KAOS Yarn: Playing with colours
The colours we wear, knit or sew with can have a significant impact on our emotional well-being. This is what Pia Bojer Larsen of KAOS Yarn realised when she hand dyed green, pink or blue yarns on different days and her mood changed accordingly. Nowadays, her products are professionally spun and dyed in Peru and KAOS Yarn has become known and loved for its graphic and vivid colours.
KAOS Yarn’s concept is strongly rooted in colour psychology, which is the study of how colours affect our behaviour, mood and impression on others. According to this, all colours have certain qualities or emotions people connect to them. For Pia, it felt just right to create a passionate red, bubbly pink or generous green.
Pia is wearing the Kaktus scarf in Chunky Andean Wool (colour: Passionate).
Why we wear the colours we wear
Ever since moving to Copenhagen two years ago, I found myself wearing more black. I thought this might be just me adapting to the style I see around me, but Pia tells me: “There is a lot of confidence in the black colour. And it’s a colour that we use when life is a bit shaky. Because colours can be overstimulating.”
There are no ‘wrong colours’. Pia explains that all colours have positives and negatives, which can be viewed as a spectrum. According to colour religion, for example, beige and brown might represent ‘the enemy’ but they are also calm, relaxing and grounding colours. Like with everything in life: It is about balance.
KAOS Yarn’s Chunky Andean Wool is made up of 100% Peruvian highland wool and comes in 30 colours.
Giving power to the knitter
Pia Bojer Larsen of KAOS Yarn discovered the impact of colour by stepping outside of her comfort zone.
Pia’s journey started in 2017, when she hand dyed yarn in her garage to sell at Danish knitting festivals and online. But her passion was not “having my fingers in the pots”, as she describes it. While hand dyed yarn is more organic and colour combinations are more free-flowing, she wants to give the knitter the power to achieve the project exactly how they envisage it.
At the same time, Pia was also on her own journey of personal development. She tells me about a time she dared - or almost forced herself - to wear a bright pink jumper to the butcher shop. Getting five compliments from the usually so reserved Danes (strangers) in the span of 15 minutes really opened her mind to the impact our clothes and colours we choose to wear have.
Relationship of trust with spinning mill
By the end of 2019, Pia made the switch from hand dyeing to working with a spinning mill in Peru. For her, the way the professional relationship with her partners in Peru unfolded was very important. From the start, they had a relationship based on mutual trust and honesty, where both parties feel comfortable to say no but equally bounce ideas off each other. Creating a new yarn base with her mill, Pia describes as: „It’s wonderful that they want to play with me!”
Pia trusts her intuition and her high emotional intelligence plays a major part in how she takes decisions for her business. It might be different to how the majority of companies are run but the most important is that it feels aligned to her.
“It’s wonderful that they want to play with me!”
Sustainability is central
KAOS Yarn’s Organic Soft Merino originates in Argentina and comes in 30 colours.
Pia and I also connect over our shared love for natural fibres. „I have always been attracted to natural materials. I just love the texture and the smell of it. There is just something really soothing about having that woolly texture in your hands.“
Working with natural materials, like wool, is almost a sensual experience. It touches our senses in a different way than mass-produced plastic ever could. As Pia put it: „There is some love and life in it. I can’t explain but you can just feel it.“
It comes as no surprise then that Pia values sustainable production and bio-degradable products and wholeheartedly cares about animal and workers’ welfare. However, she has realised that certifications are not the be-all-end-all and a small business like KAOS Yarns needs to balance the cost of certificates with the affordability of the end product. What is most important to her is that the production and processes adhere to her values.
What’s on Pia’s To-Knit-Lists?
WestKnit’s Squaradiance Shawl
Kiss dress (instructions for how to turn the Kiss Sweater into a dress forthcoming)
Kiss Sweater Light with stripes using Skinny Andean Wool
Playful colour psychology
Pia has always been the creative and playful type. She found that colours not only have an impact on her mood but also let her express it. Through personal development, she discovered that the link between her love for playing with colours and her emotions was colour psychology. Exploring and sharing this through a natural material, such as wool, aligns with everything she stands for, which is why KAOS Yarn feels so genuine. Pia’s products shine through her and she shines through her products.
Drawing from her own experience, Pia ends with colourful advice: “Don’t make yourself small. Be bold and see where it leads you.” I agree! Wear the strong orange, if it makes you fierce. Knit with a soft beige, when you feel nostalgic. And go for the gorgeous blue to highlight your electric nature.
“Don’t make yourself small. Be bold and see where it leads you!”