Bring your favorite drop spindle and 10g of the fiber of your choice. Everybody gets ten minutes to spin as much singles yardage as they can. The longest singles wins GLORY, and a prize!
Hope you join us!
Don't know how to spin on a drop spindle? We will teach you! We'll offer free classes on knitting, crochet, and drop spindle throughout the day. If you're a beginner looking to pick up a new craft, loaner needles and hooks will be provided for intro to knit and crochet lessons. For the spinning lessons, you can purchase some fiber and a spindle from one of our lovely vendors or bring your own.
We're excited to bring back two of our popular intermediate level classes this year and add an intermediate crochet class:
We'll show a few different cast ons - i.e. for toe up socks, or the circular cast on for shawls (instead of the tab), or even how to knit that tab. Time permitting, we may add some cast-off options, such as a stretchy bind off for socks or cuffs.
For both knitters and crocheters, we will give tips on how to weave in ends. Then we will show some methods to join new yarn in the middle of a project to avoid having ends to weave in at all. Among other options, you'll be able to watch a spit splice demonstration then try it on your own!
We're also offering a new class this year on crocheted granny squares. If you've mastered the basic crochet stitches and are ready to try something a little more advanced, join us to learn how to make the building blocks of an afghan. Granny squares are a great portable project. We'll review how to read a basic crochet pattern, how to get started crocheting in the round, how to turn a corner on a square, and how to join your squares together.
Classes are held at the center tables. Space is limited and classes are first come, first served.
12:45 – Intro to Knitting
1:15 – Intro to Crochet
1:45 – Intro to Drop Spindle
2:15 – More Ways to Cast-On
2:45 – Intro to Drop Spindle
3:15 – Granny Squares
3:45 – Longest Thread Contest
4:15 – Weaving In and Joining Ends
In addition to our group sessions, our Roving Teachers will be available for one-on-one project help and Q&A throughout the day.
Do you have a project in the works that could benefit from some quick expert advice? Bring it along! Our teachers have generously offered to make time available for those needing a bit of help on a project (e.g. picking up stitches, tightening holes in heel gussets, those blasted side stitches that like to get messy, joining new fiber on your spindle without losing twist, interpreting a tricky pattern instruction) and offer impromptu mini-sessions and on the spot Q&A on crochet, spinning, and knitting.
If you see one of our teachers sitting at the class table without an active class session, or roving about, sporting an HYP "Roving Teacher" button, feel free to flag them down for assistance!
Our teachers will be out and about throughout the day. We want to make sure our teachers get some shopping time in, so if they don't have their button on, they're off-duty.
We'll have fantastic door prizes throughout the day, courtesy of our vendors and sponsors. You'll get a raffle ticket as you enter, and we'll draw winners every half hour. Prize packages will be on display at the HYP Door Prizes table (aka the TABLE OF AWESOME) - place your ticket in the jar for the prize you'd most like to win but make sure you'll be in the room when that ticket is drawn - you must be present to claim your prize.
Don't forget to bring your
knitted/crocheted accessories for the 500 Hats Project. If you have any extra yarn you'd like to donate, we will be happy to take it off your hands at the charity table. Some hats will be started if you'd like to stop by and add a few rounds. You can read more about this year's project
here.
We'll have Homespun Yarn Party bags, stickers, stitch markers, stitch marker boxes, key tags, tape measures, and buttons for sale at the HYP swag table just inside the door. If you don't have a swift and ball winder at home, or if you just can't wait to start working with your new purchases, we will offer winding for $2 a skein at the
HYP Winding Station. All proceeds support future Homespun Yarn Party events.
Here's a preview...
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| photo by kaylavie - RatchetCatBoutique |
Weather permitting, the adjacent deck will be available to hang out and socialize if you need a break from shopping. If the deck is open and it's warm, we welcome wheel spinning and electric spinners outside. Keep your fingers crossed for lovely weather, but our vendors are all indoors so we are mud-free and dry, rain or shine!
NOTE: Our class tables must be kept open for our scheduled sessions and Roving Teachers, and our charity tables for those actively working on a charity project. We ask that shoppers leave their wheels in their vehicles until the final hour of the event unless the deck is open (check first as we have no public storage space). We understand if you need to take a few moments to sit and recover from the yarn fumes but please be courteous of your fellow shoppers and share time at the social tables.
What kinds of things do you carry?
How long have you been in business, and what inspired you to open a LYS?
What is your website?
My teaching business, Knit-a-Gogo, Inc was started in 2006. The retail shop grew out of that business (after a lot of begging and pleading by my students!). We opened our doors in July 2009.
Fibre Wash is our everyday detergent choice, just right for your daily laundry pile AND your most beloved heirloom and luxury items. 
What is your website? Email?
What kinds of things do you carry?
This
is the 13th year that Lovelyarns has been in business, however, it is
my third year as owner and chief yarn slinger. With help from my
recently late grandmother, I was able to purchase the business on
January 1, 2017 from long-time owner and founder, Sue Caldwell. I was
first a customer and then an employee of Sue's and this past summer she
made me an offer I couldn't refuse and now here we are living the dream!
