Homespun Yarn Party

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Thank Yous and Closing Remarks

Thank you all for participating in our first ever virtual homespun yarn party! we hope we never have to do it this way again - in person is much better - but we're pretty happy with how things turned out and we hope it was a good day for everyone.

If you haven't posted your hat progress photos - do it NOW!!! also please bring your purchases to the registers for final checkout to be counted in the door prize drawings. We'll be tallying up and drawing winners for the remainder of the prizes tonight or tomorrow and will reach out for shipping addresses as needed. NOTE: as this post goes to print, those deadlines have passed

A final THANK YOU to all of our sponsors, and all of our vendors who did a fantastic job getting their promos and stock and prizes ready to do this thing online. it's no small thing to change your plans with just a week to go and everyone rebounded splendidly.

We hope Lauren has a great turnout for the Spin-In after party, starting right about now - go to the blog for the invitation link. Spin-In concludes at 3/22/20 8PM EDT

We are looking at dates in late fall / early winter to reschedule this year's event at the Mill (then back to spring next year). A lot of moving parts need to fall in alignment so we can't make any guarantees at this point, but do keep an eye on the blog and your fingers crossed (or just cross your eyes, whatever) that it all works out. We will of course share news when we have it!

Some of our vendors are keeping their discounts going - we will update the master list when we have more details on which codes still apply.

Please share your purchases and the things you make with them using #HYP20!

Welcome to the 1st ever Virtual Homespun Yarn Party!

If this is your first Homespun Yarn Party experience, welcome! We are a juried show of vendors local to the DC/Baltimore metro area and surrounding states. All of our vendors make their own products in some way, whether that means raising the animals, dyeing the fiber, spinning the yarn, or crafting goods by hand in small batches. We have several new vendors this year and are glad to welcome them into the HYP family. We want to help all of these talented independent artists thrive, especially in these trying times.

If you're a Homespun Yarn Party veteran, welcome back! This isn’t how any of us expected to spend today, and we’re sad we’re not getting to meet you all in person. But safety first, so here we are. This season is hitting the fiber small business community hard and we so appreciate everyone showing up to show some love and spend some money with the Homespun Yarn Party vendors (and sponsors too). We put this virtual event together in one week, so please be patient with us as we try this new experiment!

The Homespun Yarn Party Facebook group is our home base for the next five hours and nearly all of our vendors are participating in the group today. We will be sharing their “virtual booths” with you throughout the day (in HYP table location order), but that will take some time so please consult the Preview 2020 Virtual Homespun Yarn Party post we put up this morning – that has the master list of all our vendors:

websites
online shopping options
in-depth profiles
virtual booths (intro videos, photo albums, etc. - be sure to watch for cute baby animals!)
where they’re hanging out today in addition to Facebook
most importantly, the sweet discounts and special offers they have to entice you to do some stash augmentation today

All of the discount codes are posted and are good until 5:00 today (some vendors have extended their codes – check their sites for details).

We know not everyone is on Facebook, so we’ll be sharing posts on Instagram, Twitter, and Ravelry, and vendors will be active there as well. Our vendors have exciting things planned for today – some have exclusive sets available just for today or are doing made-to-order dyeing, some are livestreaming from their Facebook or YouTube channels, some even set their booths up in their own studios to really capture the mood! Explore and ask questions – everyone is ready to help you make the best selections.

Claire and Melissa are helping host our 500 Hat Project Knit and Crochet-Along. You’ll have to wait for the next in-person event for our great classes, but Kira has put together a short demonstration and handout on Mosaic Knitting. If you’re disappointed to miss the Longest Thread Contest, we recommend you join Lauren’s virtual spin-in right after the yarn party ends (5 – 8 pm, via zoom).

We posted the door prize gallery yesterday, but as a reminder of how that will work: you get one entry into the prize drawing for each purchase you make from a vendor during the HYP hours of noon - 5:00. You get one entry per person for sharing your progress photos on the 500 Hat Project Knit and Crochet-Along post. Those prizes will be drawn at end of the day and we’ll reach out to winners later this week for shipping info. We’ll also be awarding prizes at 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 based on interactions with our HYP social media posts. These are at the discretion of the committee so be awesome to each other and make us smile or laugh!

