20-21 April 20-21, 2024 YarnCon Vendor Marketplace
Plumbers Union Hall Chicago, IL
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Last chance to pre-register for classes

April 3, 2019 by 2 Comments

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!

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You spin me right round

March 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Right round like a spinning wheel, baby.

Let’s delve into the spinning classes, shall we? We have a great variety to offer you, so let’s start with the very basics.

If you are curious about spinning, and have either not tried it before, or tried, and you just couldn’t get the swing of it, DIY Handspinning with Vera Videnovich is the class for you. This class is offered on both Saturday and Sunday, and in it you learn the basics of spinning on drop spindles. You don’t even need to have a spindle yet, Vera will show you how to make your own with common household objects, or items easy to pick up at your local hardware store. She also introduces the basics of spinning on a spinning wheel. (We have a few student wheels that will be available in case you want to give it a try.)

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

Do you already know how to spin, and are ready to learn some new skills? Heavenly Bresser has classes for you! Let’s start with fiber preparation. Of course you can buy fiber ready to spin from, and that’s fantastic, but maybe you want to blend your own colors, or you have seen those pretty rolags, and want to know how to make your own; Blending Boards: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly is the class you want to take.

blending board
Preparing a rolag from a blending board
Finished Rolags
Finished rolags

What about controlling your color while spinning? Just because your fiber is ready to spin, that doesn’t mean there aren’t more choices to make. How do you create yarn that self stripes, that gradually changes color, and how do you ply those singles and maintain your desired effect? Heavenly teaches you how to create a subtly self-striping yarn in Color Control with Fractal Spinning.

fractal spun bobbins
Bobbins ready to be plied in Fractal Spinning
Fractal Spun Yarn
Fractal Spun Yarn

How about art yarn? Have you seen those pretty beehives and wondered how to spin those up? Heavenly shows you how in Art Yarn: Bubbly Beehives.

spinning beehives
Spinning beehives

Just look at the amazing yarn you can make! Vera and Heavenly will make spinning a pleasure, we hope you will check these classes out, and sign up while there are still seats open.

We do want to make one important note about our spinning classes this year. Spinning classes will be held on the stage this year (just like old times!) There are a few steps up to the stage, so if stairs are a problem, please let me know. We hope to have these workshops back in a classroom next year once work on the building is complete.

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Make it uniquely yours

March 16, 2019 by Leave a Comment

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.
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Teacher Spotlight: Emily Wohlscheid’s spinning workshops

March 7, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Today we are pleased as can be to have Emily Wohlscheid take over the blogging duties! She will be talking about her spinning workshops, Try Spinning Bouclé, and Drop Spindle World Tour. You can see more of Emily’s work on Instagram, where she is @bricolagestudios and her online store, Bricolage Studios. And now, here is Emily!

 

Hi YarnCon fans, Emily Wohlscheid here! When Natalia asked me to write this I sat down and the first thing I thought was, “Holy cow! This is my 5th year teaching at YarnCon!” I started my involvement with YarnCon when it was still held at the fieldhouse* and I have been so thrilled to watch it grow and change over the years. I love YarnCon so much!  The excitement and energy that surround it and how absolutely fabulous the organizers and volunteers are at the show makes it easy to come back year after year. I’ve always used this show as my kickoff to teaching new workshops because the vibe is so great that my nerves melt away (mostly.) This year I am offering two spinning workshops. I am incredibly excited to finally be sharing my favorite materials and techniques for making complicated loopy textural yarns as a short form workshop in my Try Spinning Bouclé.

try spinning boucle

 


My other offering this year is the result of my explorations with various drop spindles in the past year. I was determined to learn how to wrap my Turkish spindle in that beautiful God’s eye patterns I was seeing spindlers post on Instagram and wondered why I hadn’t been spinning on spindles more in general as I worked through it. I also began to play with more simplistic drop spindles like the Scottish dealgan that had been intriguing me and the primitive Peruvian spindle a dear friend brought back for me. Drop Spindle World Tour is the results of these explorations. I know it was intimidating for me to invest in and try some new spindles, but with guidance and the permission to explore, I hope to share that wonder with several more spinners in this laid back exploratory workshop! 
 
drop spindle world tour
 
I can’t wait to see you all at YarnCon! 
 
*Natalia’s note: The Pulaski Park Fieldhouse, back when YarnCon was a one day affair from 2007-2011.
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