Quitting the Cubicle for Hand-Dyed Wool: The Rise of Seattle’s Yarn Dragon
Ellen Khan
September 24, 2026
Back in 2014, Jonathan Berner walked away from a career he loathed with little more than a passion for hand dyeing and a strong gut feeling. Fast forward twelve years, and he now manages a permanent storefront inside Pike Place Market, where visitors can watch the vivid colors being worked directly into the raw wool.
Jonathan Berner does not hold back when recounting how Yarn Dragon first came to life. “I was miserable in corporate America,” he admits, standing beside a lineup of dye basins, wearing a vibrant hand-dyed shawl over his shoulders with one bright orange glove remaining on his hand.
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After picking up knitting in 2008, he became so deeply invested in the craft that it shifted from a simple pastime into a viable way out of his corporate life.
“I started Yarn Dragon in 2013,” he shares, explaining that he wanted to find a way to turn his knitting obsession into a career.
He took the practical route anyone takes when testing whether a passion project can generate income. He sought advice from experienced peers.
“I asked my friends… they told me dyeing yarn was the way to go.”
That guidance proved to be spot-on, and events developed rapidly. He landed his very own commercial sale with an independent fiber boutique in January 2014, a store based in Boulder, Colorado, named Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins.
Just five months down the road, he made the full leap.
“By June of 2014, I left my grown-up job,” he stated, “and I have been supporting myself with yarn ever since.”
That final phrase encapsulates a full twelve-year journey, representing the grueling effort that most people overlook when recounting their own career shifts.
The Seattle chapter unfolded further down the line.
Berner relocated to his hometown in 2018 and began offering his hand-dyed wool and alpaca skeins as an artisan vendor at Pike Place Market, utilizing the traditional day-stall setup to see if everyday shoppers would invest in his creations.
The response was overwhelmingly positive. By July 2025, he shifted away from temporary daily setups into a permanent retail space within the market at 1501 Pike Place, securing an official lease and a door to call his own.
The venture has also rebranded along the way. Having operated for years under the name MJ Yarns, it rebranded as Yarn Dragon, which serves as the identity Berner now uses both on camera and in person.
The brand’s second location offers an even more distinctive setup. The Yarn Dragon Factory Store opened its doors over the July 4 holiday weekend in 2025 at 201 Yesler Way in Pioneer Square, made possible through a crowdfunding Kickstarter drive where 151 supporters contributed almost $20,000, far surpassing the original $12,000 target.
The venue functions as an active dyeing studio that opens its doors to the public.
“Folks have the chance to actually come and see us dye the yarn and get up close and personal with the people who are usually making these products,” Berner explains, “the people who run the knitting machines, and see how it all happens in person.”
Whereas most modern consumer goods are sold with the production process completely obscured, this facility intentionally exposes every step of the craft.
The material emerging from those dye vats is far from cheap synthetic acrylic, a commitment Berner stands behind proudly.
“At Yarn Dragon we focus on fine fibers and natural fibers…so mostly wools.” He rattled off the materials like a chef listing premium market ingredients: Merino, alpaca, silk, and eventually, almost as a bold challenge, camel.
“We love fancy yarn here.”
The apparel side of the business evolved from the same mindset, transforming the workshop’s custom-dyed yarn into ready-to-wear items so that admirers of the rich colorways can enjoy the finished garments without having to spend forty hours knitting them by hand.
The two retail hubs maintain distinct inventories on purpose, with the Pike Place storefront focusing primarily on superwash options while the factory location highlights raw, natural wools.
The color development process is where the studio’s workflow becomes truly unique and specific. Berner never begins with a physical color swatch: “The way I develop color palettes is generally to think of a color idea… so for instance, I might say warm, and then I essentially add yellow to all of the colors. And then I might decide that, that feels sorts of autumnal, so everything will get like a Thanksgiving name,” he explained.
When asked to lay out his personal favorite Seattle routine, his response comes without hesitation: pulling up a chair at The Pink Door for dinner, grabbing a coffee at Zeitgeist, and Moto for Pizza, with Maximilien still holding a spot on his bucket list of local establishments he has yet to visit.
Yarn Dragon can be found at 1501 Pike Place, Suite 526, Seattle, WA 98101, and at the Factory Store at 201 Yesler Way, Suite 200B, Seattle, WA 98104, and can be found on Instagram at @yarndragon24.
