Over the last few days, you've seen me post a bunch on social media about my partnership with YarnYAY! subscription boxes. Here's the backstory about my partnership with YarnYAY!:
At the HH Americas show in June, I attended a fascinating "State of the Industry" panel which featured four experts in the soft crafts industry talking about Covid, trends, where the industry is headed, etc. One of these experts was Vickie Howell, a well-known knitting show host, knitting book author, and the owner of the YarnYAY! subscription box service. Her positive attitude really stood out during the industry panel presentation and, so, when she was walking around the show floor the very last hour of the very last day, I went over to tell her how much I appreciated it. She responded by asking who I was and what I do. "Oh," I responded, "I do cross stitch, not knitting." She then told me they had been wanting to include a cross stitch mini kit in one of their boxes because there was a lot of interest in crafting "cross-pollination" and their customers like trying new things. Her business philosophy is "a rising tide lifts all boats" and so YarnYAY regularly partners with small designers like me to showcase our work to their large crafting community.
It's a great business model and I was just over the moon to be asked to join! To be perfectly honest, I had never heard of YarnYAY, so I thought this must be a small thing. When she told me the number of kits she would need, I grabbed a nearby table to steady myself! But it seemed like such a wonderful opportunity, I did a quick math calculation to make sure we had enough fabric in the workshop and then said yes!
We settled on a bookmark mini-kit that would feature the color palette of their Sept box (blues, reds, and burgundies--umm, yes please!) and a little motif that would have a sort of Scandinavian style. I got to work adapting the motif from Placidia Floral into a bookmark in a fabulous color palette of 926 grey green med, 924 grey green dark, 3857 rosewood, and 347 coral (love this color palette and can't wait to design something again in it!). I stitched the sample super fast and used a fringed edge technique a friend had sent me a photo of years ago and was so pleased with the result!
Next up was to design the packaging and I happened to have our new floss organizers in a tote nearby where I was working and realized they looked terrific with all the floss colors, so Georgia (my 12-year-old daughter) and Pamela (my workshop assistant) got to work winding hundreds and hundreds of hanks of floss. Kristen, our graphic designer, came up with the cutest mini-booklet and I started cutting fabric. My husband figured out to get our folding machine to fold half sheets (thank goodness!) and during one monster week in late July, we all pitched in and made the kits. It was so crazy--we had folding tables set up all around the workshop and a couple of Georgia's friends came to lend a hand so at one point, we had 7 people in the workshop tearing around yelling things like "I need 50 more floss hanks!" or "Fold more patterns!". It was totally crazy and totally fun!
The Avlea mini bookmark kit is now in the September YarnYAY subscription box and they're doing a lot of promoting across email and social media. They did the most fabulous email about me and Avlea and I've been so grateful for this opportunity to share traditional folk embroidery with a whole new crafting crowd. So, if you're a cross-pollinating crafter, check out YarnYAY!--they've got loads of fun things at their website.
I'd like to embroider a few bookmarks similar to the style of the item shown here (looks like YarnYAY! has gone out of business). Looking for advice on which fabric to use, and what stitch is used along the border to prevent unraveling.
Thanks for this information about YarnYAY! and your hive of activity around the new boxes. Your workshop sounds like a fun place to be and your description reminds me of how my husband's family used to pool their efforts in the candy store at holidays. You wouldn't believe how many people could fit in that tiny candy kitchen, but they choreographed candy making like a ballet and the handmade Easter treats were so yummy and beautiful. This little bookmark is charming, and I really like the edge treatment.
I have been buying YarnYAY! Boxes over the years and I was just thrilled with this sept box including cross-stitch as I not only knit/crochet but have just recently got back into cross-stitching! I have never heard of your company but was so thrilled to go to your website and order a bigger piece. I can’t wait to get started on them although being from Canada it will take a few weeks to get here - a nice project to do over our cold winter months!
So sweet!