Meet Katy Turbeville

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katy Turbeville a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Katy, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

I have had lots of trouble with imposter syndrome. I am a self-taught knitter and unlikely entrepreneur, so it has been hard to see myself in an influential role. So, beginning with our brick and mortar yarn shop in Muncie, Indiana it was the community of the crafters around me encouraging me to try new things, and looking to me for guidance for their own questions and projects. The more I heard our patrons valuing my advice, the more confidence I gained. I definitely still struggle with feeling that I am worthy of my role, but my community, online and at the yarn shops and festivals we visit, continue to reinforce the idea that I am not an imposter and I have a powerful voice. I have taken it a step further with Yarn Adventure Truck by encouraging our vendors (small batch, independent dyers) that they are also worthy, and not imposters.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Have you ever had that dream where your local yarn shop is suddenly on your street and stocked with hand-dyed Yarns from small businesses across the US? I had that dream and decided to make it a reality. Yarn Adventure is a mobile yarn shop that travels the country, bringing small batch, hand-dyed Yarns and bespoke notions and accessories for fiber crafters. I started knitting in 2010 and dove headfirst into the fiber community pretty early. Starting with visiting yarn shops on road trips, then teaching knitting classes, and eventually a brick and mortar yarn shop in Muncie, Indiana. Having an everyday shop taught me two things; that I loved fiber arts, and I loved traveling with my husband, Dean. In 2017, we moved back to Arkansas and I got out of the brick and mortar yarn business. By the time 2021 rolled around, the ideas for our mobile yarn shop, Yarn Adventure were taking shape. We started off in an airport shuttle bus that we had stripped down and outfitted as a yarn store. We then filled it with luxury hand-dyed yarns from more than 30 Independent dye studios, as well as handmade bags, knitting needles, fiber notions, enamel pins, and stickers all from US based small businesses. The yarn truck was very full when we first set out on the road. In the first three and a half years we traveled more than 80,000 miles, attended dozens of fiber festivals, yarn shops, and local pop-up events with fiber guilds and groups. This spring, my husband left his job and joined me full time on the road in the yarn truck. We have converted an RV so that we can live and work in our space year round. We often get asked if we’re like the ice cream truck for yarn and I have to say yes, but we don’t play music driving down your street (although there are speakers on the outside of the truck now). You just have to look out on Instagram, Facebook, or our website to see where we are heading next. We cover quite a bit of ground, traveling to events in 24 states just in the last 6 months. We love being able to highlight our makers, and bring new people to the fiber community wherever we travel!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The biggest impactful quality would be communication. With our business model, I have to communicate effectively with dozens of other small business owners, thousands of customers, and my husband Dean. These types of communication are vastly different, but also related to each other through fiber arts.

Another quality is patience, especially related to teaching others. I taught elementary special education prior to my life in fiber arts, and I use the skills I learned in education when teaching my fiber arts students, teaching customers about a product, or other business owners through consulting.

Lastly, adaptation is something that I have had to hone over the years as I learned more about what I wanted out of my business and my personal life. When I opened a brick and mortar yarn shop, I realized that I did not want to be tied down to one place, so I created a business model that allowed me to travel with my husband full-time while having a business that I love. Switching gears like this required (and still requires) lots of adaptation, from the big-picture decisions of scheduling and logistics, to the everyday adaptations when things breakdown or events change. I think fiber arts businesses in general have to be adaptable because the industry as a whole is always changing. What works now may not work next year or three years from now.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I am always looking for yarn dyers, Local Yarn Shops, knitting/crochet guilds, or anyone interested in fiber arts to collaborate with the Yarn Adventure Truck. Our entire business is built on collaboration with yarn dyers and other makers, and we love to be able to feature these makers at events across the US. If you have a place where folks who love yarn gather, then we would love to bring the Yarn Adventure Truck to you! We have a collaboration tab on our website (www.yarnadventuretruck.com), and you can always message us on Facebook or Instagram (@yarnadventuretruck).

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