Erin Dollar

Posted on: Knomad Team StratusSeptember 10, 2020

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Meet the Team: Alex Gernert in Customer Care

If you’ve sent us an email, or reached out using our live customer support chat, you’ve likely connected with Alex Gernert, Head of Customer Care at Knomad. Let’s meet the avid knitter who fields your burning questions about our yarn.

For Alex, her role is about building relationships. “I think it’s helpful to be available to have a conversation,” she says. “Whether it’s a technical question about our website, or questions from a wholesale customer who is curious about our supply chain and wants to get to know us. When customers reach me, they can ask me questions and really be heard.”

An avid knitter, Alex picked up her craft from helpful friends. She learned to knit during a heatwave in Los Angeles — her neighbors would visit nightly to teach her basic stitches, and wait for the weather to cool off. “We stayed up until 2am every day for a week, marathoning episodes of Dexter while I knit my first garter stitch blanket,” she recalled.

With her first knitting lessons behind her, Alex forged ahead with ambitious projects. “Afterwards, I never understood limitations,” she said. “I knit socks immediately, I knit sweaters immediately.” Today, she knits, spins her own yarn, and sews patchwork quilts. “Plus, I’m a ‘dyer by proxy,’ since I spend so much time in the studio with my friend Gina Rockenwagner.” she jokes.

Alex brings her fibre expertise to Knomad, where she often acts as a yarn matchmaker, pairing customers with the best yarn for their projects. Ask her about her own favorites, and she’ll wax poetic. “Steam in the skein is gorgeous,” she says — it’s one of her go-to yarns for knitting baby hats with her tiny addi Rocket Short Click needles. “It has a tight ply, but it’s still a very soft yarn. It has a great twist — a striking, crisp delineation between the two strands. My other favorite yarn is a fingering-weight, Stratus. It dyes really, really well, and Stratus is just. so. soft. It has a delightful feeling in your hand.”

Working at Knomad connects Alex to fibre artists around the world, and she’s always learning from their creativity. Sometimes she finds unexpected connections, like when she stumbled upon a fibre artist using Knomad yarn while reading a fan forum for her favorite podcast. Seeing the artist’s projects inspired Alex. “She uses these brass hoops to weave hand-dyed yarn in a gorgeous gradient,” she said. “Her projects are beautiful, and I’d never envisioned a customer using our product in that way.”

The most rewarding part of Alex’s job: reveling in customers’ creative successes. “It’s so nice when you see customers using the yarn, and posting the things they’ve made. You see their finished projects and you say, ‘You did it! It’s beautiful!’”

When she’s not assisting customers at Knomad, Alex continues to expand her fibre knowledge with her own creative projects. Next up on her craft to-do list is Andrea Mowry’s Weekender Light. “It looks like a great workhorse, utilitarian garment. The heavier-weight version was a cult favorite, and this lighter version will be cute to wear with just about anything,” she said.

Knitting is only the beginning for Alex; she’s eager to learn new techniques. “I need to master something new.” she said. “I’m obsessed with the idea of ice dyeing technical fabrics. I want to sew a touring bag for my bike.” Even though she’s never tried dyeing semi-waterproof fabrics, Alex is energized by a creative collaboration. “There are some obstacles, but it’s a project that’s been rolling around in my brain for a while… Gina is such a good dyer, I’m hoping she will help me.”