely captured what YMC means to me!
I am often met with surprise when I make a call to someone about their order, or offer to hold some yarn for someone etc. my answer to this is pretty simple, treat others with kindness, care and respect, treat them the way you want to be treated. Yarn Me Calm is a representation of these values and while our focus continues to be on bringing you beautiful yarns from all over the world, the underpinning principles of Yarn Me Calm will always be the therapeutic benefits of using yarn and building a community of support and friendship!
We are currently back in the planning stage for a brick and mortar place to call home (and to reclaim our own living space!) and hope to be able to welcome you all to visit towards the end of 2022.