Our Adventure


Six years ago I took a chance and left my career of working twenty years in financial institutions to work with my husband Jon in his family fiber mill Zeilinger Wool Company.  My husband and I were close to being due to have our fourth child and I had a high stress career doing project management with a side gig as a program director for a small software company.  His family owned a fiber mill and we knew someday I would have to join him if we wanted to carry on that family legacy.  In the year 2020, our family will accomplish 110 years processing natural fibers.  Once I had joined the team, I knew I had to learn what this business was all about.  I learned needle felting, wet felting, spinning on a drop spindle, knitting and dyeing yarn.  I loved all of this.  Knitting has become the thing I love the most.  The community of people, the creativity and colors.  I am in love with it all. 

Our kids have enjoyed watching me try all these different things with wool, my teenagers adopted the name for me "The Weird Wool Lady".  Our daughter Ella Rose was very intrigued, her and I have done several of the projects together.  When it came to knitting, we would spend hours a week looking at yarn.  We would talk about our favorite colorways and what we could make from it.  Finally it hit me.  Why am I not creating this for our business?  We spin wool into yarn.  I love knitting so much.  Ella loves knitting.  It just made sense.  I tossed around several ideas and in conclusion I knew it had to be something close to our hearts and something fun.

Food is what brings people together.  I grew up in a big family.  My Dad having 6 siblings and my Mother having 9, holiday events were filled with family and food!  My Dad's family is of Polish/Hungarian heritage and my Mother's is of Mexican heritage.  My childhood was filled with REALLY great food.  This all was brought out when I had to answer the question "why am I doing this"?  I am doing it for our family and the preservation of not only my husband's family legacy but also mine.  Teaching my children that our world is beautiful in diversity and the different traditions of the people that live in it.     

Our hope is that you find Foodie Yarn as fun as we do.  Each collection will offer you a yarn dyed like the food it represents.  It will be spun by our family fiber mill Zeilinger Wool Company every time putting our years of experience working with wool into every collection we offer.  It will be completely 100% American Made.  It will be creatively thought of and executed with the idea of having fun while knitting!

Be well, 

April, Jon & Family