One Week Left to Register for Classes!

Hey everyone! It’s hard to believe YarnCon is almost here! And you know what that means, you are running out of time to sign up for classes! Click here to see the schedule.

There has been a change to the schedule. Vera will be teaching her DIY Dropping Spinning class at the Plumbers Union Hall on Saturday and Sunday during YarnCon, just like old times, but with one key improvement; we’ve moved it to the ground level to a much more accessible space. If you’ve ever been curious about hand-spinning, Vera is the perfect teacher to get you started.

Vera Videnovich teaching her DIY Drop Spindle Class at YarnCon in 2019.

We have lots of great classes to choose from on Thursday and Friday at the Crowne Plaza West Loop! You can choose from skills that every knitter should be familiar with like Mastering Short Rows, or how about learning double knitting in Technicolor Double Knitting, and have a finished piece with only right sides!

As stitchers, we know the importance of mending hand-made items, but what about store bought clothes? There is no reason we can’t mend anything we wear, and make it truly our own! Kimberley Langley’s class, Extending the Life of Clothing will have you making beautiful repairs to your knits in no time.

A sweater visibly mended by Kimberley Langely.

You can also learn Brioche or how to shape in Brioche, Knitting in Both Directions!, and Tunisian Crochet!

Sadly, Amy Manko won’t be able to join us at the YarnCon Symposium this year. If you are ever at a fiber festival and Amy is teaching a class you will definitely want to sign up!

Time is running out, so please sign up now, so our teachers know how many people to expect, and so that you don’t miss your chance at taking a class at the first YarnCon Symposium!

On-line classes you say?

When we announced that YarnCon is offering on-line (virtual) classes this year, we received a message about pricing. Why are we charging the same amount for an on-line class as for an in-person class? Glad you asked! The reason is that the main consideration in pricing our classes is that we fairly compensate our teachers. Our teachers are doing the same job, teaching the same material, and for the same maximum class size whether they come to a conference room, or they teach via Zoom. In fact, there is more work on their ends when they teach via Zoom because they have to be responsible for their camera set up, Zoom account, internet connection, etc., while still making sure to give just as much attention to their students as they would in person.

I think if the last two years have taught us anything, it is that we can be flexible, and teach in different settings, such as remotely or in the class-room. We all have our preferences, and that’s fine! But, let’s remember that the teacher is teaching the same material, and is working just as hard to make sure their students are getting the most out of their classes, and deserves to be compensated fairly for their work, and the expertise they bring to the classroom, virtual or otherwise.

So, I hope you will take a look at our fantastic class offerings for this year, sign up to learn some new skills, and plan a cozy space in which to Zoom in and enjoy taking a workshop with other stitchers.

All classes are listed here: https://www.yarncon.com/schedule/ and include a link to the registration page.
Please also check out our Instagram page where we are sharing pictures and details about the upcoming classes! https://www.instagram.com/yarncon/

Classes are open for registration!

We are excited to announce that our virtual YarnCon Symposium for 2022 is open for registration! We have a wonderful selection of classes to offer from our experienced instructors, and you can take these classes from the comfort of your own home, or where ever you choose to Zoom.

Vera Videnovich is standing in the middle of a circle of people seated on a stage. Vera has her arms raised as she demonstrated how to spin on a DIY drop spindle.
Vera Videnovich teaching DIY Drop Spinning during YarnCon 2019.

To see the class schedule, please click on: Class Schedule. (each class will have a link to the registration page on Eventbrite.)
To go straight to the registration page, please click on: Class Registration.
Please sign up soon! Spaces in each class are limited.

Please keep an eye on the schedule, along with classes, we will also be adding a Diversity and Inclusion in the Yarn World Panel Discussion that we will be offering over Zoom.

Register for Classes Today!

Class registration is LIVE!
The classes are posted, and registration is open! Most of YarnCon 2020’s classes and workshops will take place April 2-3 at the YarnCon Symposium right before our weekend fiber fair opens. But don’t worry, we still have some 1-hour classes over the weekend, too.

New in 2020: a Hotel Room Block!
Stay close to the action at the Crowne Plaza West Loop! We’ve reserved a block of rooms, and you can book online or by calling 312-829-5000 and mentioning Group Code MYF. The deadline to book a room is March 5, so call now! Operators are standing by.

Advanced Spinning Classes
Lots of classes on spinning at YarnCon this year: Wheel Navigation with Emily Wohlscheid and Spinning Wheel Primer with Heavenly Bresser both aim to teach students the ins and outs of their wheels. If you’re further along in your spinning journey, try your hand at Spinning for a Project or Spinning Wirecore and LED Lights! These classes are designed for students who have already some  spinning experience. Bring your own wheel and learn something new!

