RIVERKNITS
Many people dream of living a simpler life, escaping to the country or going travelling - and Becci Pamely-Bast of RiverKnits made that dream a reality, as Rosee Woodland discovers
Life on the river with handdyers Becci and Markus
ALTHOUGH SHE had achieved a successful career in engineering, Becci Pamely-Bast knew she needed something different, so eight years ago she bought a narrowboat to live on.
“I was working in the corporate world, and there is this kind of track that people expect your life to go down - you get a good job, you save up to get a deposit on a house and you maybe get married and have kids, and I just didn’t want to do that,” Becci explains. “I wanted to live a bit more of a simple life.”
Becci felt she wanted to be living a life that she enjoyed all of the time - “without a lot of the pressures of… I don’t want to say modern life, because I didn’t want to be a throwback,” she laughs. “I don’t want to go back and live in Victorian times or anything like that! But I just wanted a simpler, slower pace of life, and I’m very happy having few possessions. I love being out in the countryside, in nature.”
Not long after she bought the boat, Becci met Markus during a folk music session in a pub. At that time she had only been living on the boat for a few months, but Markus was sold on the idea straight away.
He was also intrigued by Becci’s love of knitting and crochet, and asked her to teach him - although it was something of an uphill battle, as Markus was determined to learn the Continental style of knitting that he’d remembered from his childhood in Germany, and Becci only knits in the English style!
Within two years the couple had married and had their son Bryn. At the time Markus, also a corporate engineer by training, still had a ‘normal’ job. But while she was on maternity leave Becci
started dyeing yarn and selling it through an online Etsy shop.
“I have two older children, but when Bryn was born I was definitely like ‘this is the last one!’” Becci says. “We wanted to just slow down and be able to be with
Bryn and travel, so we had an idea to do something craft-related [for work] that we could do on the boat in the beginning.”
A new start
When Becci was offered voluntary redundancy while still on maternity leave, the couple leapt at the chance to make their small yarn dyeing business a bigger concern. “Markus quit his job, and we agreed that if we hadn’t got the business off the ground after a year was up, then one or both of us would go back to work,” Becci says. “I think we had a big advantage because we both committed to RiverKnits full time.”
The couple began selling at yarn shows, but as interest grew they battled to make the business work in their unusually small space. Markus laughs: “We started to get wholesale orders from yarn shops and we did it all from the boat - that was mad!”
Becci continues: “There was this wonderful time we were moored at Tixall Wide in Staffordshire, and we had the first wholesale order for Tribe Yarns in London. We were trying to manage this massive box of yarn and needed to get it to the post office, which was a good walk away. We’d made friends with some boaters, who were moored next to us, and they were setting off, so they gave Markus a lift on their boat with this big box of yarn to take it to the post office! So there were lots of funny things like that.”
In March 2019 the couple got the keys to a studio near their mooring in Northamptonshire. During the pandemic they had to switch to trading solely online, but have since been able to open the space to sell yarn face-to-face to their keen customers.
These days, the RiverKnits brand is known for its confident use of colour, its mesmerising wall of rainbow minis, and its laser-focus on British breeds and sustainability. Even the packaging Becci and Markus use is recyclable.
Markus explains: “During the Covid-19 pandemic we switched all our yarn base to non-superwash, and everything is sourced, spun and dyed in the UK.”
Becci adds: “As we’ve got bigger, we’ve been able to have more control over our sourcing. It felt like taking a big risk, making that change to non-superwash yarn, but it got to the point where we could commission our own staple yarn.
“We love wool and we love the different breeds of wool. So we have Bluefaced
Leicester, Wensleydale, Jacob and a few other bits, and obviously we also love colour.”
So do they have a favourite colourway? Becci laughs: “Lots of dyers would say their favourite is their most recent colourway, but I have ones that are favourites because it’s the fibre that’s exciting, and others that are favourites because of the colour.
“Our Severn 4-ply is a single-farm yarn. Through a friend of a friend, we met a couple who keep a flock of Jacob sheep near the Malvern Hills. We go every year and collect their fleeces. They do all of their farming by hand - no tractors. They’ve got wonderful shire horses in the fields, and the land is just beautiful. We love to collaborate with people who have a similar approach, so working with them absolutely fits in with that.”
“I also really like our Aysgarth yarn, which is a Wensleydale, because that’s almost like the sheep’s answer to mohair. It’s got that lustre, but also that fluffy, fuzzy halo.
“And in terms of most exciting colour, I love our Chimera yarn. That’s a hand-dyed marl. It was really fun to envisage. It has also pushed me into doing more design, as I have to show people how to use the yarn.”
At the time of writing, Becci and Markus are hoping for more time with ‘real people’ as the latest lockdown slowly eases.
“We will open up more workshops and teaching and hopefully have a bit of a crafty hub here,” Becci says. There are other plans in the pipeline - currently top secret! - and new collaborations planned for the future. You can also catch Becci and Markus on Instagram @riverknitsuk, playing folk music and chatting during their Studio Sessions.
Given the slow speed of narrowboats, Becci and Markus don’t use their boat to get to yarn shows, travelling by van instead. But otherwise they hand-dye in the studio and live on the boat - taking time out to go travelling when the fancy takes them.
They’re based in Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire, near the Grand Union Canal, but keep your eyes peeled if you’re ever meandering along one of the hundreds of canal paths that snake around the UK, as you may just spot them!
– Discover more about RiverKnits online at www.riverknits.uk and on Instagram as @riverknitsuk
– The RiverKnits studio shop is usually open Tuesdays to Fridays from 10am to 4pm, and Saturdays from 10am to 3pm, but check the website for updates. – RiverKnits, Building 14, Royal Ordnance Depot, Bridge Street, Weedon Bec NN7 4PS 01327 342273