Time to apply for YarnCon 2013!

Hey everyone, we're back, and ready to see those applications roll in for YarnCon 2013. Thanks for sticking with us; we know we made you wait a while longer than expected. Changes and life get in the way sometimes. As busy as we have been planning this big new expanded YarnCon, we've all had big expanding changes in our private lives too, and those had to take precedence. We hope you understand, and we hope you are as excited as we are for the next YarnCon! So, without further ado, here is the link to the application for YarnCon 2013: https://www.yarncon.com/yarnconapp13.html And, if you are free on February 19, 2013, at 6:45pm, we'll be talking everyone's ears off about YarnCon at the Windy City Knitting Guild meeting. Please join them, and us, to talk about what YarnCon is all about.

Let's Spring Ahead!

*tap tap* Is this thing on? Hey there yarn-lovers! Sorry we haven't updated this blog in so long. We've missed you, and we know you've been wondering what we have been up to, so let's do some catching up. As you may have noticed, we are not hosting YarnCon this Fall. Instead we've decided to spring ahead to Spring with double the YarnCon! YarnCon 2013 will be on April 6-7, 2013 at the Stephen M. Bailey Auditorium. It was not an easy decision to make, but with the increasing number of Fall fiber events, and the difficulty in finding a venue to better suit our growing show, we knew this would be the right move. Wait until you see our new digs! We're still close to public transit, plus tons of great restaurants. And the parking! 275 parking spaces! Although we are a bit sad to say good-bye to the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse and the wonderful staff there, we knew this was the right move for YarnCon. We hope you agree, and we hope you will help us make this the most amazing YarnCon yet! We'll be bringing you more updates soon (honest!)

YarnCon is Saturday, September 24!

YarnCon 2011 is only eight days away. We're so close, we can almost taste it. We have some amazing vendors again this year, as well as a full day of shopping, and of course, workshops.

Speaking of workshops, for the first time ever we're able to offer online registration for them this year! It's terribly exciting. Go and sign up now. No, go on. We'll wait.

Er, well, that's all we wanted to say about that. The show's coming up soon, and we hope to see you there! Spread the word, and tell your friends. Come fondle the fiber and add to your stash!

Countdown!

There are only 11 days left before the application deadline for YarnCon! We're really excited about the applications we've gotten so far, so keep them coming! You'll be in fine yarny company.

Let's knit in public!

I am pleased to announce that we will be knitting in public at Millennium Park again this year! We will be at the Boeing Gallery North, under the shady trees. World Wide Knit in Public day is June 11, 2011. We will officially meet from 12-4, but please come as early or as late as you like. If it rains, we will meet in the old reading room behind the Randolph Cafe (Randolph Street entrance) in the Chicago Cultural Center, just across the street from Millennium Park.

I already know what I will be working on (I am just starting an afghan, and I hope to get at least a few squares done that day.) How about you? Now, all I have to do is hope I don't miss it again this year; no plague please!

Getting ready for YarnCon 2011

Hey, remember us? We're back with news about YarnCon 2011!

We are pleased to announce that the vendor application for YarnCon is now live on our webpage: http://www.yarncon.com

YarnCon will take place on September 24, 2011 from 11am to 6pm! We hope the later and longer hours will work well for those of you who work on Saturdays. We did move the show up a week in order to secure parking spaces for our vendors. We don't know yet if we will keep the date. We will see how what you think after this year's event, and take it from there. We are still at the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse at 1419 W. Blackhawk.

Every year we try to build on the lessons we learned producing the previous year's show, and this year is no different. Heck, we're already working on next year's show too. We worked long and hard to hammer out the details for this year, and we hope you will be pleased. We got lots of detailed feedback from our vendors and attendees, and we tried to incorporate as many suggestions as we could. We know not everyone will like the date change, and we really tried hard to find the day that would work for most people. I guess this is just a long way of saying, we're listening. We hope you will keep sharing your thoughts with us, and sharing in our yarny adventures.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have a hat to knit, and I would like to get it done so my husband can wear it before Spring is over! Besides, the more stash I knit up now, the more room I will have for yarn on September 24th!

High on Yarn Fumes

Clearly we are so enthusiastic about planning for and organizing YarnCon, that we have no time to blog! Or, we need to add this here blog to our to-do list.

But busy we were, and the result was another lovely (albeit rainy and windy) day spent with hundreds of yarn-lovers. Even with the last minute move to the East Gym, it was a great day, with two rooms full of fantastic vendors, workshops, and yarn enthusiasts.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our vendors, instructors and volunteers. It would not be YarnCon without you!

We also want to thank Heartland Cafe for being a part of YarnCon since the beginning. We want Heartland to be around for many YarnCons to come, but they are having some serious financial problems. Please visit their website to see how you can help them out, or just head over to the Heartland Cafe, and have a tasty meal.

It has been a crazy house-moving and baby-having few months for Sara and I respectively, but now that we are settling in to our new digs, we can focus on our beloved YarnCon!

We are very pleased to announce that vendor applications are up on the webpage, so please apply!
We are also looking for volunteers, so please apply for that as well.

As always, thank you for being a part of YarnCon, and we are looking forward to another wonderful Yarny Year!

YarnCon 2010 Date Announced

We are pleased to announce that we are back on for the first Saturday in October this year! So, please mark your calendars for the 4th annual YarnCon on October 2, 2010. We will be updating the website soon, but if you have any questions in the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact us at info@yarnygoodness.com.

Generosity

We want to thank everyone who has donated yarn, needles and crochet hooks to Cast Onto Your Dreams. We've received so much yarn thanks to your generosity, that we have to stop collecting yarn for the time being.

