Hi!

My name is Anna, I am a knitter, spinner, dyer, general fiber enthusiast, podcaster and chemist!
I am living in the beautiful town of Zurich in Switzerland together with my boyfriend and our sweet cat Leila.

While growing up in Austria in an old farmhouse on the countryside together with my parents, Grandma, three siblings and plenty of animals I developed a strong love for all the little details that can be discovered in the nature around us. As a kid I always loved to paint and draw and play with colors. I learned to knit both from my Mum and my crafts teacher in primary school, but wasn’t very excited about it at that time – I preferred to spend my time painting. My mother and our neighbor, who had a little flock of sheep and spun her own yarn, used to dye wool and silks with natural dyes, which was very fascinating to me as a little girl.

In 2006 I turned 18 and moved to Zurich in Switzerland to study chemistry at the university. Discovering and learning about all the complexity of nature was an incredible experience for me. At that time I also started to knit again… This time I developed a deep passion for it, but soon I wanted to have more control over my projects. I couldn’t find the yarns in the exact color and weight that I had in mind for a particular item. This is how I started to spin and dye my own yarn in 2012.

In 2012 I also started my PhD. My thesis involved the synthesis and development of new dyes – not for textiles, but for solar cell applications. The interaction of matter and light has always been one of my favorite parts of science. And so I spent four years growing a strong relationship with dye molecules, both in the lab and at home in the dye pots.

In 2017, after finishing my PhD, I started with the dunkelgrün podcast. I was so warmly received by the knitting community and received so much encouragement to continue sharing my fibery adventures and my view on different topics in the arts and crafts of knitting, spinning, dyeing, sewing… I am very thankful for that and am enjoying this journey!

Occasionally I am publishing knitting patterns under the designer name Anna Dunkelbunt and when I dye more yarns than I can knit up by myself, you can find them here.