{{Short description|American textile artist}} '''Adella Colvin''' is an American yarn dyer.

== Career == Colvin first began knitting at 34, at the suggestion of an older neighbor after her husband was deployed to Afghanistan and Colvin wanted to find a hobby.<ref name="feldmanBLOOMBERG22oct2020">{{Cite web|last=Feldman|first=Loren|date=22 October 2020|title=A Black Dyer Shakes Up the White-Dominated Yarn Industry|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-22/small-business-black-owned-yarn-stores-are-shaking-up-the-industry|access-date=2021-12-11|website=Bloomberg News|archive-date=2021-07-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210702214306/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-22/small-business-black-owned-yarn-stores-are-shaking-up-the-industry|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="terryCRAFTMANSHIP19mar2021" /> The two visited a yarn shop together, and Colvin was impressed with the quality of the yarn.<ref name="terryCRAFTMANSHIP19mar2021" /> When Colvin, who is Black, entered a yarn shop for the first time without her neighbor, who is white, the white owner of the shop met her at the door and told her the restroom was only for customers.<ref name="feldmanBLOOMBERG22oct2020" /><ref name="terryCRAFTMANSHIP19mar2021" /> Colvin left and decided to shop online and soon became interested in dyeing her own yarn.<ref name="feldmanBLOOMBERG22oct2020" />

When other knitters became interested in her hand-dyes, she opened an Etsy shop in 2015, electing not to use her photo in the shop's profile due to concerns about perceptions in the majority white knitting community that products by Black artisans were inferior.<ref name="feldmanBLOOMBERG22oct2020" /> Her daughter, nicknamed LolaBean, was born in 2016, and Colvin, "thinking about the legacy she was building," decided to rebrand, naming her business after her daughter and having a logo professionally designed featuring an image of the baby, who is portrayed as clearly Black.<ref name="feldmanBLOOMBERG22oct2020" /><ref name="terryCRAFTMANSHIP19mar2021" /> In 2017 Colvin was featured by knitting influencer Gaye Glasspie, which brought Colvin to the attention of yarn shop owners and knitters nationwide.<ref name="feldmanBLOOMBERG22oct2020" /> In 2019 Glasspie, who is known as GG, introduced Colvin to Felicia Eve, one of the few Black yarn shop owners in the US, and Eve gave Colvin a trunk show, which sold out.<ref name="feldmanBLOOMBERG22oct2020" />

Colvin has collaborated with Stephen West, a pattern designer who created a pattern for a custom colorway of LolaBean's.<ref name="terryCRAFTMANSHIP19mar2021" />

During the George Floyd protests, when there were images of white protesters standing between police and Black protesters, GG started a hashtag, #StandintheGap, that encouraged white people to "offer that kind of protection in everyday life," and Colvin's wholesale accounts went from 1 to 30 with a waiting list as of October 2020 of more than 70.<ref name="feldmanBLOOMBERG22oct2020" />

As of October 2020 Colvin's yarns were carried by yarn shops throughout the US.<ref name="feldmanBLOOMBERG22oct2020" />

== Social media presence == In November 2021, knitting influencer Kristy Glass posted questions on her Instagram about why Michelle Obama, who'd been featured on that month's cover of ''Vogue Knitting'', wasn't photographed in knitwear and appeared to have her wedding ring on her right hand.<ref name="shugermanBEAST11dec2021">{{Cite news|last=Shugerman|first=Emily|date=2021-12-11|title=The Racism Drama Unraveling the Knitting World|language=en|work=The Daily Beast|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/kristy-glass-and-the-racism-drama-unraveling-the-knitting-world|access-date=2021-12-11}}</ref> ''Vogue'' had featured "only a handful" of Black knitters on its cover in almost 90 years, and many Black knitters found the questions hypercritical.<ref name="shugermanBEAST11dec2021" /> Colvin posted a response on her own Instagram that such comments emphasized the fact the knitting community was predominantly white and made Black people feel hyperscrutinized.<ref name="shugermanBEAST11dec2021" /> Glass responded by posting a series of direct messages she'd had with Colvin with the caption, "For the record."<ref name="shugermanBEAST11dec2021" /> Colvin responded with "You post those DMs thinking they're supposed to hurt me but have your comments restricted where nobody can comment?", and called Glass a racist.<ref name="shugermanBEAST11dec2021" /> Glass soon closed her social media accounts.<ref name="shugermanBEAST11dec2021" /> A knitting influencer whose handle is Deplorable Knitter, who posts to a YouTube channel called Politically Incorrect Knitters, accused Colvin of "raising profit off controversy."<ref name="shugermanBEAST11dec2021" /> In the wake of the incident Colvin cancelled her recent wholesale orders and planned to investigate her suppliers and the outlets for her products more closely to determine "which are actually committed to racial justice and which are only paying it lip service."<ref name="shugermanBEAST11dec2021" />

== Personal life == Colvin is African-American and Puerto Rican.<ref name="terryCRAFTMANSHIP19mar2021" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Adella Colvin|url=https://bipocinfiber.com/listings/adella-colvin/|access-date=2021-12-11|website=BIPOC in Fiber|language=en-GB|archive-date=2021-12-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211211221312/https://bipocinfiber.com/listings/adella-colvin/|url-status=live}}</ref> She is originally from New York City.<ref name="terryCRAFTMANSHIP19mar2021">{{Cite web|last=Terry|first=Ruth|date=19 March 2021|title=When Life Handed Her Yarn, Adella Colvin Spun a Bright Future|url=https://craftsmanship.net/field-notes/adella_colvin_lolabeanyarnco/|access-date=2021-12-11|website=The Craftsmanship Initiative|language=en-US|archive-date=2021-12-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211211192805/https://craftsmanship.net/field-notes/adella_colvin_lolabeanyarnco/|url-status=live}}</ref> She is married and lives in Grovetown, Georgia with her husband, an Army veteran who works in cybersecurity.<ref name="terryCRAFTMANSHIP19mar2021" /><ref name="feldmanBLOOMBERG22oct2020" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Amin|first=Anais|date=2021-11-11|title=For one self-starter, a bad experience spun a new business venture|url=https://www.marketplace.org/2021/11/11/spinning-a-yarn-business-out-of-adversity/|access-date=2021-12-11|website=Marketplace|language=en-US}}</ref> She has a daughter born in 2016 and two stepchildren.<ref name="feldmanBLOOMBERG22oct2020" /><ref name="terryCRAFTMANSHIP19mar2021" />

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colvin, Adella}} Category:American textile designers Category:21st-century African-American artists Category:American people of Puerto Rican descent Category:American people in knitting Category:Businesspeople from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Businesspeople from New York City Category:Artists from New York City Category:Textile artists from New York (state) Category:21st-century American textile artists Category:21st-century American women artists Category:Textile artists from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people)