Questions about YarnCon 2024

We are delighted to see folks getting excited for YarnCon this year! Recently we’ve been getting a number of questions that many others of you have as well, so let’s answer them!

Q: I don’t see class or workshop information; how do I apply to teach, or register for classes?
A: Up until now, we’ve had classes of some kind at YarnCon. Sometimes it was a spinning class up on the stage, dyeing workshops in the hallway, rented offices as classrooms, or actual conference rooms at a hotel. Other than the spinning and dyeing workshops, we’ve never managed to get a critical mass of people to sign up for classes, enough to make it worthwhile for instructors. So this year we are not offering classes in classrooms. We do plan to offer workshops and demonstrations in open areas where some can participate and others can watch. Once we have a plan in place, we will announce more details.

Q: I want to volunteer! Add me to your list!
A: Thank you! We appreciate you! We’re getting ready for you! Seriously, YarnCon wouldn’t be the great experience it is without our generous volunteers. We will absolutely make an announcement in all the usual places once we are ready for people to sign up to volunteer.

Q: Can our Guild or Club have a table at YarnCon?
A: Glad you asked! Please email us at info@yarncon.com. We love having the guilds at YarnCon!

Q: Do I need to apply to bring my Food Truck?
A: No, but we are so glad you asked! Please send your Food Truck information to info@yarncon.com. Most of our food trucks friends do really well, usually selling out of food within hours of opening. We need to stay fueled! Email us, please!

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!

YarnCon 2023: Live and in person!!

We are so excited to return to an in-person show for the first time since the before times. We’re ready to welcome more than 50 independent artisans back to our much-loved Plumbers Union Hall and revel in the joy that is YarnCon.

Speaking of revelry, allow us to introduce the YarnCon Symposium! We’re so happy to bring this longtime plan to real life in 2023. All of our classes and workshops will take place March 30-31 at the Symposium (which will be held at the Crowne Plaza hotel), followed by an opening party on Friday night. The classes are posted, and registration is now open.

Special keynote speaker at Friday night’s shindig: Safiyyah Talley, aka The Drunk Knitter! We are thrilled to welcome Safiyyah to YarnCon and can’t wait to hear her thoughts on the State of the Skein. Tickets to the Friday night event are $25.

Our amazing YarnCon marketplace will open to the public on Saturday, April 1, at 10am. Admission is free! The first 50 shoppers through the door both Saturday and Sunday will snag a coveted

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/

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.

Last chance to pre-register for classes

Woo! It’s almost time for YarnCon! Natalia’s minivan is chock full of gear so Team YarnCon can start setting up the floors for our vendors. We have three levels of vendors! Ground level, main hall, and the balcony, and don’t forget the vendors in the hall outside the main hall! We are putting amazing fiber artists everywhere we can because they are just so good! And don’t forget to enjoy some delicious Dark Matter Coffee at the coffee bar next to the ground level vendors. Yum!

Natalia has crammed all the set up gear into her van, and is ready to layout the floors for our vendors!

Along with filling the building up with vendors, our classes are filling up with students, and we are thrilled! A number of classes have sold out, and many only have a seat or two left, so if you have been putting off signing up, time is running out! You can still sign up online right here:
https://www.yarncon.com/classes/ until Friday at 6pm Central time, after that, any seats still open will be available at the show, but for cash or check only.

Don’t forget to stop by our low-tech selfie station by the stage in the main hall! Please tag us with #yarncon and have fun, like this:

So many of us got into this picture that the whole frame made an appearance!

We’ll see you this weekend at YarnCon!

That’s so wirecore!

So, you have knit with wool (or some kind of fiber), and maybe you have knit with wire, but have you tried the combination of the two?

Wirecore yarn is what it sounds like, it is fiber spun around a wire core. The beauty of knitting with wire is you can make jewelry and sculptural objects with it. Once you add fiber, you get the same features of knitting with wire, but with the look and color of yarn.

wirecore yarn and tools
Wirecore yarn and tools

Emily Wohlscheid spins up some beautiful wirecore yarn, and in Knit Wirecore Jewelry she will teach you how to make jewelry and accessories with it. For this class, you don’t have to spin your own, Emily will be selling kits for the class.

Wirecore jewelry
Wirecore jewelry
Finished wirecore necklace
Finished wirecore necklace

Bring your knitting needles and your imagination, and learn to make jewelry at YarnCon!

