What is Brooknit Bonneterie?Â
Brooknit Bonneterie ™ is a small business located in Brooklyn, NY, woman-owned, created in 2022 by Julie Lagaüzere.
Our name? Brooknit Bonneterie™. An easy puzzle! Brooknit is the alliance of what we do and where we do it:
Brooklyn and Knitting. Bonneterie is the little touch of French that Julie brings with her, and it means "hosiery”. We sometimes go by BKB.
Since Julie is currently the one wearing all the hats here, let’s be transparent: I am Julie! The whole journey was, is, and will be fed by multiple motivations, values, and desires, mixed with opportunities and learnings.
Brooknit Bonneterie’s mission is to provide everyone with high-quality hand-knitted accessories. We care for the newborn, trying to find a place in this world with our cocoons and all the way up to all the other family and friends with matching, or not, other items: beanies, scarves and snoods, blankets...
Brooknit Bonneterie’s concept for products stands in two parts:
"French design, tailored for America in Brooklyn, NY"
followed by
“Made where YOU are by YOUR loving hands…”.
You are quite the detective: our products are distributed as kits. They are carefully prepared for those who are ready to use their hands and fingers. They contain everything necessary to create the piece, whether you are a total beginner, a more experienced knitter, or you want to gift the knit to someone else. ​
We exclusively use 100% Superwash Merino wool, worsted weight, and hand-dyed by small businesses in the United States. More about our yarn, over here.
The only energy you will consume is yours, from the comfort of your favorite chair or the discomfort of a smelly train. That is entirely up to you. No battery, no plug, and here is an item that is genuinely going to warm you up.
What's our drive?
Besides societal moral values like Respect, Truth, Honesty, which we are evidently committed to, we are driven by four more specific values that are core to our identity: Family, Health, Integrity, Contribution
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Families: “Family is where love begins and never ends.” Families come in all shapes and forms. There is the obvious one as the family you were born into, as well as the family you chose when friends become family and potentially the family you make. Regardless of which we refer to, they are all about love, care, support, and sharing... Serving family is driving us: we have a selection of products for everyone, no profiling or stereotype here. The knit belongs to everyone on the spectrum of life: any gender, age, size, color, style … and knitter level!
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Health: We are not doctors or healthcare providers. We care about the well-being and safety, mental and physical, of everyone, ourselves and others. It is driving us to develop healthy products: knitting is good for you, and the benefits of knitting are proven! Our choice of fiber, the 100% Merino wool Super-Wash is not a coincidence; and knitted products are warming layers of added protection. By extension, the planet's health is also very dear to us, and our products are made durable: Merino wool is a natural fiber, cruelty-free (a “cheap” sheep haircut). They are made to last longer than a single season and are usable longer than the typical fast-fashion sizing.
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Integrity: Our collaboration with Ma Petite Laine perfectly illustrates our integrity in the spirit of “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” and ensuring they get the credit for the wonders they have created. We also want to source all we can from businesses acting with integrity and respect, small businesses like us as much as we can.
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Contribution: our desire to contribute goes beyond the products alone. We want to contribute to society by empowering people to learn something new or improve their skills. We want to perpetuate the stitch and support the transmission process from one generation to another. Our biggest hope is that we will also inspire people with any passion they carry inside them.
We want to source the materials from businesses as close to us as possible and support fellow small businesses like us.
Why are we putting you to work?
We saw you coming... no judgment!
We take great pride in promoting the handmade, the DIY, the idea of making something. The pride we take we want to share with you, so you can be proud of yourself and feel accomplished too. We also believe in the beauty of perpetuating ancestral art and transmission.
If you don’t know that yet, knitting is actually good for you in many ways, and you can learn more about the benefits of knitting we have compiled for you.
There is also an economic reason to put you to work… We believe that our products should be as affordable as possible while workers must receive decent and fair compensation. Hand-knitting is wonderful, but it is a relatively slow process, so it takes much time and, therefore, may become pretty expensive quickly.
Now... we will do our best on this, and we are already working on building a community of knitters who will be happy to offer their assistance. So, if you are a star knitter and would love to, quite literally, put your hands in the service of others, contact us.
More to the story
Brooknit Bonneterie ™ ‘s began as a transatlantic story of smart women who want to do good.
Cool, right? Here is how it starts...
I am Julie, a French woman in Brooklyn, NY. I am also a mother, a (good) friend, a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter, a neighbor, and an entrepreneur! Like everyone these days, I wear many hats. Entrepreneurship only added a good dozen more!
I grew up in the French countryside, immersed in a world where the role models were grandmothers, knitting and sewing beautifully. They were not "trendy" designers, and they were practicing more out of duties than a hobby, but they made their mark. Fast forward a few years, and here I am! Inspired by them in this journey to provide some warmth and coziness to the world, I hope I can be an inspiration to perpetuate the stitches.
About 3 years ago, a friend, Olivia, (actually the sister of a friend) started a business in France with her neighbor and friend, Agathe: Ma Petite Laine (www.mapetitelaine.fr), and launched their “Cocon,” among other items. I saw it, fell in love, and started to follow them on social media. My daughter was already too old to try it, but as a parent, the product made so much sense.
Fast forward to 2021, after 17 years in the corporate world, the time to give my career a different trajectory had come. The brutality of the worldwide Covid shockwave created in me, like in so many others, the desire to re-focus, re-prioritize, re-connect with my roots, and the need to find purpose and truth in alignment with my inner values.
Being locked at home with a little girl pushed my crafty creativity or unburied something hidden inside: paint, glue, dough… cooking, gardening… Let’s make beaded crocodiles! No more masks in the stores? I’ll sew them! And knitting came along...
Eventually, the dots connected and started to shape into a project. I felt inspired by so many other women entrepreneurs around me, their ideas, courage, and strength. In short, I was ready to put my head, hands, and heart into something different; time to join the movement.
Building this company is very much like knitting: you decide on the pattern, the style, the colors, the size... all the attributes and equipment. When you are ready, you cast on, and one stitch at a time, the shape starts to appear before your eyes. You adjust, do - undo - redo now and then… finding purpose and joy in the journey.
