Darn Good Yarn relocates but still keeping Maine ties

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — Darn Good Yarn has physically relocated from Sebec to  Schenectady, N.Y., but owner Nicole Snow said that she still has “a strong Maine presence and intends to keep it that way.”
    In fact, she was a presenter at the Sustain ME conference on Chebeague Island last weekend, a workshop designed to stimulate business development and attract and create a network of Maine’s emerging entrepreneurs.

    Snow’s company — profiled in the Feb. 26, 2014 issue of the Observer — is a unique partnership between a Maine entrepreneur and workers in Nepal and India. She has more than 200 women in India and Nepal making high-quality yarn using reclaimed materials, some of which would normally be thrown away.
    The products are shipped to her home, and she then sends it to her retail and wholesale customers across the globe.
    But her Sebec home was overwhelmed with 25,000 skeins of yarn earlier this year and she had been actively looking for a building to house the operation.
    Then her husband, Mike — an engineer — was offered a job with AGT Services in Amsterdam, N.Y. “This was such a great opportunity that he simply couldn’t turn it down,” Snow said.
    So she has moved her yarn inventory from Sebec into a building in Schenectady. The Darn Good Yarn website and email contact information is the same, and Snow also said that she has another project in the works.
    “I’m writing a book specifically on ways for women in rural or economically-depressed areas to get into business,” she said. “Even if you don’t want to run the operation yourself, there are so many things you can do within your own community to get a business off the ground.”
    Snow said that one important factor that hit home with her was “making your family part of your business plan. Sometimes I think that message is lost and it shouldn’t be.”
    Another project Snow is working on is a potential “cottage industry” in Maine to create high-end, custom-made bow ties. “I’m working with Sen. (Angus) King’s office on some details and it looks very promising,” Snow said.
    In any case, Snow said she wanted to emphasize that she still has Maine ties and intends to keep them. “I have relatives in the Moosehead Lake region and we still have our home in Sebec. I just don’t have the yarn in my house anymore,” she said.
    For more information, visit www.darngoodyarn.com or find them on Facebook.