Brioche Knitting Forever
We’re welcoming back Javier Jara for another year at YarnCon. Learn a new skill in his Brioche Knitting class, or if you’re familiar with single-color brioche, why not up your game with his Mastering Two-Color Brioche class? Sign up soon — his classes always sell out!

New Friends and Old FavoritesNew to our workshop schedule this year: Jenn Watkins, Rita Petteys, and Jules Huntsberger.Hailing from North Carolina, Jules is ready to help you with Short Rows
 and Picots and Bobbles! Usually behind a booth at YarnCon, Jenn is sharing her knowledge of Lace Knitting and Cables, and Rita will teach you how to put those leftover Bits and Bobs to good use!Perennial

YarnCon favorites Vera Videnovich (DIY Handspinning) and Samantha Lynn (Intro to Dyeing I & II) are back, along with Kathy Kelly’s classes on Tunisian crochet.Check out the whole schedule here! Register to pick up a new skill or brush up on something you thought you’d forgotten. 

Volunteer at YarnCon!
We can always use extra hands in many areas: helping vendors unload their wares and schlep them to their booths, working various information tables, booth-sitting for vendors who need a break, and then on Sunday, helping the vendors move their remaining goodies back to their vehicles.In return for your help, you’ll get a special volunteer YarnCon goodie bag! Also, our undying gratitude. Seriously, it’s one of the best gigs going.

Fill out the Volunteer Form to sign up for weekend spots, or click here to help out Thursday and Friday at the YarnCon Symposium!

We are really excited to once again be offering Dark Matter coffee, thanks to their amazing support! Visit us at the beautiful bar downstairs for all of your hot coffee (and tea) needs.

And Now for Something Completely* Different

*Okay, not completely, but very new!

We are proud to announce the inaugural YarnCon Symposium! We have wanted to expand our workshops for some time, but the limiting factor has been availability of space at the Plumbers Union Hall. We love being at the Plumbers Union Hall, and we have no plans to leave, but it has made hosting classes more and more complicated. So: a new space was in order if we wanted to expand our class offerings. That led to another change we have always wanted: to be able to attend classes and parties while registered as a vendor at a show.

Intro to Dyeing class at YarnCon
Intro to Dyeing class at YarnCon

The solution is the YarnCon Symposium: two days of classes at the lovely Crowne Plaza West Loop!

On Thursday and Friday, April 2 and 3, 2020, we will host our first annual symposium, with classes on both days and a reception on Friday evening. Then on Saturday and Sunday, April 4 and 5, 2020, we will have YarnCon at the Plumbers Union Hall, as we have since 2013. We will still have beginning dyeing and spinning workshops over the weekend during YarnCon, but sit-down classes in classrooms with all of the amenities will take place at the Crowne Plaza. The hotel is just down the road from the Plumbers Union, and is the perfect place to stay if you are coming in from out of town!

If you are a teacher and have thought about teaching with us, but weren’t so keen on the open layout we used to have, now is your time to join us. We think you will be pleasantly surprised, as we have put lots of thought into the care and feeding of instructors. This means competitive pay, lodging, and travel expenses. You can see the details, and fill out the application at the following link:
https://forms.gle/z6CdUUx2DgC8FX4F7

Seeing as we are growing and expanding, we also thought it was time to have a party to celebrate! We are planning a reception at the Crowne Plaza on Friday night after classes have wrapped up. We will have more information on that soon, so be on the lookout, as tickets will be limited. Sign up for our mailing list to get the info!

Let’s plan some classes!

Planning for YarnCon 2018 is moving along at a fast clip this year, dare I say we turned up the dial to 11? (Yeah, I went there.) We have never filled the vendor spaces as quickly as we did this year! You really like us! And now it is time to show the same love to the educational side of the show. 

If you have ideas for a workshop, now is the time to send those proposals, and here is the form you need to fill out: https://www.yarncon.com/yarncon-2018-request-for-workshop-proposals/

We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us!

Buy yarn, and learn to make your own! (and an announcement)

Spring is here, and YarnCon is right around the corner! April 1 and 2 to be exact, and we are busy getting everything ready! Anyone who has attended YarnCon in the past knows there is a wealth of stunning hand-dyed and hand-spun yarn with which to enhance your stash, but what about all that lovely unspun fiber? You can learn to needle felt it, or you can learn to spin it, and we have four different teachers ready to share their knowledge with you!

