Adrienne Rodriguez and Kristine Vejar met while attending Mills College...

In 1999, Kristine, in the midst of throwing a house party, got into an enthusiastic conversation about art with Adrienne. Immediately drawn to one another, and comfortable in conversation, Adrienne and Kristine's friendship flourished as their paths crossed during class. Kristine spent her free time cooking, and Adrienne regularly came to dinner, where they grew to know one another over a shared appreciation of art, history, and making.

Fast forward to today, Adrienne and Kristine are married and co-own A Verb for Keeping Warm - a place rooted in a love for making and possibility, nature and textiles.

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ABOUT KRISTINE VEJAR

Textiles, in the form of quilts and sweaters, have always been part of Kristine's family’s cultural landscape. She grew up within knitting and quilting circles, where the creation of textiles functioned as a way to create friendships while making something useful. Years later, via studying Art History and a Fulbright grant in India as well as working at the Textile Museum in DC, Kristine realized textiles can embody endless potential to communicate identity and ethics. Through witnessing the various ways textiles are made and dyed - from spinning cotton to natural dyeing, Kristine grew committed to learning about the intersection of nature, people, and clothing.

Kristine began practicing natural dyeing in her kitchen. In 2007, Kristine created her first line of naturally-dyed yarn. This is the seed from which A Verb for Keeping Warm has grown. Kristine published her first book The Modern Natural Dyer (Abrams) in 2015.

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ABOUT ADRIENNE RODRIGUEZ

Adrienne was born and raised in Indio, California a vast, hot desert region. Through lessons taught to her by her Father, a gardener, she learned the connection between the environment, plants, and people. And became committed to learning more about this delicate balance and protecting the Earth. Adrienne's practice includes tending the Verb natural dye gardens, foraging for mushrooms with dyeing potential, guiding the dye studios, and creating art related to plants and mushrooms. She enjoys finding more about her Mexican-American heritage through the study of history, gardening, plants, art, and dyeing. She is a lover of music and sound, has played the trumpet for many years, and has a podcast at Verb named Reverberate.

Adrienne has written numerous articles on mushroom dyeing and teaches annually at the Sonoma County Mycological Association’s retreat. She has also been an annual guest lecturer at the California College of the Arts textile department.

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Together, Kristine and Adrienne have created A Verb for Keeping Warm. Through their love of making and nature, and belief that life is for learning, Kristine and Adrienne have delve deep into the process of making textiles. They have done everything from learned how sheep's fleece is graded for fineness, to skirting hundreds of pounds of fleece, baled it, and shipped it to be made into yarn. They have studied yarn extensively to understand what makes a great sweater. And have spent thousands of hours practicing natural dyeing to create unique, colorfast hues. It is with this knowledge and expertise, that A Verb for Keeping Warm products are made - and which you can trust.

In 2020, they published Journeys in Natural Dyeing (Abrams NY).