Thank yous…

You! Everyone who is here to shop and hang out; everyone who shared or retweeted or regrammed our announcements or posted on their blogs or in their Ravelry groups; everyone who told a friend; everyone who is working on a hat for the 500 Hats Project
Our organizing committee (Jess, Lindsay, Corrine, Paula)
Volunteers (Kira, Claire, Melissa, and everyone who was ready to help out when we thought we could still be physically together)
Vendor Jury (who will remain anonymous)
Our vendors who offered up beautiful door prizes and great discounts

Our sponsors:

Cloverhill Yarn Shop (Catonsville, MD)
Looped Yarn Works (Washington, DC)
Lovelyarns (Hampden/Baltimore, MD)
Red Fox Yarns (Fairfax, VA)
Charm City Yarn Crawl (postponed for now)
Fibre Space (Alexandria, VA)
Leona’s Gallery (Savage, MD)
Corrine Walcher Designs (Towson, MD)
Unicorn Clean (Unicorn Fibre Wash, Rinse, Power Scour)

If your LYS is on our sponsor list, please pass on our thanks. If they’re not, please encourage them to consider sponsorship next year (or when we reschedule later this year).

Again, thank you all for coming, and we hope you have a great time enhancing your stashes!

Knit or Crochet Along for Charity!

As part of the Virtual Homespun Yarn Party, we are hosting a K/CAL for the 500 Hats Project (this year’s charity collection). HYP charity coordinators Claire and Melissa will be dropping by during the event to offer encouragement and support, and Melissa will answer questions about the project on Facebook, by phone, or email. You can read more here and here.

Pick out any yarn, any pattern and work up a child sized hat (or two or three hundred). If you're not sure what to use, try this pattern with several style variations, and any worsted weight wool (washable is best - these are going to kids). As Melissa says, "These kids are not picky. They always love all of the hats. Go nuts!"

Sizes needed are children's size small through extra large. The children range from age 4 through teenager. Just be sure to make the hat 1 1/2” smaller than these dimensions for a nice snug fit:

Child (3 - 10 years) Hat height =8.5” Head Circumference: 19” - 20 1/2”
Pre-teens and Teens Hat height 9-10” Head Circumference: 20 1/2” - 22”
Adult Woman Head Hat height = 11” Head Circumference: 21.5” - 22.5”
Adult Man Hat height = 11”-11.5” Head Circumference: 23” - 24

When you're done, or by 5PM today - whichever comes first - post a photo of your hats in progress as a reply to this post. This will enter you into the running for one of our fabulous door prizes. We're counting replies on all of our social media platforms, but it's still one entry per person (instagram users can reply with a link to their own photo). If you're the winner we'll reach out to you for shipping details after the event.

Finish your hat(s) at your leisure and mail or drop your hats off at Lovelyarns at any time the shop is open (hang on to them for now!). 3610 Falls Road, Baltimore, MD 21211

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Virtual Homespun After-Party!

Our fantastic drop spindle teacher and leader of the annual Longest Thread Contest, Lauren Haiken, is hosting a virtual spin-in from her home when the virtual Homespun Yarn Party doors close. Grab your favorite spindle or wheel, raid your fiber stash, and join us!

The spin-in will be hosted on Zoom. The room holds 100 people, and you can join and leave any time during the spin-in, which will start March 22 at 5 PM and will go until 8 PM.

If you're new to zoom, it's a videoconferencing platform that you can "dial into" from your computer or your phone. You can either preinstall the app or just follow the prompts when you join the meeting. Here's a quick tutorial.

Preview 2020 Virtual Homespun Yarn Party

Join us on March 22, 2020 from Noon to 5 PM for a Virtual Yarn Party!

The Homespun Yarn Party Facebook Group will be our home base, but we'll also be partying on Instagram, Twitter, and Ravelry.
Our vendors will be online with us to answer questions, show off their wares (and some cute baby animals!), and help out with virtual yarn squishing.
Discounts and special offers will be announced at the start of the party.
We'll have a KAL/CAL for the 500 Hats Project (this year's charity collection). You can get started now and mail or drop your hats off at Lovelyarns at any time.
Prizes will be drawn throughout the day - make a purchase from any of our vendors during the show for an automatic entry. You can also enter by sharing a photo of your charity hats (finished or in-progress) once we start the K/CAL.
Spinning teacher Lauren is hosting a virtual Spin-In after party (5-8 pm) via Zoom