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OUR FAMILY

Koigu has been family owned and operated by the Landra women for over 30 years. Maie Landra and her daughter Taiu have worked together since the beginning to raise sheep, discover new creative ways to dye and knit, network with the yarn community and grow Koigu Wool Designs into the global brand it is today. With Maie graduating from the Ontario College of Art and Design and Taiu graduating with a degree in Agricultural Business, the duo have always had the perfect mix of expertise and passions. A third generation has joined the business with Taiu’s daughter, Kersti, growing up on the farm and taking on a role at Koigu as well.

Our Farm

Koigu Wool Designs has a history as bold and unique as the yarns and colors we produce. The farm that now serves as the Koigu headquarters near Chatsworth, ON was purchased by Maie and Harry Landra in 1972 and was named after our family’s ancestral home in Estonia. Without any previous experience, coming from Toronto, Maie and our family quickly fell in love with raising sheep and at the peak had a flock of over 200.

At first, all Koigu yarn came directly from our sheep as Maie and Taiu experimented with hand-dyeing small batches in their farmhouse kitchen. But soon enough demand for our unique colourful yarns took off and raising, shearing, and processing that much wool at our farm ourselves was simply not possible. As luck would have it, around this time a retired industrialist with a background in textiles came to visit the Koigu farm and put the Landras in touch with a reputable mill that would spin fine merino wool to specification. And so Koigu Premium Painter’s Palette Merino was born.

The woolshed was built in the early 2000s to accommodate Koigu’s growth. With 5500 square feet of space, it is a paradise of yarn creation. There are separate areas for dyeing and drying the wool, reeling it into skeins, warehousing, shipping, and a showroom. Though we have grown we are still a small team of less than 10 employees and continue to love to contribute to the local sheep and textile community.

Our Values

Koigu is committed to providing the highest quality natural fibres and keeping our process as handmade as possible. Koigu yarn is still dyed, hanked, labeled and shipped by the Landra women and a small handful of local employees. While we use the efficiency of machines where we can, every skein sent out into the world is lovingly painted by hand and is a truly unique work of art. We strive to provide the makers of the world with a wide variety of colour to inspire creativity in knitting, crocheting, weaving and beyond.

KOIGu Open House Tour Feature by Danika Makes