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With a passion for sustainable yarn and a deep connection to color, Megan Granger hopes to inspire others to choose domestic wool.
Debbie Blair8 min read
Megs & Co is known for vibrant, jewel-toned hues on squishy skeins, and dyer and owner Megan Granger has been working to expand her offerings by adding local fibers grown in her home state of New York. After much searching and sampling, her efforts led to the Megs & Co collection of Empire Estate yarns.
I recently sat down with Megan to learn more about how she discovered her true passion by merging her love of art and science, how color drives her creative process, and how she both works with and supports local farmers.
Farm & Fiber Knits: We were excited to see that Megs & Co. is “celebrating the beauty of domestic wool” and using US-grown wool and wool grown in New York where you are based. What has that journey been like?
Megan Granger: This journey is one I truly wish I had started sooner—it has been, and continues to be, an invaluable learning experience. Having my own custom yarn line has always been a dream of mine, especially one with deep roots close to home. But to my surprise, finding bulk domestic—and especially local—wool yarn turned out to be much harder than I expected. Honestly, I had started to give up . . . and then the yarn found me.
It all began when I signed up for a spinning class at my local weaving guild. It turned out to be pure kismet because, unbeknownst to me, the instructor also happened to be a master wool grader and someone who worked directly with local wool producers to connect them with buyers like me. She recognized my email address when I signed up, since it’s also my business name, and while I was excited to learn how to spin, she was waiting with some yarn in hand that she wanted me to try. That yarn ended up becoming Ellis, my very first New York State–sourced and spun yarn.
Working with Ellis was (and still is, as I’ve stashed plenty away for myself!) a true gift. It was unlike any other yarn I’d worked with before, both in the dye pots and on the needles. Its texture is hard to describe: it has an incredible amount of character and a satisfying hand, yet once knitted, it creates a soft, airy, and bouncy fabric.
About a year later, my “wool liaison,” as I like to call her now, let me know she was heading back to the same farm where she had sourced the Rambouillet wool used for Ellis. She asked if I’d be interested in commissioning my own custom spin and, of course, my answer was an instant “yes.” That’s when the real journey began. Or rather, a whole lot of waiting began!
After the spring shearing, the fleeces were collected and delivered to Battenkill Fibers, the mill that would spin the yarn. With so few mills available to small farms and businesses like mine, wait times are long. It wasn’t until the following spring, in 2024, that we even started discussing the specifications for the spin.
Megan wears her Maxine Sweater, knitted in the first yarn she had spun at Battenkill Fibers.
Having worked with Ellis, which is a very light fingering weight (almost laceweight), I knew this fiber had incredible elasticity and strength while still being soft. I trusted the experts at Battenkill Fibers but shared my vision for a heavy sport- to light DK-weight yarn, perfect for sweater knitting. The result was truly spectacular, and you can bet I didn’t hesitate to cast on my first sweater—the Maxine Sweater by Laura Penrose, and I loved every stitch!
I named this new yarn Empire Estate, a nod to New York, known as the "Empire State," and to the many wineries, often called estates, that fill the Finger Lakes region where I live. I often compare my New York State yarns to vintage wines because, like wine, each shearing and spin produces a yarn that’s unique to that season—similar year after year but never quite the same.
I’m incredibly proud that we were able to keep the entire production of this yarn within New York State. The fiber comes from Elly’s Acres Farm in central New York, it was spun by Battenkill Fibers in Greenwich, and hand-dyed by me in Rochester. The short distance this yarn traveled on its journey makes it the most sustainable yarn I’ve ever had the opportunity to source. And the fact that it’s also an incredibly beautiful and unique yarn makes it even better.
By working with a local farm and mill, Megan was able to produce her most sustainable yarn to date.
This project has opened my eyes to the challenges our domestic wool and textile industry are facing. Wool producers are struggling to find buyers for their products, and there simply aren’t enough mills to spin the fleece into yarn to keep up with demand.
The more I learn, the more passionate I become about the importance of supporting this industry. I believe that starts by sharing my experience and knowledge with my audience, hoping to inspire them to get just as excited as I am—not only about high-quality, local yarn but also about the opportunity to make a real difference simply by choosing domestic wool.
FFK: You mention the fact that few things get you as excited as pushing the boundaries between art and science on your website. What does this look like in your work?
MG: Growing up, especially during high school and college, it always felt like students had to choose between art and science. You were either into math and science, or you were artistic. I always felt drawn to both, but I never really saw myself as artistic since I couldn’t draw or work with the traditional art mediums taught in school. On top of that, having chosen a path in science and engineering, there didn’t seem to be an easy way to combine the two—at least not within the academic track I was following.
