#8 Someone Else: Rachel Bratcher
A monthly feature of Some Sundays! Plus a very good outfit recipe, another vote for digital planners, and Portland's hottest fiber festival is Sacred Sheep...
Someone Else is a new feature of Some Sundays: Once a month, I ask people I really like and am inspired by some questions about what they like and are inspired by. 🙂
Rachel Bratcher is the owner of Ritual Dyes yarn shop and dye studio and the creative force behind Portland’s Sacred Sheep fiber festival.
I first met Rachel when our kids were still small, at a local yarn shop (RIP Happy Knits). I couldn’t take my eyes off of this fluffy, violet-specked-with-yellow yarn she was knitting with — and she had dyed it herself in her kitchen!
Fast forward to now and Rachel’s moved out of her kitchen and into a beautiful brick & mortar in SE Portland. Ritual Dyes is stocked with her line of yarn — inspired by the PNW, nostalgia, and daydreaming — and many, thoughtfully-curated others.
It’s lucky (and dangerous) that her shop is just a few blocks away from my house and I love to pop over for inspiration, buttons, yarn for a new project or help with the one I’m stuck on. She even has a little free fiber library out front where I’ve scored a skein or two!
Today she shares a favorite outfit recipe, what she loves about parenting teens, and her thoughts on the importance of trying new things. This one’s a treat!
An article of clothing you own multiples of.
This H&M tank top. It is such a good thickness and shape. I own every color they make and they are a solid basic that work with everything in my wardrobe. I typically layer them under an oversized button-down. This is my go-to outfit when I’m pressed for time.
Favorite outfit to wear to a fiber festival.
The priority here is the handmade sweater! Any time I’m building an outfit, I start with the one featured piece I know I want to wear and work the rest of the garments around that piece.
For me, I’d pick one of my boxy, pullover-style wooly sweaters (preferably a mohair one!) and pair it with wide leg jeans and boots.
Recent good read.
I am a mega Sally Rooney fan and am just diving into the newest one, Intermezzo. If it is anything like the other books she’s written, it’s destined to be a new favorite!
I also just finished up Hello Beautiful, which incorporates a few of my favorite themes: family stories that span long periods of time. Loved that one!
Thing that makes life easier.
Prioritizing self care and downtime. There are just always more things to do, but limiting the time that you do things has made that separation between work and life better.
I’m a big fan of daily planners and use a digital version on my iPad. It helps to set realistic goals for the week and prioritize just a few things in a day, keeping me feeling organized.
Something that surprised you about parenting teenagers.
It is actually so much more fun than I anticipated!
Parenting teenagers is less about doing all the things they need you to do for them (although that is still part of it), and more about watching them do all the things you dreamed they’d do. We’re enjoying traveling together more and spending time together in a different way.
Ideal knitting set-up.
In the summer, I’m parked at the beach at Sauvie Island. Under some tree coverage, with my favorite camping chair (fast to set up and light to carry) and blankets, dappled sunlight, and surrounded by snacks and bubbly beverages. My kids are there, and my friend with hers, sometimes extra friends too. The kids are so engrossed in their swimming and playing that it is the most blissful summer knitting ever.
I make a point of doing that as many times as possible throughout the summertime (especially when it’s supposed to be extra hot out!).
Favorite camping spot.
Our family’s favorite camping spot is up on Mt. Hood at Trillium Lake. We’ve been going every year for the past 12, and I think there’s something really special about returning to the same place year after year. We have incredible memories of paddling on the lake, cooking out in the woods, and playing cards together.
What this looks like has shifted over the years as the kids have gotten older, but there is something so grounding about relating to the same surroundings, but in a different way. Also camping with older kids is absolutely way more relaxing!
Favorite skincare product.
Right now it’s the Saie tinted sunscreen. It’s just a touch of corrective coverage, but also that essential daily sunscreen!
A hobby you picked up as an adult.
Knitting! This wasn’t something I did as a kid or was introduced to by anyone in my family. I learned originally through my LYS (local yarn shop) and have gained so many techniques along the way with practice, YouTube, and help from fellow makers.
I’ve also tried new sports as an adult (like roller derby!), which is both humbling and rewarding.
Favorite way to reset.
You can’t underestimate the healing properties of just taking a simple walk. I love taking solo walks up to Mt. Tabor to clear my head or get clarity on things I’ve been stewing about.
Current watch.
Right now, my husband Chip and I are watching Nobody Wants This. We’ve been craving something light and funny and this one is perfect to watch when you just need some easy entertainment.
Favorite fall treat.
Our family is all about the pies when the weather starts to turn cool. We’re long time patrons of Lauretta Jeans. They make the most delicious pies, and we like to purchase whole ones and bring them home when we can — I cannot tell you how many of their glass dishes we rack up in a season! 🫣
Biggest learning from being a small business owner.
You have to be flexible and always ready to pivot. Things are always shifting and what once worked doesn’t always continue to work.
I think one thing Ritual Dyes has done well is try new things. We’re about to put on our second year of Sacred Sheep, a Portland fiber festival celebrating our community and the makers of the PNW. This event is so special to me. We work very hard to put it on and it’s incredible to see our local fiber enthusiasts come together for it.
Sacred Sheep is held in November in SE PDX and has a vendor marketplace with local makers, food & drink, classes, meet-ups, a big community feel — so much going on in one weekend!
Current WIP (work-in-progress).
I have a Kinsan on the needles, from Kiyomi and Sachiko Burgin. I’m using Mominoki German Merino Light (LOVE!!).
I got to see Sacred Sheep in action last year (I’m excited to help run the classrooms again this year 😊), and the amount of care and creativity that gets poured into this event by the Ritual Dyes team is just spectacular. This fiber festival has everything: roving lambs, craft cocktails, flash tattoos, celebrity fiber artists, a warehouse full of gorgeous, hand dyed yarn. Some tickets are still available if you’re in Portland the weekend of November 2 & 3!
Although Ritual Dyes is a yarn shop, I’ve also discovered my favorite Olo fragrance here, the magic of burning vetiver, and a knitter’s backpack that isn’t just for knitting.
Rachel has the best taste and the shop vibrates with it: plants draped in sunny corners, warm wood, sheepskin-covered chairs to sink into. Everything is done with intentionality, from classes on craft to community gatherings.
She’s a true gem and we’re so fortunate to have her energy and vision making things happen in Portland! ❤️
⭕️ The Lopsided U.S. Political Spectrum This breakdown of why there are no “centrists” in America from
is clarifying.⭕️ Contemporary Literary Novels Are Haunted by the Absence of Money The unspoken thing that we all need (and all wonder about) wasn’t always skimmed over in literature. Why is it now?
⭕️ Some Country for Some Women “The self-sufficiency promoted by homesteading shares much with what it appears to abandon, because it rewards only some at the expense of others. The career woman, hoping to swap her pantsuit for a prairie dress, will likely find in her new role another version of the same oppressive labor relations. Though she may feel empowered, rather than exploited, by these very relations, she inescapably propagates the patriarchal and racist system that sustains them: by continuing an arrangement ultimately designed to ensure that wealth accumulates between generations; and by projecting this arrangement as fantasy, a romanticized portrait of the domestic labor and historical violence involved.” Read on here.
