YOU.ARE.AMAZING. Every year, we plan and organize and promote YarnCon, and every year, we wonder if anyone will show up. And every year, the Chicago fiber community – that’s you guys – blows us away. Over 1000 attendees walked through the doors of the Journeyman Plumbers’ Union Hall this year, and the level of excitement and enthusiasm just continues to grow.

This year’s event was our seventh, and from the moment the first vendor walks in for setup, it feels like a family reunion: greetings, hugs, the latest news traded after a long winter. Strangers admired each other’s handiwork and connected upon recognizing a familiar pattern. One pair of friends swept through the doors at opening time on Saturday morning and were almost the last to leave Saturday evening; they’d spent all day shopping, talking with vendors, taking classes, and mostly just practicing their craft in the expanded lounge area. So many vendors brought new colorways and products they’d cooked up over their hibernation, and we were beyond thrilled to be hosting the debut of Chicago Knits Magazine.

We offered more classes, and a wider diversity, than ever before. We created a new vendor section for younger fiber companies, or producers that just didn’t need a full-size booth space. Students from SAIC’s The Politics of Knitting course staged a silent, collaborative knitting performance on Saturday, the results of which were on display at Sunday’s installment.

Please feel free to add your pictures of YC2014 to the YarnCon Chicago group on Flickr. We’d love to see your memories in all their glorious color (black and white is cool too, whatever).

Next year’s date is set: April 18th & 19th, 2015 (a little later than usual, due to Easter and venue availability). Some things will be the same: we’ll be at the Plumbers’ Union Hall, a spot we find more to like about every year. There will be lots of fiber, classes, and other enthusiasts to connect with. Everything else? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see. We’re already hard at work on a batch of fresh new ideas!

If you’re not already on our email list, sign up with the “Stay Up-to-Date!” form (at left on the home page; on the right everywhere else on the site). You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and our Ravelry group, so pick your platform. And on Saturday, June 14th, you can find us in Millennium Park (Boeing Gallery North, near Randolph and Michigan) celebrating World Wide Knit In Public Day. Come out and join us!

To see YarnCon 2014 through different pairs of eyes, check out Knitcircus Podcast #44, the Knitspot blog, Handmade by Stefanie, and Yarn Hoards. If you did a recap of this year’s event, post the link in the comments.

So just, thanks. Thanks for coming, thanks for supporting YarnCon, thanks for spreading the word, thanks for being your awesome, friendly, fiberiffic selves.

Who doesn’t love winning? Our incredibly generous and talented vendors and sponsors have hooked us up with the motherlode of fibery goodies, which we’ll be raffling off over the course of the weekend to help support YarnCon and help defray the many expenses of putting on the show. We’ve got yarn and fiber, of course, along with gift certificates, drop spindles, buttons, pattern kits, stitch markers, Windy City Knitting Guild memberships, and so much more.

We’ll be drawing every hour, and posting the winners on a board in the vendor hall, so check it frequently as you’re shopping and attending classes. You do not need to be present to win, though – if you’ve already gone home, we’ll contact you, so make sure your tickets are filled out legibly with your phone and email.

Tickets will only be $1 each, so stock up on singles! Help us continue to grow YarnCon into an amazing celebration of independent fibery goodness, and win stuff too!

Hey y’all, check out the beginnings of the vendor list. We’ll add to it every day as the listing information arrives from our accepted vendors, so keep checking back to see the latest. (Psst – if YOU are an accepted vendor and haven’t sent your listing info & image yet, well, what are you waiting for?)