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Westknits
Meet our third YAL 2026 Dyer: Layla from Qing Fibre!
Our third colour adventurer on this year’s YAL journey is Qing Fibre!
We’ve always loved Layla’s bold, rebellious approach to colour. Over the years, we’ve collaborated on many of Stephen’s classic designs, and her colours, born from a spirit of exploration, made her the perfect choice to create shades for a knitting adventure.
Her hand-dyeing begins with painterly practices and inspiration drawn from unexpected themes and stories she feels deeply connected to. Each shade standing beautifully on its own, yet when paired together, tell a vivid story of the place or moment that sparked them.
Now it’s time to step into her world and discover the story behind her July YAL colour palettes:
When Stephen first shared the YAL direction, I started my journey with very simple test dips, soft teals, soft purples, just seeing what felt good. That’s where Driftglass and Sea Mist came from, then I ventured deeper and that's when the moodier shades, Spell and Dark Amethyst appeared from the shadows.
A little later, we stumbled across the Choose Your Own Adventure book covers, and that pulled everything together. It reminded me of how I used to choose books by colour alone, and suddenly the naming fell into place too, we ended up with four names that fit perfectly into the adventure theme.
By the end, the colours had sorted themselves into two families: the sea-light teals and the deeper purples. Without planning it, they echoed the two big directions we explored last year - our H/S25 Whispers of the Deep Sea palette on one side, and our A/W25 Folklore palette on the other. It made this YAL bundle feel like an unexpected bridge between where our colour story has been and where it’s heading next.