Yarnies541

How do you write a craft club newsletter when the world is on fire? When there are so many other, more important, pressing things you think you could be doing to help.

Welcome to the contradiction that I imagine most of us are living in all the time right now. I know many of us feel overwhelmed and maybe that we aren’t able to do anything meaningful to make a difference. It is overwhelming, exhaustion is real, seeing and hearing about the horrible things happening every single day is not good for humans, or anyone/anything. And yet, here we are. With the understanding that there has always been injustice to fight against, we sometimes forget that the things we do every day ARE helpful, that it absolutely IS resistance. As long as we are capable of experiencing joy and creating comfort in our world, I think we owe it to our communities to keep doing exactly that. 

We know that many of our members are involved in lots of different ways to make our communities safer, more resilient, more connected. We take action where we can make an impact and allow ourselves rest and joy when we can get it so we don’t deplete ourselves completely. This is how we can keep it up, keep going. Doing what we can that makes the most impact where we are. We lead with our values and understand that the joy we are blessed to experience is exactly what shines for us and others when things are dark. It’s the creating and the community that lights the way and lifts us up to keep moving forward. 

We believe the creative things we do in the midst of the very difficult work of resistance is literally the fuel that keeps us going. All of us. Together. 

OK, turning left and stepping off the podium….

Sunday, February 15th 5:30pm Business meeting at Stringfield Yarn Collective (175 S. 5th St. in Springfield). 

Tuesday, January 27th Meetup: 5:30pm at 255 Madison in Eugene. We meet in the back Barrel Room. 

Thursday, January 29th Meetup: 5:30pm at Oakshire Commons 416 Main St. in Springfield. Yarnies get 10% off during meetup times! We had a GREAT turnout last Thursday and look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Meetups are open to everyone, so check us out!

January 31st-February 1st Sea Change Fibers will be at Stringfield for a trunk show! Sarah is excited to offer an educational talk and meet & greet for paid Yarnies541 members on Saturday at 4:30 pm. Sarah will be speaking about sustainability in the yarn dyeing world and her practices as an indie dyer among other topics. 

February 7th, 10am: Eugene Textile Center is having a huge sale starting on Feb. 7th. ETC is located at 2750 Roosevelt Blvd. in Eugene. 

Both Stringfield and Cozy are hopping with classes, shop links at the end of this email. Check them out and learn new things!

The Big Fleece was a great success! Never fear, the eyelash yarn made an appearance as well as some other funny items and also some really great, beautiful things that folks walked away with. We raised $250 from ticket sales that was donated to the Civil Liberties Defense Center here locally. Yarnies541 donated the entire proceeds to the CLDC and we were able to cover the processing fees for the donation as well so they received the whole donation. Way to go everybody! You can learn more about the CLDC here: https://cldc.org

Special shout out to Erin Z. “Sister Erin” who won the first ever Yarnies541 branded tote at The Big Fleece! We hope to have a pre-order in the future!

There are a whole bunch of fundraising patterns online right now to help fund boots on the ground resistance efforts, especially coming out of Minnesota. Please feel free to share these on the Yarnies541 Discord (link at end of this newsletter). We are seeing a lot of colorwork charts with great messaging as well as specific, historically influenced hat patterns that raise money and bolster community efforts in resisting this fascist push we are experiencing right now.

Thank you for being part of the Yarnies541 community. We are REALLY glad you’re here. Keep creating, recognize the joy even in the midst of suffering. A life without joy is hard to fight for. We fight for joy and for each other. 

As always, Thank you for building this great community! Please consider supporting our local businesses that support our club: stringfieldyarncollective.com and cozy-yarn.com as well as ebbandflowboutique.com and www.alwaysbekindyarn.com

Please check out our calendar on the main page of the website www.Yarnies541.org for recurring events. And please, as always, email or comment about events we may have missed! Or post them on the Yarnies541 Discord: https://discord.com/invite/6RHfvR4vTh