German gems

Rachel Atkinson meets fellow yarn producer Danica Mäder Jully, who specialises in German native sheep breeds

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I MET Danica Mäder Jully, owner of German-based yarn company, Nature’s Luxury, at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival in 2016. I was there to launch my yarn brand, Daughter of a Shepherd – and it turned out we had a lot in common when it came to treasuring and preserving the value of our native sheep breeds…

Rachel: Did you grow up with yarn, or was it something you came to later?

Danica: As a child, my mother knitted for my brothers and me. She never used a pattern, but her sweaters always fitted well and looked great. I was born and raised in Switzerland, where knitting classes were part of school education. It wasn’t something I liked at the time; in fact, my aunt used to do my knitting assignments for me! However, as a teenager I started knitting passionately and continued throughout my studies, having left Switzerland to attend the Jewellery Manufacturing and Design school in Pforzheim, Germany, before going on to graduate as a gemmologist from the Gemmological Institute of America in Los Angeles.

How did Nature’s Luxury come to be?