YarnYAY! to Cease Production of Yarn Subscription Boxes

Vickie Howell, yarn industry cheerleader extraordinaire and founder of YarnYAY!, a subscription box for knitters and crocheters, has announced that the company will cease production of the boxes this winter.

The December box will be the last one for people who purchased the monthly subscription plan; quarterly subscribers will get a last package for winter in January.

Howell says in a Facebook post announcing the closure that the company kind of fell into her lap at a time when she was looking at getting into retail but wasn’t sure how to do it. The long version is in the post, but the short version is, after expected support from CrateJoy fell through at the last minute, she ended up taking on the whole project herself.

The first crates went out in May 2018 and were focused on knitters, but since June of that year both knitting and crochet projects have been offered in the boxes, which include yarn, notions, patterns and other fun stuff.

Howell says YarnYAY! has partnered with more than 175 small businesses to provide products and patterns for the crates.

“Over the past 18 months however, while prices from everything from fiber and cardboard, to software and shipping have relentlessly continued to rise, subscribers to our monthly box (YarnYAY’s main source of revenue) have steadily dropped,” she wrote. “The losses have snowballed and now, to quote an infamous start-up CEO’s recent announcement, ‘we have more debt than assets.'”

In order to support Howell and the YarnYAY! team through this transition, she asks that people buy the December box or preorder the quarterly box. There will also be inventory clearances going on over the next few months as operations wind down, so be on the lookout for that as well.

We’re always sorry to see a bit of the fiber arts industry go, and we wish Vickie (who’s a former Craft Gossip-er from way way back!) the best in whatever’s next.

[Photo: YarnYAY!]

Darn Good Yarn 50% off Monthly Yarn Subscriptions

New Knitting Subscription Box Service by Vickie Howell

Sometimes when I’m scrolling through Ravelry a pattern will catch my eye as much because of the name as the look of the design (which is a little hard to see in those little thumbnails sometimes, anyway).

So it was with the Stellify shawl by Paola Albergamo. Stellify means to turn into a star, and the name and the story behind the shawl come from the story of Ariadne. The better known part of her story is that she helped Theseus escape from the Minotaur, but he then abandoned her. What comes after in many stories is that Dionysus found her, fell in love with her and later married her.

When he threw her jeweled crown into the sky, the Corona Borealis constellation was formed.

What does all this have to do with shawl knitting?

The shawl itself looks like it has a scattering of stars on it, as if it, too, has been stellified. The shawl begins with an I-cord tap and is shaped into a triangular shawl with both lateral and central increases. I-cord edging is incorporated into the sides, and the colorwork is done with mosaic knitting, which means this shawl is easier than it looks.

Mosaic knitting has you working with just one color per row, slipping stitches that appear in the other color to make the colorwork visible. Even better for people new to this kind of colorwork, the pattern includes written and charted instructions throughout so it should be easy to follow along.

The pattern comes in two sizes (the larger one is shown here) and calls for two colors of fingering weight yarn. It looks great in black and yellow, but don’t miss the other projects on Ravelry to see other fun and beautiful color options.

You can find the pattern in English and Italian on Ravelry.

[Photo: Paola Albergamo]

Have you read?