Meet the Witch: Lauren Brien-Wooster of Valkyrie Fibers

Since Emily and I’s friendship began online, starting a podcast that was different than other fiber arts podcasts and YouTube channels seemed like a fun way to deepen our relationship and commit to our witchy practices, which were just beginning at the time.  We had a blast sharing what projects we were working on and also doing research on topics related to witchcraft, alternative spiritual practices, folklore, and weird history.  The podcast came to a conclusion for a variety of reasons.  Around the time that Emily’s art career took off, social media marketing was pivoting to edited video content rather than photography based posts, and neither of us had the time or mental space to produce the podcast as well as producing video content for our businesses.  Also, we were running out of things to research that we were both interested in and felt like we had the cultural background to be speaking about on a public podcast. 

I’m very thankful for all the support we had from listeners while the podcast was running, it allowed me to pursue my curiosity, deepen my spiritual practices, and make great connections in the fiber arts community. 

The former LYS in my town, Knits and Knots Tahoe, was owned by an indie dyer and she encouraged me to learn how to dye and to create my own business.  (Aubrey still dyes gorgeous yarns, you can find her work, Storyteller Yarns, at Wooly Llama in Minden, NV.)  After a few years, I was able to quit my day job of being a line cook and dye full time!

As a lifelong lover of mythology, I knew I wanted my business to have a mythological name but all the obvious fiber arts related mythological figures (Arachne, The Fates, etc.) had been used by other artists.  While most little girls dreamed of being princesses, astronauts, or doctors, little me dreamed of being a Valkyrie.  As a kid, I always admired the Valkyrie’s strength and power to judge a warrior’s soul as worthy of Valhalla or not.  (And the flying horses, who doesn’t want a flying horse?)  There was also a super bad ass translation of a Norse poem that referenced the Valkyries weaving men’s fates with looms made of swords and arrows, and I knew when I read it that it was what I wanted to name my business after.

That’s an interesting question.  I’m pretty much an open book with no filter and have an outspoken leftist social media presence that’s bound to get me on a couple government watchlists.  I feel like people know a lot about me already, hahaha!

 

Something about my business that I don’t talk about enough is that I’m committed to reducing waste.  I don’t buy any new plastic packaging, all my packaging is recycled or upcycled.  I try to reduce water waste during the dyeing process whenever possible as well.

I absolutely identify as a witch!  I’ve never been interested in orthodox spiritualities or being told what to do by an establishment, and the self directed nature of pagan practices appeals to me very much.  I’ve felt a connection to the goddess Athena since I was a child and keep a small statue of her on my desk, I hope to keep my mind sharp and my hands skilled to honor her influence in my life.  I’m lucky to live somewhere with beautiful seasons so I enjoy the stronger connection to nature that comes from observing moon phases and seasonal changes.

The main way that my practice ties into my business is when I’m packaging orders.  I try to put some good vibes and well wishes for my customers to experience creative joy when they use my yarns when I’m packing up each order.  Sometimes, I really try to make the yarns have a “mood” and I absolutely love to put on themed music when I’m dyeing.  This takes a nerdy bent most of the time.  For example, when I did Supernatural yarn, I blasted classic rock like they play in the show, and I scream-sang the K-pop Demon Hunters soundtrack while dyeing the Soda Pop self striping I did this summer.  I hope the enthusiasm and love I have for my inspiration sources gets to my customers in squishy yarn form.  

The typical process I have for developing a self striping colorway is to gather some inspiration pictures and try to identity what colors pop out to me.  I’ll use colored pencils or markers to see what colors look good next to each other and in what proportions, and then I’ll lay them out in stripes to see how the yarn would look knit up.  But you knew you wanted some Halloween™️ colors, so I had a great place to start from and the process for this rad colorway was super streamlined.

Once I’ve decided on stripe sequence, it’s warping, dyeing, then skeining it up.  While I have the sort of brain that really enjoys repetitive tasks, it’s nice to break up the labor intensive parts (warping and skeining) with the creative fun of dyeing.

I got into self striping because there are so many talented dyers, like yourself, out there and the self striping market was less crowded.  Actually, color wise, I think it’s way easier to dye self striping yarns!  When it’s a variegated regular skein, you have to worry about how the colors will combine and if they’ll get muddied.  With self striping, it’s more simple colorways sitting next to one another.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I’m definitely neurodivergent, and I knew I had the right mindset to tackle the repetitive and “boring” parts of self striping and to make the process efficient for me and my work space.  That being said, there’s lots of extra hands on labor that goes into warping each skein into a loop the size of a modest living room, separating it into lengths that will be the right size stripe, dyeing that unwieldy octopus of a skein, drying it, and winding it up by hand.

My small town independent postal shop knows me as the weird yarn gal who only comes in when I have to ship yarn balls to Salem and that makes me super proud of my life choices.

Thanks so much for doing this interview with me, I’m so excited to have my yarns in your shop and to see you again for Fiber Witch Festival 2026!  I’m already dreaming up an ocean themed self striping colorway for all the sea witches and sirens who will be there!

Witch, Please is our exclusive Circle of Stitches x Valkyrie Fibers collab! This super fun self-striping yarn was inspired by traditional Halloween colors and striped witch stocking, and knits up in even stripes of black, gray, acid green, and purple. Don't miss out on this gorgeous colorway! Available in Matte Sock and BFL Sock.