Yarnathon

I feel I should explain what the Yarnathon is, how it works, and why it's so great. Most of my projects throughout the year are motivated by some aspect of the Yarnathon, whether it be earning a badge, buying yarn or joining a KAL. I will undoubtedly be mentioning the Yarnathon in just about every post! So here it is.

What is the Yarnathon?

It is a year-long competition between the customers of the Georgia located yarn store, Eat.Sleep.Knit. Anyone who makes a purchase is placed one of 4 teams. Each team completes various activities throughout the year including booster badges, KALs, and team challenges. Teams compete using a quantity of stars. However, you individually move on a game board of sorts and as you hit milestones of yardage, you earn prizes and store credit! The prizes can range from candy to stitch markers to travel mugs, as well as Eat.Sleep.Knit. branded t-shirts and project bags! Essentially, it's an incredibly engaging and fun customer loyalty program.

How it works

To earn prizes, you must earn a certain number of yards of yarn. You can earn yards by buying yarn, completing knitalongs, and earning booster badges.

Buying

Buying yarn is straight forward. Yardage you buy = yardage earned. ESK offers bonuses like a sweater boost on buying 6+ skeins of the same yarn. This gives you an extra 50% yardage added to your total. Every quarter there are a handful of yarns given a "Power Boost" which can range from an extra 50% of yardage earned to 200%!

Knit-a-longs

Every year there are a handful of knit-a-longs you can participate in. These must be completed with yarn bought from ESK. There is usually a good variety of types of KALs. When you complete a KAL, depending on the size of the project, you will earn yardage towards your total as well as stars for your team.

Planning for KALs is so much fun and it helps me be productive in my knitting throughout the year. What's great about the KALs is that they have deadlines to meet for submitting your project. If you meet that deadline, you are eligible to win $20 of store credit in a voting thread on the discussion board where everyone votes for their favorite project and a random winner as well. But there is no pressure to complete on time because you can submit the finished KAL any time before the end of the year. I love having the deadline. It keeps me on track, but at the same time, life happens. Not everyone can knit as quickly as others. Not everyone can complete projects realistically. 

Booster Badges

The booster badge club is my favorite part of the yarnathon. Think of it like earning a patch in Girl Scouts. You complete a knitting related task and earn that badge. Each badge is worth either 20, 15, or 10 points. Once you earn a certain amount of points you become eligible for a prize! This year there are 6 levels of prizes. You can earn yardage, store credit, and stars for your team total.

I really love the booster badges because they push me to branch out and try new techniques. They include things like knit a pair of socks, knit a colorwork project, make a pompom, steek a project, and complete a crochet project. There are badges related to purchasing yarn, as well. And there are badges for the oops moments during the crafting process. Some of my favorites are start knitting with the tail of your yarn and accidentally twist stitches when joining in the round.

Yarnatron

 The last way to earn yards is the Yarnatron puzzles. Every week there is a new puzzle. You must identify 2 skeins of yarn based on a picture of the yarn. They will have a common word in the names of their colorway. That word is the answer to the puzzle. You get 50 yards for each right answer for a total of 2000 yards for the whole year.

Why It's Awesome

Every year the Yarnathon is based on a different theme! This year it is candy land. The game board is candy themed and the store has acquired special candy themed yarn from dyers like Madelinetosh, Squoosh Fiberarts, and Blue Moon Fiber Arts. There are candy prizes and Candyland inspired game board. Each team mascot has a candy themed name. I am a Peppermint Pony. I love the amount of thought and creativity that is put into creating the Yarnathon each year.

It’s Simple

Yes, there are a lot of rules and components to the Yarnathon. But it is incredibly simple to see your progress on their website. When you log into your account you can view your current yards and stars earned, any KALs you have submitted for, what booster badges you have earned, and where you are on the gameboard through the Yarnathon Dashboard. You rarely must keep track of anything yourself. I really love the ease of the Yarnathon Dashboard. You also have the choice of how you want to participate. You can do as little or as much as you want.

The Community

The community of crafters that they have created around this game is amazing. The discussion board on Ravelry is such a great place to socialize, get help, and find inspiration. The employees are very accommodating and try their hardest to please as many people as possible and answer questions through Ravelry. They have a presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as well. People from all over the world participate in the Yarnathon and it is really a great group and a fun time.

Yarn Lotto

In every order you place, you will receive a Yarn Lotto card. You scratch off the 6 spaces on the card and receive the prize if you match three of the same! I love the chance to win store credit, yarn, yardage, and project bags. It is just a fun bonus that really sets this store apart from others.

Customer Service

The Yarnathon is awesome because of the amount of engagement the store has with its customers. The employees (or kitties as they call themselves) work so hard every year to create such a wonderful and rewarding experience for their customers. The employees are very accommodating and try their hardest to please as many people as possible and answer questions through Ravelry. They have a presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as well. The employees are quick to answer questions, provide color suggestions, and they are even so kind to contact you when they don’t have enough matching skeins of what you ordered. The shipping is so fast. If you order in the morning, it will likely ship the same day. I love Eat.Sleep.Knit so much that I consider it my local yarn store even though I live hundreds of miles away.

Final Thoughts

I have given a summary of the major components of the Yarnathon. However, I didn't touch on every single small aspect of it, and there are always fun surprises along the way. The game lasts all year and the kitties are sure to keep us on our toes with all kinds of challenges and games. Checking in on the group discussion board is the best way to find out what is going on. There is a questions thread available if you have any questions.

I highly recommend you check out Eat.Sleep.Knit and the Yarnathon. If you love the yarn they sell and plan to buy yarn anyways, you might as well join in on the fun and earn some cute prizes while you're at it.

Go forth and stash!