Lori Patterson

Lori Patterson is an indie dyer, spinner, and owner of Abstract Fiber, based in Portland, Oregon, USA. Together with her husband Lew, Lori took over the business in 2018 and along with running the online business, she hand-dyes Abstract Fiber's yarn in her garage turned home studio: relieved to be enjoying such a short commute to work.

Lori describes hand-dyeing as a 'slow, peaceful, reflective process', one that leads to the creation of some intense colourways, and it enables her to breathe life into each hand-painted skein or hank of unspun fibre. In her own words 'I have a formula for each colourway but one day there may be a little more blue, another day more purple, you never know. That's the thing about independent dyers, even though we have a list of colorways, no two pieces are exactly the same'. Every hank and skein has its unique beauty and although there are occasionally 'mistakes', each one is a unique work of art.

Likening the experience to seeing a favourite musician in concert as opposed to hearing them on vinyl she says, 'You get something a little bit different every time and the surprise is what makes it worth it'.