What is
The Knitwit Stable?

The Knitwit Stable is the name of the farm and knitting studio owned and run by Reina Ovinge. After a 20-year career in fashion as a buyer and producer, a trip to China in 2013 sparked her idea to initiate a positive contribution to the industry. During her years in fashion she had only seen the industry grow bigger, faster, cheaper, and less fair. The effort, labour, and pollution that is required to produce a €19.95 sweater is mostly invisible to the consumer. It’s clear that fashion’s current system is outdated and harmful to people, animals, and the planet.

Reina strongly believes that creating insight and transparency is an important step towards a more sustainable production system for fashion. She puts this into practice on her own farm and knitting studio, where the entire production chain of wool has been made visible. The Knitwit Stable aims to consult, inform, and facilitate businesses and fashion professionals this way. From animal friendly farming, to sustainable production and processing of the material, to supply chain analysis and communication; all these topics are discussed in workshops and lectures. The Knitwit Stable also partners up with likeminded businesses, makers, and designers. Studying the production and use of sustainable (mohair) wool in places such as South Africa and Italy has taught Reina valuable lessons on the matter. She now breeds her own angora goats and merino sheep. Their furs are made into sustainable yarns and end products on the various knitting machines in the studio. Together with her colleagues, Reina works every day to bring sustainable wool a bit closer. In doing so they want to restore wool’s reputation as a fantastically versatile and renewable material.

Erica

Knitting specialist, support with masterclass

I’ve been working at The Knitwit Stable since 2019. It’s a place where I feel at home and where many of my passions intertwine: nature, animals, sustainability, and creativity! If you are taking a master class with us, I’ll help you get started with our knitting machines. When you order a sweater, I’m the one who makes it for you. For my own brand I make soft, colourful products from modern knitting motives and natural structures that I translate into patterns and later process with the knitting machines.

Hanneke

Knitting specialist, support with masterclass

I’m a knitwear designer. I work for several designers and artists and I manage, organize, and develop various knitting projects. I also teach courses in machine knitting. At the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht I teach part of their ‘designlab’ course, in which we explore wire and construction with students of the school’s Product Design, Fashion Design, and Spatial Design students.

Cees

Support sheep and goats

Cees originally joined The Knitwit Stable to help Reina take care of the animals. He started doing more and more for us around the farm and grew an interest in the various processes. By now Cees is simply part of the Knitwit family.