Thanks again to all of you who donated, and to Sister-Arts Studio, My Sister's Knits and Arcadia Knitting for collecting donations for us.

We will continue to post information about what you can do to support Cast Onto Your Dreams here as the program continues to grow.

YarnCon 2009 Was a Blast!

What an amazing day! We want to thank all our wonderful vendors for making YarnCon such a great show. We couldn't do it without you! We'll bask in the post-show glow for a short while, but we already have big ideas for next year.

And now, a nap. Ahh.

YarnCon on the Radio!

If you were listening to 88.7 WLUW in Chicago this past Thursday morning, you might have heard a piece about YarnCon on Outside the Loop Radio! The show's producer, Mike Stephen, interviewed Sara about the show and what we mean by the "yarny arts."

Missed it? Listen to the archived version!

See you and your yarny selves tomorrow at YarnCon 2009!

YarnCon 2009 is One Week Away!

Somehow, September and October have flown by, and the third annual YarnCon is now just a week away. We're excited for you to see our lineup of vendors that we can hardly stand it. Have you seen the 2009 list yet?

And workshops! Whether you're looking to learn to knit, learn to spin, or make a unique felted pin or beaded toggle for an FO, we've got you covered. The $3 show admission grants you free access to all the classes, although one or two have extra fees for materials.

On top of it all, we're happy to present the Craft Lounge for the second year. Sit, relax, knit, spin, crochet, or just revel in your new acquisitions at our comfy round tables in the West Gym.

See you next Saturday at the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse!

Vendors, Workshops, and Volunteers, oh my!

YarnCon is less than 3 weeks away, and we are working fast and furiously to make sure it is the best YarnCon yet. Thanks to amazing vendors and workshops, we are sure it will be. You can see a preview of what awaits you this year on October 17th at the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse by checking out the vendor and workshops links on the YarnCon website.

We also have a handy-dandy volunteer sign-up page for anyone who would like to help us out on the day of the show. In exchange for a few hours of helping us and our vendors we will give you free admission, yummy coffee and doughnuts, and our eternal gratitude. Plus, working on YarnCon is a lot of fun! You get to hang out with like minded people all day and be a part of something we all enjoy. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at info (at) yarnygoodness.com Thanks!

2009 Vendor list available

We’ve posted our 2009 vendor list at the YarnCon website!

We have several fabulous new folks on board this year, along with many of our favorite crafty artisans from the past two years. It’s going to be a great show.

We’re still working on the workshop schedule, and we’ll post it soon.

YarnCon site Visible to IE7 Users!

Egad. Apparently those of you on PCs using IE7 as your browser were unable to view the YarnCon website for a while there, but we've fixed the problem. So if you've noticed a big blank white space where YarnCon info used to be, check it again.

Apply, even! We're almost full to bursting, but we have a few spots left for those not making the trip to Rhinebeck that weekend. (Trust me, we won't be making that scheduling mistake again. Sigh.)

Another fabulous WWKiP Day!

Thanks to everyone who braved the rain and came out to knit in public on Saturday. I am actually glad it rained, since it meant we actually got to try out our rain location, the Chicago Cultural Center. There was plenty of room in the cafe, and the people who work at the Cultural Center were very welcoming, and hope that we come back, hooray for knitting in public! There was a lot of foot traffic in the Cultural Center, as people came in out of the rain, so we were, as usual, a tourist attraction. Now, onto the pictures!

WWKiP Day -- Saturday, June 13

Need an excuse to grab your needles and knit outside? Join us in Millennium Park this Saturday from 12-4pm (or anytime in between) for Worldwide Knit in Public Day!


We'll be in the grassy area behind the Chase Promenade -- along Randolph, just East of Michigan Ave. In the event of a rainy day, we'll walk down Randolph to the Cultural Center and meet in their cafe.

We're ba-aaack

Hello Yarny Friends, we've been busy raising and having off-spring this winter (a huge congratulation to Sara and Lane on the birth of their ultra-cute future knitter, Maggie!), but we never stopped thinking about YarnCon, and the yarny fun to be had this year (OK, maybe Sara might have had occasion recently to not think about it for a little while, babies will do that you.)

First, an announcement. YarnCon will be held on October 17th this year, not the first weekend in October as we had planned. We tried, but the Park District has other plans. C'est la vie. We will carry on, and we hope you will join us for the third annual YarnCon at the lovely Pulaski Park Fieldhouse! We are getting ready to update the website, and get the application together, so vendors, get ready, the application goes live on April 15th! If you would like to host a workshop or demonstration, or a book signing, please contact us at info@yarnygoodness.com.

We're also very excited to be organizing the Millennium Park gathering for World Wide Knit in Public day. As some of you might remember, last year we had a huge gathering, and got lots of attention from the Park security. We've been working with the Park District this year, and they are going to help us find a nice, shady space in Millennium park for our gathering this year. Because this is a free event, and we are not renting the space, we have to wait until May to find out the exact location in the park. Keep an eye on this blog, and the Windy City Fiber Folks group on Ravelry for more details.

We're looking forward to wonderful year of creating with yarn, we hope you will join us.

Quietly busy

Although we've been quiet here on the blog, we can't stop talking about our plans for next year. We love producing YarnCon, and organizing other yarny events throughout the year, and we want to bring Chicago more of the Yarny Goodness. There are so many talented and creative fiber artists we want to bring to your attention, and we are working on fun new ways (including YarnCon, of course) of introducing them to you. But, we can use your help, while helping you get some holiday shopping done at the same time. Please help us raise funds by purchasing our limited edition YarnCon print.

Each print is signed and numbered by Chicago artist, Alex Uribe. For a mere $30 you can have this great poster, and know that you're helping promote Chicago area artists. Thanks!