Discovering fiber art felt like coming home. It’s the perfect balance of art, math, science, and engineering. It offers a unique creative outlet where you can explore shapes, colors, and textures in a beautifully structured, mathematical way.
Yarn dyeing takes that balance to the next level. It’s like that advanced chemistry class you ended up loving because the experiments were just so much fun. Yarn dying has shown me that this is in fact art, just not with paintbrushes and canvas—you’re painting with fiber and dye, controlling color through the manipulation of heat and pH.
FFK: It’s so fun to see beautiful farm yarns in your signature vibrant colors. As you have expanded into using different bases, has it impacted your dyeing process?
MG: From the very beginning, when I dyed my first skein of Ellis, it was important to me that introducing a new yarn didn’t mean my brand or aesthetic had to change. I’ve always had a very specific color palette, and if you take a quick glance at my website or Instagram, it’s pretty obvious: I can never have too much magenta, purple, or teal (and, of course, everything needs a side of mustard). Trust me, mustard goes with everything! Saturated jewel tones are my jam. The yarn can be amazing, but it still needs to come in colors I want to knit with, and, even more importantly, wear. Otherwise, it’s just going to sit in my stash. And that’s the opposite of sustainable.
I’ll admit, my very first skein of Ellis, to quote Bob Ross, was definitely a “happy little accident.” It was ugly—really ugly. At a total loss for what to do with this unfortunate little thing, I just kept adding what I hoped was enough blue to bury the original mess. The result? 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a deep, murky teal-blue that, years later, is still one of my best sellers. I even hid a little joke in the name, a nod to the “mistake” that turned into something truly beautiful.
10,000 Leagues Under the Sea is an example of Meg’s persistence in working with a color until it’s just right.
During the first few years of my yarn-dyeing journey, I focused almost exclusively on highly speckled and variegated colorways on superwash Merino wool. The superwash treatment not only makes the yarn heat-resistant but also smooths the scales along the fiber’s shaft. This combination makes superwash yarn a dyer’s dream—it absorbs dye quickly and often produces brighter, more vibrant colors compared to non-superwash yarn. It also allows for those crisp, defined speckles that I absolutely love.
Venturing into non-superwash yarns has been a wonderful challenge, pushing me outside my comfort zone. It’s encouraged me to explore alternative dye techniques and expand my collection with more tonal colorways. Interestingly, because I developed many of these techniques on non-superwash yarn, I now find it more difficult to achieve the same rich, saturated colors on superwash—the yarn takes the dye so quickly that it’s harder to control! That’s often why the colors dyed on my Empire Estate yarn are unique to that yarn. They were developed specifically for that fiber.
FFK: Do you have a favorite colorway and domestic base combo that you’ve dyed?
MG: I always find questions like this so unfair because it’s so hard to choose just one! Color drives my entire creative process—the constant exploration and discovery of new depths and shades is what excites me the most. As I experiment, I build a deep connection with each and every color that comes out of the dye pan. Every batch feels like a reflection of my story or mood in color form, so my favorite is usually whatever I’ve dyed most recently. Right now, that’s Midnight Fig and Emerald Dream Forest. Both are dark, moody shades with magical, hidden depths that reveal themselves when you take a closer look.
At the moment, I’m working on a cardigan using my Midnight Fig colorway, which is actually a test knit for an upcoming pattern by Alicia Plummer. I can already tell this piece is going to be incredibly versatile. The warm undertones, which sometimes read as brown, make the colorway neutral enough to pair with much of my existing wardrobe, while the strong purple adds just the right pop of color.
Click on an image below to view it in full-screen mode.
Next up in my knitting queue is Emerald Dream Forest, a color I spent quite a while perfecting. I wanted a green so rich and deep it felt like it was wrapping you in the scent of pine. Aside from a quick hat using the doodle motifs from the Winter Doodle Sweater by Jamie Lomax, I haven’t started anything major with it yet. But I’ve got a few skeins caked up and ready to go!
Click on an image below to view it in full-screen mode.
FFK: Where can we find you online?
MG: I love connecting with my community, whether it is locally or virtually, so if you have questions or want to share what you are working on, please find me online and let’s get crafty! I am most active on Instagram @megsandco_yarn, and I recently started a YouTube channel, @megsandco, where I share yarn-dyeing tutorials and talk about my current projects.
You can also find Megs and Co at the following:
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