Gauge Summer Yarn + Pattern Club 2020
A meadow of blooming purple camas. This photo is a hint of what the club theme will be.
This will be the fourth year I’ve collaborated with Gauge Dye Works for a summer yarn and pattern club! And I’m excited to announce that this year’s first club instalment signups open on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 at 9am Pacific. (Note that the product listing will show as “sold out” till it’s actually on sale.)
UPDATE July 20, 2020: Signups for the August , 2020 club will open July 28, 2020.
What’s this all about?
Some of you have already told us that you’re super excited to sign up for the club again, but I know there are new folks here too (welcome!), so so here’s what the Gauge Summer Yarn + Pattern club is:
Gauge Dye Works and I work together to create yarn and patterns that are very clever and go together perfectly. Knitters have a chance to subscribe to the club without knowing what those yarns and patterns will look like (it’s a fun surprise!) and then they receive yarn and a code for pattern downloads on a pre-arranged schedule. The patterns and yarn are exclusive to club members for a year. (Here are the previous clubs so you can see what we’ve done before: Knit Outside, Angles & Light, and Sky.)
This first club shipment and pattern download code will go out in June.
UPDATE July 20, 2020: The second club shipment will go out in August, 2020.
What’s different this year?
This year we’re doing club sign ups one instalment at a time instead of the usual three. We’re working on the second instalment, but it won’t be in July. UPDATE July 20, 2020: It’s going out in August!
The Yarn Fund: Grant applications for limited or low-income makers are now open! Grants are funded by fellow makers and will cover the full cost of a June club subscription. Learn more, apply, or contribute here. Thank you so much to everyone who’s already contributed! UPDATE July 20, 2020: We’re accepting contributions for the August club now.
How about more details about how the collaboration works?
Gauge Dye Works is an incredibly smart company that makes self-striping and gradient yarns. They’re located in Victoria and so am I, so we usually meet in person to collaborate. This year, of course, we’re meeting virtually.
Together we brainstorm ideas for a theme, including pinning to Pinterest boards (here’s this year’s board), chatting, and sketching. Our theme this year is botanical — flowers and leaves.
We decide on projects and colours together, going back and forth with lots of ideas before we settle on some ideas to try.
Gauge dyes some yarn and then I knit some things with that yarn. We text each other a lot with lots of photos and emojis. Then Gauge dyes some yarn that is probably similar but maybe with wider stripes or a different third colour, and then I knit some more. Repeat.
We’re thrilled with the project! I knit an actual sample and make a pattern, Gauge makes a lot of yarn, and we hold a photo shoot that I sort of direct, but we both are on site for. (This year, I’ll be taking photos of my own feet in my home without Catherine, models, or a photographer except me, but we are making it work!)
We open signups for club members. The number of subscriptions we can offer is limited by how much yarn Gauge can produce, so things go quickly. We usually sell out in a day or two.
Gauge sends yarn to subscribers with a code so they can download the pattern. In past years we’ve done three-month subscriptions with yarn and a pattern going out during three consecutive months. This year is different (in so, so many ways) so we’re adjusting. The first listing is only for a single month (June). We’re currently working on the next project, and while we don’t have an exact date, it won’t be in July. UPDATE July 20, 2020: It’ll be in August!
This year we’ll also be holding an informal knit-along! So you can hang out in a Ravelry forum and share your work and get tips.
Questions?? Ask in the comments or send me an email at andrea@andrearangel.com. The best way to be sure you don’t miss out is to subscribe to our newsletters. Here’s a link to mine and here’s a link to Gauge’s (scroll to the bottom to subscribe).
Here’s a link to the club product listing. You may want to just open this tab in your browser so it’s at the ready for next Wednesday. 😄(Remember, it’ll show as “sold out” until it goes on sale.) A link to the August club listing is coming soon.
Here’s the design from the June collaboration and couple favourites from previous collections:
Wildflower Meadow socks from the June 2020 club.
Saxe Point striped colourwork socks from Knit Outside
Full Spectrum reversible toque
And one last thing is to just say a huge thank you to all the enthusiasm knitters have shown for this project over the past few years. We really thought we were just going to do it the one time when we first tried it, but it went so well, we can’t seem to stop!