About Us | Thread and Maple

Who We Are

Momtrepreneurs on a Mission

Ours is a small (yet mighty!) business and we hope to make a small (yet mighty!) impact

Proudly Canadian

We are a Canadian women-owned small business based in Montreal. We partner with both local and international craftspeople to bring our designs to life.

Learn about our products >>

We Are Makers

We are makers at our core and take pride in our craft. Our ethos is creating products that we would love and use ourselves.

Shop our most loved creations >>

Nature Lovers

We seek to incorporate elements of nature into our products and our homes. You will find maple wood, cork, leather and cotton throughout our collections.

Browse our accessories >>

Strive to Make an Impact

We feel passionate about giving back and strive to make a positive impact. We have raised and donated thousands to causes close to our hearts.

Charities we support >>

It all started with a doodle...

Our Story

Thread & Maple is the brainchild of long-time friends Samantha Perrault and Olga Paskalenko. Sam is a pro knitter and founder of Scrumptious Purl (now run by her mom, Stephanie, who is also our Operations Manager!). Olga is a techie serial start-up starter, but seldom finisher - until now!

Sam had been nursing the idea of expanding into knitting accessories for years. Olga was determined to leave her corporate career and pursue a more creative path. Through a serendipitous series of events, the two found themselves chatting into the wee hours of the night about what they could build together.

Those calls quickly produced an outpouring of feverish sketches of product designs, all aimed to create elegant solutions to integrate the knitting craft (and all its chaotic mess) into the home with function and style. And thus, during a late-night phone call in November of 2019, Thread & Maple was conceived. And after months of designing, testing, sourcing, and planning, we opened our virtual doors in July of 2020.

Now, Olga is running T&M solo, as Sam stepped away to focus on her growing family. The two remain very close friends and their paths inextricably cross, with Sam's mom running T&M's operations, keeping it in the family!

Our Mission

To enhance your making experience with thoughtfully designed, beautifully crafted quality tools and accessories

Olga, CEO & Co-Founder

Our founders

This is Olga

I started knitting when I was 8 years old, living in Ukraine. I would make outfits for my dolls with the other girls who played in the 'dvor' (common space between apartment blocks). I delighted in creating whole worlds of plasticine furniture, crochet rugs, cross-stitch wall-art and knitted outfits for my Barbies.

Somewhere along the way, I lost touch with my creative side as I embarked on studies in computer science, like many immigrants in Canada. I met Sam in 2015 while living in Malta (where Scrumptious Purl was born!) and we quickly became close friends. Seeing her beautiful knitted pieces inspired me to try my hand at it again. She helped me knit a lovely shawl for my mom's birthday. Since then, I've rekindled my love for the craft and enjoy feeling that twinge of pride when a stranger admires my son's handmade ushanka hat. Most of all, I love designing new products and connecting with fellow makers in the fiber community.

I'm very excited to share our creations with fellow lovers of the craft.

Our Founders

This is Sam

I’ve been knitting since the age of 5 and have been working in the industry for over a decade now. One of the biggest constants in my life is my knitting. I knit when I’m happy, sad, bored, lonely, anxious, excited... As a result, we have always had knitting notions and yarn scattered around our house on the daily. There is never a time when there aren’t stitch markers on our dining room table or darning needles on a coffee table or near a bathtub… (Wait, not everyone knits in the bath?). Not for lack of trying, I haven’t ever really found a solution for all my notions that works in our home. Knitting is such an integral part of who am I and therefore quite an integral part of our home. I want to be able to store these items in a beautiful way.

Our products have been curated to the style and vibe that makes us feel most at home and cozy. Living in a space that feels alive and natural has always brought me comfort. Our products have been made with that in the forefront of our minds. This may sound a tad dramatic, but I’ve never been more excited to pull out a darning needle. Also, we get to work with like-minded small business owners to create these amazing products… what more could we ask for really?