Yarn Bank Liquidation

new to the yarn bank today
Originally uploaded by craftyone77

It’s with a very sad heart that I write this all. I’m closing the Yarn Bank as of October 1.

Over the last year or so, I’ve had such a great time collecting yarn from people’s stashes and turning it around to people to use for charity purposes. It’s been such a treat to hear about all the great charity projects that have been made, all the lives that have been touched by this venture.

And then, two months ago, I was contacted about helping someone unload several trailers full of yarn meant for charity knitters and crocheters. Thinking it would be an amazing opportunity, I signed on, not realizing the trouble I would be causing for myself.

In these two months I have talked to countless individuals who wanted nothing more than to knit and crochet for charity, and have been stymied repeatedly in getting yarn to them. I have stuck through it, knowing that eventually this yarn would end up in the hands of charity crafters who wanted to make items for those in need.

All the while, I continued to try to keep up with the yarn bank. The two were kept separate, although I was contacted about helping out with this large yarn liquidation due to the yarn bank’s modest success. I hadn’t thought any of this would be an issue whatsoever, until the last few days.

In the last few days, everything has fallen apart. I have been accused of stealing business from local yarn stores, stealing potential charity crafters from this larger yarn liquidation, discovered people have not received yarn who should have, and in general lost my stomach more than once at the demanding, selfish, and greedy nature of a large number of people.

And so I’m closing up the yarn bank. Any yarn that is sent to me between now and September 15th I’ll go ahead and list, but as of October 1 I’m shutting down shop for the foreseeable future. Any yarn left in the yarn bank will be sent to reputable charities for use by their members.

I have always been someone who believed in the good of humanity, and this two month experience has left me sad, disheartened, and closed off to the thought of doing something like this again. I will never say never, and hold onto the yarn bank account indefinitely, so that if I have a change of heart I can start things up again.

From now on, I will continue to focus on my personal charity knitting, on loving on and supporting the charity crafting community as much as possible from a distance, and participating in Homespun Helpers joyfully. If there’s anyone in the group who wants to take the reins with this project, please contact me via e-mail (rmcdevine@gmail.com) so we can discuss it.

There is still a lot of good yarn in the yarn bank, and there will be some needles, hooks and even some great vintage fabric listed between now and September 15th, so please take a look and grab what’s left – it won’t be there long!