Make it uniquely yours

When you wander the aisles at YarnCon, it is hard not to be inspired by the beautifully hand-dyed yarns. And every dyer creates colors that are uniquely theirs. But how do they do it? And it’s not just dyeing yarn, what about all the gorgeous batts, roving, top, braids, etc., just waiting to be transformed by your hands into yarn or felted art. But how does it all work? How do you dye yarn or fiber so that it is color-fast, and approximates what you have in mind? How do you transform that unspun fiber into yarn, and how much equipment do you even need to make it happen?

We have answers! To be more precise, our teachers have the answers, and they are waiting to teach you their methods to you at YarnCon.

Let’s say dyeing yarn is what you want to explore. Samantha Lynn can teach you to dye yarn, even with something easily accessible like Kool-Aid! And thanks to a generous donation by Wool2Dye4, the yarn will be provided for you! These are fun, and short workshops, leaving you time for other classes and shopping, and you go home with a baggie of yarn you dyed yourself! She has two classes, Dyeing I (the one with the Kool-Aid dyed yarn) and Dyeing II which explores professional acid dyes (believe it or not, Kool-Aid does count as an acid dye, so don’t let the name intimidate you.)

Dyeing with Samantha Lynn
One of Samantha’s dyeing workshops from 2014

Our next post will delve into the many spinning workshops we have in store for you. We can take you from never having tried it at all in our DIY Handspinning classes with Vera Videnovich (Vera taught Natalia how to spin on a wheel, and let’s just say her fiber stash is starting to rival the yarn stash) to blending your own fibers with Heavenly Bresser (take classes with her now while you can still get into them, she was just accepted to teach at Stitches Midwest, and once more people get to know her, she is going to be in demand big-time!), or even learn to make wire-core jewelry with Emily Wohlscheid.

DIY Spinning class
Vera has been teaching at YarnCon since our second year, back at the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse. Circa 2008.

Let’s talk steeks.

I know, I know, the very idea of cutting our freshly knit or crocheted sweater breaks us out into a cold sweat. So much so, that many of us prefer to stitch our sweater in pieces over doing it in the round and taking scissors to it. But, think about the time it saves, and so much less purling for those who prefer the knit stitch. If you have ever thought about learning how to steek your sweaters, but were too nervous to jump in, then Lori is here to help.

Freshly steeked sweater.

Lori Grady is teaching Cut Your Knitting: Steeks on Saturday at 1pm. Spend the morning checking out all the yarn, fiber, and accessories, and then do something for yourself, learn a new skill! It’s a lot less scary with an expert to show you how.

Getting ready for the big cut!

Interested in taking a class, but with less cutting involved? You are in luck, we still have spaces in our spinning and dyeing classes. More on that in our next post! Stay tuned!

PS Don’t delay on signing up, a few of our classes have already sold out!!

Teacher Spotlight: Kathy Kelly and Tunisian Crochet

It’s time for another guest blog post, this time by long-time YarnCon teacher, Kathy Kelly. Kathy has been teaching Tunisian Crochet at YarnCon for 5 years now, and her classes are always a hit. Her workshops range from beginner level classes, to more advanced techniques. But, Kelly can tell  you herself, so I will turn it over to her.

Kathy Kelly

Kathy Kelly

 
Hi, Kathy Kelly here. This my 5th year teaching at YarnCon and I’m excited to be conducting a brand-new workshop on Corner-to-Corner Crochet, or C2C. It’s a great technique for making square and rectangular projects that have a unique look and feel. Think scarves, wraps, capes, baby blankets, and afghans, as well as motifs.

C2C crochet

Corner to Corner Crochet

 
We’ll be working diagonally using the box stitch, which takes projects in the beautiful new cake and gradient yarns to a new level! We’ll also make a 2-color design sample that can be used as a coaster, or as a first motif in a larger project. For this class you’ll need to know how to double crochet and chain. 

C2C heart

Corner to Corner Heart

 
I’m also teaching a Beginning Tunisian Crochet class that requires no prior crochet experience, but if you know how to crochet a chain and work into it, all the better. Once you’ve taken the beginning class, you’ll be ready for the Tunisian Lace Class where we’ll explore a new way to create unique projects you’ll love.

Tunisian Lace scarf

Tunisian Lace scarf

You can sign up here:

C2C Crochet 

https://www.yarncon.com/c2c-crochet/

Beginning Tunisian Crochet

https://www.yarncon.com/beginning-tunisian-crochet/

Introduction to Tunisian Crochet Lace

https://www.yarncon.com/intro-tunisian-lace/

You can find me on Ravelry as Vibeskat, and check my blog at crochetbird.wordpress.com.