Bigger, Bolder, Super-er

Every year in December, Jac and I get anxious about the next year’s Geek-A-Long. I’m not exaggerating when I say that both of us have lost sleep every single year over whether or not we are making the right calls. This year, however, has been next level stressful. This year, we are betting the llama farm* on you guys. And as scary as it’s been to prep for, we are all in.

To date, the Geek-A-Long community has raised just over $6000 for Child’s Play Charity.

I think we can agree that’s crazy awesome. But here’s the thing. We want to turn that into $10,000 by the end of 2017. And I think we can do it. Not only that, as we go into the fourth year of this crazy project, we want you to know that we have heard you. There is an amazing forum over on Ravelry, and it’s moderated by the fabulous Singing Sheep and Nickiescreations. We aren’t very vocal in the group, we want that to be for you guys, but we are there. We read what you have to say and we have taken it all into account. So this year we are going to try something a little radical.

This year we did not seek a yarn sponsor. Lattes & Llamas donated the yarn for the sample blanket.

The official yarn this year is a brand new hand-dyed yarn straight from us to you, Geek-A-Long Yarn!

$1 from every single 50g skein of Geek-A-Long Yarn sold will be donated to Child’s Play Charity. 

Yeah. You read that right. We are selling Geek-A-Long Yarn in 50g skeins. You will need one of each color for each square, this way you can buy only what you need per square. So for every square knit with the yarn we will donate $2. If 42 people knit a full 48 square blanket out of the official yarn we will have met our $4,000 donation goal! We aren’t going to track what the yarn is used for and you don’t need to do anything special at check out. Every skein of GAL yarn sold equals a $1 donation, including when it’s on sale.

Oh, and speaking of sales…

One of the things we’ve read time and again on the forums is that people want to use the official yarn sponsor, but it’s financially prohibitive. We get that. So here’s where those sleepless nights come in. The reason that yarn stores can buy yarn at wholesale prices (30%-50% off of retail) is because they buy in bulk. It is SO much more affordable per skein for me to buy 1,000 skeins of yarn to dye than it is to buy 100. But the flip side is you need that money up front. That’s the backroom of this industry. 100g is expensive. 10,000g is usually almost half the price per skein.

This has been your lesson on why it’s hard to start a yarn business. ;)

Seriously though. We want everyone who wants awesome hand-dyed yarn to have it. So this year’s GAL theme is: L&L bets the ranch! We bought a whole bunch of Geek-A-Long Yarn. We spent pretty much all of our dollars. And every single week we will have a Monday Flash Sale for the colors we used in the upcoming Sunday’s square.

Until 11:59pm on Monday we will sell the two colors used for next Sunday’s square at the full wholesale markdown of 50% off. 

Our GAL skeins are regularly priced at $15. On Monday’s you’ll get them for $7.50. It’s not possible for us to make the yarn as cheap as big box acrylic yarn. We honestly tried, but this is the lowest we can go without sacrificing yarn quality. Plus, one of those dollars goes to Child’s Play. That buys you 164 yards of 80% Superwash Merino and 20% nylon sport weight yarn, every skein hand-dyed by us in our studio.

We’re freaking out a little. There have been a few not so pretty melt-downs this month. We drained our available resources to make this a reality. We’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but it’s scary to take the plunge. About three weeks after ordering the yarn, my roof started leaking. It was sort of funny since it was leaking into the toilet. It was much less funny when the contractor told me I needed a new roof. Normally, that’s not the kind of stuff we would write about here, but I guess we just sort of want you guys to know the stakes. This year has the potential to be amazing, and we want you to know that we are all in.

Man, that has been building up for a long time. It’s such a relief to have you know it! We’ve got twelve fabulous new colors coming your way.

But that’s just the beginning!

The theme for 2016 is Superheroes: Marvel vs. DC!

Last year’s Fight-For-Your-Fandom was a huge success and we’ve brought it back. We picked out our top 40 superheroes. They’re already designed and being knitted, but that means there are EIGHT slots left. You’ll have the chance to fight for your favorite hero to make sure they are on the blanket this year. Just go to the Geek-A-Long Ravelry group Wednesday to cast your vote and check back here next Sunday for the Leaderboards to see which superheroes are in winning. We’ve decided to do a Marvel vs. DC brawl and 24 squares will be from each house.

We have subscription options for the yarn that allow you to subscribe at the flash sale price and get a few fun things as well, including a bonus GAL pattern and cool swag. At the moment, you can grab a 12 week subscription, which includes enough yarn to make a supremely nerdy stroller blanket. The subscription contains 12 weeks worth of Geek-A-Long Yarn and you will be able to knit/crochet 12 8″ x 8″ squares. This is a fun and easy way to get your yarn at a discounted price. To knit a larger sized blanket, you will need to sign up for GAL Guild again or buy the yarn separately.

Let’s do this.

~ Megan-Anne
*There is no Llama farm. Dr. Llama is not a real llama. She is a person (most of the time). We get asked about the llamas A LOT. 

PS. There is still a TON of stuff to tell you about for next year. Tune in next Sunday for even more announcements.