Because of some problems I was having with other things, yarn club was about a week late this time. But by now it should be in almost everyone's hands, so ... let's talk about February's yarn, creativity in protest, and the inspiration for this colorway.
February's yarn, "Musical Soldier" is inspired by the mural of the same name by Banksy (although I found one or two references to it as "Musical Soldier" most places referred to it as the first). Oddly, I also found a couple of written descriptions where people said the soldier was holding a baseball bat, which... whut? Clearly not.
All I really knew about Banksy before I started researching this mural is that nobody really knows who he is (or at least, nobody is saying), and that a lot of his art is political, and I like what I've seen. Some people might call it graffiti, and while he started off as a graffiti artist, I call this art. Art makes you feel something. Art makes you think about something. Art pulls a visceral reaction out of you, whether you like it or you hate it. It doesn't matter if it's behind glass in a museum and locked tight at night, or on the side of a building in a dirty city. If it makes you feel something, if you react to it, it's art.
Banksy's art is done on walls, in cities, in the dark of night, and sometimes in almost impossible ways. He makes large murals quickly, and while some of them are within view of CCTVs, he's never been seen.
While his beginnings were with traditional spray-paint graffiti, he switched to stencils when he discovered it was faster. He sticks to a simple color palette; primarily black but occasionally with a shock of color. He uses subversive, revolutionary images to make social and political commentary, most of it for free.
Anyway! Back to the political! Some people consider his art to be vandalism, as it is graffiti, which is technically illegal in a lot of places. But you wouldn't know that by his popularity - it kind of makes me think of him as being the Robin Hood of the street art world. People in charge of things don't want him to do his thing, but the average person loves what he does.
He tends to revisit the same themes over and over; children, soldiers, children with soldiers, the loss of innocence in children who grow up in poverty and in war zones, anti-war activism, and people fighting back against oppression.
I've got to say, it was really, really hard to just choose one Banksy piece. If I thought I could get away with doing an entire year of black with little shots of color, I could probably do a whole year inspired by Banksy.
I hope you knit or crochet something subversive with this yarn!
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Not in Yarn Club? Want to be? There are two ways.
The first way -
On Patreon; for $30/month you get the yarn (including shipping), and access to patron-only posts. Or for $50, you get the yarn (including shipping), a postcard, and access to patron-only posts and my fiction. Because most of the tallying on that is done by hand, I've limited it to the standard bases; Andre, Joy, Lynn, Tepper, or Tiptree. There are many reasons why I moved it to Patreon years ago but the biggest one is that unlike my online shop, Patreon offered recurring billing, so that I wouldn't have to charge everyone for everything all at once, in three-month intervals (because I didn't want to charge someone more than about three months and have their money tied up for ages).
Cosmic Makers
$30/month
The only benefit this tier receives is a hand-dyed skein of yarn, once a month.
While this tier will be able to read open/public posts, and non-fiction Patron-only posts, it will not include access to the serialized story, or any other Patron Benefits such as postcards or Discord chats.
Solar Systems
$50/month
- everything that Shooting Stars, Comets, Planets, and Stars get
- one skein of yarn per month. Colors will range between semi-solids and multi-colors. This includes shipping.
Sign up before the last day of the month, and your card will be charged after the 1st; yarn ships around the 20th. You can cancel or change tiers at any time by logging into Patreon and making those changes yourself.
The second way -
I can finally offer Yarn Club on my online shop again, HaldeCraft, as a recurring subscription! Think "that big online place's Subscribe and Save" model. You can either buy into it once, to get an idea of what club is like, OR you can subscribe to it, get 15% off the base you choose (that's right, you can choose from ALL HaldeCraft bases), and cancel or change your subscription at any time via your customer account dashboard. This is a great option for someone who wants a different base yarn, or is uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the Patreon model.
I usually dye yarn between the 15th-20th of the month, and club is mailed out between the 20th-25th. I am just one person, though, so if life gets in the way and I'm running a few days late, I'll post here about it. But you can join any time, in either location!
Hopefully this is pretty self-explanatory, but if not, please - drop your questions in the comments! And thanks, y'all!
PS. Yarnies on Patreon - if you're interested in switching over to the club on HaldeCraft (it will always be the same color no matter where you're signed up), please feel free to! It won't change anything about this month (if you choose a different base yarn) but will start next month.
Either Way -
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The yarn colorway will be the same no matter where you sign up
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I typically dye yarn between the 15th and the 20th of the month
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I typically mail out yarn between the 20th and the 25th
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If you sign up and pay before I've dyed the yarn, you'll get that month's colorway
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If you sign up and pay after I've dyed the yarn, you'll get a one-hit wonder in the base you sign up for and the following months you will get the club colorways
Thanks, y'all!