Vera Videnovich has not only been teaching an introduction to spinning since YarnCon was in its infancy, she also taught Sara, Lindy and Natalia how to spin. If you want to get a feel for spinning, DIY handspinning is the class for you. 

If you want to expand your skills, you will not want to miss Emily Wohlscheid’s classes! Emily will teach you to make your own batts in order to create a custom tweed effect in her Tweed: Custom Blend! workshop.

Another clever trick to learn is how to blend your fibers to create fractal color repeats in your finished yarn, and you can learn how in Emily’s Fractal: Blend and Spin workshop.

Have you ever wondered how hand cards work, or want an opportunity to take a class with your kids and make colorful batts? Maegan Burkart has you covered in her Kids Color Blending on Hand Cards workshop. Maegan has more color skills to add to your arsenal, she can teach you to prepare and manipulate your singles yarn and make your colors match up in striping plied yarn in her Controlling Color Changes While Spinning and Plying workshop.

And finally, newcomers to YarnCon, Tom and Joanne Blodgett will be demonstrating the process of turning flax into linen in Straw into Gold!, and will even have a young flax plant to show you. This should be a fascinating presentation, with some hands-on components.

 

That only covers the spinning classes! We encourage you to to head over to the Classes page to see all of our amazing workshop offerings, with small class sizes and experienced teachers, you really can’t go wrong.

And, you made it to the end to see what the announcement is! We are really excited at YarnCon HQ about our 10th birthday, and birthdays mean birthday presents, right? So, for our birthday, we are giving you presents!! Instead of 50 goodie bags each morning to the first 50 people in line, this year we are giving out 75 goodie bags to the first 75 people in line! The bags alone are worth it, they are our organic cotton, fair trade Work + Shelter bags that we are so fond of. But, because it’s our 10th YarnCon, we asked some of our incredibly talented vendors to dye up some YarnCon birthday limited edition colorways just for the occasion, and you will find some in those bags. Say what? (Please don’t start camping out yet.)

 

Two exciting new additions to the line up!

This is the time of year I get to see the workshop registrations fill my inbox. I love that our instructors’ expertise is appreciated, and that so many people are eagerly signing up for workshops! If you haven’t signed up, you should go take a look!

This year we have a couple of exciting new additions to our workshop line-up.

First, we have a demonstration called “Straw into Gold!” by Tom and Joanne Blodgett. Tom and Joanne will demonstrate the steps traditionally used to extract fiber from the flax plant, spin the fiber into thread, and then weave the thread into linen fabric. We have expanded into an extra classroom for this event, and it is limited to 20 people per session (2 sessions, both on Saturday). There are hands on components to this demo, so it will be a lot of fun, and very educational. 

Straw Into Gold!

I am so thrilled about this next announcement! YarnCon veterans Tanya and Carla of Maybea Crafted and cjkoho Designs are offering a free workshop called Sheep to Needles detailing how they have created an artisan kit from a local shepherd’s flock, local processing, indie dyer and local designer to create hat/cowl kits. This will also be held in our fancy new classroom, and we will have one session on each day. We are so grateful to them for offering this free presentation as a gift to our students! You can sign up right here or on the registration page.

Sheep to Needles

YarnCon is less than a month away, so don’t wait! Register today!

Class Registration is Live!

And we are so excited about this year’s line-up, and we think you will be too! You can register right here at https://www.yarncon.com/classes/

We have new spinning classes, along with the basics; you can learn new crochet techniques; add new bind-offs to your skill set, and new and better ways to weave in the those ends (yes, please!!); ever run into garter tabs in a shawl pattern, but had no idea, we have you covered; carding; dyeing (an annual favorite, better hurry, that one sells out every year); seriously, don’t take my word for it. Go check it out for yourselves, and sign up for our fun and informative workshops. After all, you will want to sit down and learn some new skills for all the wonderful new yarn and fiber you just purchased from our outstanding vendors.

Just over a month to go before our 10th YarnCon, and we are counting down the days! What are you looking forward to at this year’s YarnCon?

Samantha teaching Intro to Dyeing at YarnCon 2013 

 

YarnCon may be months away, but the 2017 application is live today!

With the winter holidays upon us, even imagining spring seems like an exercise in futility, but as far as Team YarnCon is concerned, April is right around the corner!

The 2017 application is live now! We are taking applications until January 21, 2017, which is sooner than you think, so head on over to the Vendor Application and show us what you make! And please spread the word to anyone you might think has some yarny talents to share.

The deadline for Workshop proposals is January 6, 2017, so if you would like to teach at YarnCon, please head over to the Workshop RFP page and get us your proposal post-haste.

 

In the meantime, happy crafting, and happy holidays!