Great Northern Yarns principal and founder, Craig Turner, is an admitted materials geek who was born with an entrepreneurial spirit. His background is in performance outdoor/athletic apparel and footwear design. He has worked for leading global brands, developing products in the Far East and Europe since 1990; carving out three years in the early 2000's to teach and work with the blind and visually impaired. His expertise in developing new authentic product lines – designs that really worked (not just made to look so) – ultimately led to the creation of our signature mink cashmere yarn. Utilizing his network in the Far East he developed a blended knitting yarn consisting of 70% mink and 30% cashmere fibers. Mink fibers are unparalleled for their luster, softness and desirability. In August 2008, working with the owner of a cashmere farm/spinning mill and an expert textile technician – after days of trial and error they finally arrived at the perfect percentage of mink and cashmere fiber yielding the ultimate blend of softness, texture and durability.

Craig Turner "bet the farm" taking out a loan to purchase the fiber and spin the first run of mink cashmere yarn and founded Great Northern Yarns. Craig works tirelessly to bring the best mink/cashmere to the market.  It, too, is a family business, and Craig's 10 year old daughter often helps with packaging, and even helping with naming the colors!

The mink fibers are just long enough when blended with a slightly longer stabilizing fiber like cashmere for these two luxury fibers to be spun and plied into an extremely soft and lightweight knitting yarn. The mink and cashmere fibers have similar micron thicknesses and are wonderfully compatible. The minks are not harmed in any way; they are sheared once a year, just like a sheep, in the warm summer months to harvest their treasure of superfine down. The mink and cashmere fibers are woolen spun (a spinning technique where the fibers go every which way) leveraging the fibers' natural lightweight insulating properties by trapping more air and creating a yarn with a signature "halo" that is exceedingly lightweight, soft and warm – a yarn you want to pet.

 The resulting yarn has been compared to the finest luxury knitting yarns in the world. Craig Turner formed a partnership with the owner of the  same small, family-run cashmere farm/spinning mill in the Western part of Inner Mongolia where the mink cashmere yarn was developed. GNY is now in the process of expanding its product line and is always on the lookout for the new and unusual. Our yarns are still sourced out of the same small  family-run mill. The capacity is small and the lead-times are occasionally extended but the quality is outstanding. It's very important to us that our yarns are not only animal friendly, but environmentally friendly as well. Our yarns are top dyed using environmentally friendly dyes. The fibers are dyed before carding and spinning. The resulting colors are deeper and richer with greater color saturation – there is no variation between dye lots.

We don't wholesale; instead we choose to sell directly to knitters right here on our website. We make every effort to keep our prices low. We have a bare-bones operating budget and spend almost nothing on advertising. Instead we choose to form a unique partnership with our customers encouraging them to share their experiences. Everyone benefits with this symbiotic relationship and thankfully we can pass the savings directly to the knitter.