April’s Mountain Colors employee is Lynnet Olsen Thomas….. aka “Boots”, Lynnetty, “the tall girl”. Lynnet was born in Chicago and grew up in Morton Grove, IL. She is the youngest of three siblings and grew up in a traditional Midwestern family. She laughingly relates that her upbringing was “similar to Garrison Keiller’s Lake Woebegone and the good Lutheran folks.”
Lynnet loved the outdoors, camping and the woods so she decided to study Forestry at the University of Montana. This city girl had never been to Montana so she and her parents traveled to tour the school the spring of her senior year in High School. During her visit she was invited to attend a Forestry Club meeting. She stood to introduce herself at the meeting and upper classman Craig Thomas was smitten from across the room with this 5’3” red head. He told those around him that he was going to marry that girl. When Lynnet returned to Montana in the Fall he made sure she never dated anyone again. They were married the following June. Lynnet and Craig just celebrated their 40th anniversary and continue to be a very romantic couple with a great love for the forest.
Lynnet continued on at U of M until she had finished her degree. During her time as a coed she always wore logging boots, even with miniskirts! Her professor started calling her Boots and the nick name stuck. She will always be Boots in Forestry circles.
Lynnet and Craig moved to Stevensville and built a big log home where they raised their two kids, Ckye (pronounced Sky) and Ember. Twenty three years ago they have formed Cky-ber Enterprises, a forestry/logging and biomass business. Their son Ckye is also involved. Lynnet is the president but still finds time to be “the semi retired bookkeeper” at Mountain Colors. As of 2002 she also became a Mary Kay Consultant.
Lynnet has been part of the Mountain Colors family since 1997. She has many memories of the last 15 years. She says her favorite memory is the retreat we all took to Chico Hot Springs in 2005. It was the Mountain Colors team at our best. The retreat consisted of fresh air walks, knitting, eating, swimming and Lynnet teaching us the fine points of pedicures. It’s a great memory of a great trip! She said she is also enjoying this year as we celebrate our 20th anniversary.
Lynnet’s hobbies include “just everything ” and are truly many and varied. She knits, crochets, weaves, spins, felts and dyes. “I do all of it.” She also has a big greenhouse where she grows many varieties of grapes and vegetables. She creates beautiful stained glass and also enjoys woodworking. She is presently sanding, sealing and chinking the large logs of her log home. Another hobby that Lynnet took up was becoming a pilot. Craig had a license for years and one day while they were flying it occurred to Lynnet that she needed to know more about flying. She told Craig “if something happens to you up here I want to be able to land this plane.” She received her own pilot’s license and learned to land in 1994. She how has her very own airplane!
Lynnet’s says her job at Mountain Colors suits her because she enjoys being part of the team and you can never have enough yarn. Her stash has been growing steadily since she started. All that fiber has come in handy because last July the Thomases joyfully welcomed a first granddaughter, Cydnee Elise into the family. Now she says her favorite things to make are for Cydnee.
Lynnet calls herself a “greeny autumn person”. Her favorite colorways are Grass Valley Green (now discontinued), Mountain Tango, Clover and Apple Green. Thank you Lynnetty; for a tiny person you are a big part of Mountain Colors!
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