How to play

Event basics

We're an accessible, inclusive, platform-agnostic stitchalong event, geared to promoting and supporting independent crochet and knitting designers. We also love building community and giving everybody a fun time!

Throughout all platforms, please remember that this event is friendly and inclusive. Please follow the event code of conduct ; this covers:

• Don't be a jerk. Please behave in good faith.
• In the spirit of inclusivity and making everyone feel welcome (a.k.a. "your right to swing your fist ends at my face"), the following is considered bad and can result in deletion, banning, etc.: racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, and other similiar "isms". This includes support for politics/regimes which encourage and/or support this kind of nonsense. As well, polite, constructive criticism is great. Unrestrained bashing is bad.

Once you've read through how you can participate in our event, you'll definitely want to also find out more about where you can participate!

We also invite you to share the event with your friends and followers - the more, the merrier! If you want to use imagery when you share, you can find the "official" logo graphic and a number of ready-made promotional images in the public directory on our Google Drive . In previous years, some of our participants put together more fancy-schmancy imagery based on our logo, and if that happens again, they'll be shared in this space.

The stitchalong part

The stitchalong runs from 9pm ET November 24 to the end of December 31, 2023 ET

The stitchalong is the centrepiece of the Fasten Off Yarnalong event. To participate, start at least one project after the event has begun, using a purchasable pattern from any of our participating designers.

You can post about your project(s), and see what your fellow participants are making for the yarnalong. Check out our where to play page to discover where and how to do that.

Finished projects are eligible for prizes! Complete our FO submission form  to enter.

To share your finished projects on social media, use the hashtag #FOYAL2023FO! If you're on Discord, you can post in our #yal-finished-projects channel.

If you have a problem with your yarnalong project, please reach out to the designer for pattern support. Please check the designer's profile on this website (which will be available once the event starts); if they have a specific communication method they use for pattern support, it'll be listed in their description.

Defining our terms

"Purchasable pattern" means a pattern which you would normally have to buy something to obtain. So even if you didn't purchase it yourself - e.g. you earned it from testing, you won it via a giveaway, the pattern is in a book which you got as a gift, whatever - it still counts as a "purchasable pattern" as long as the usual way to obtain it is to make a purchase.

"Participating designers" are those independent crochet and/or knitting designers who have officially signed up to be part of our event. Once the event starts, you'll be able to search who they are, and see their patterns, from this website.

Getting eligible patterns

Our discount period is now finished - but the shopping can still continue! You can use the search feature on the website to find designers and patterns that you love.

Where financial accessibility is concerned, this is an event about supporting the businesses of independent designers. However, we also appreciate that not everyone can afford to spend, and we want you to join in! Here are some ideas:

• If you already have for-pay patterns in your stash by participating designers, you can use those.
• Many designers offer patterns to beta testers. If you start a test project after the event starts, and the designer publishes the pattern before the event ends, your test project can be used for the yarnalong and will count for prizes. Our Discord server will even have a #test-calls channel that designers will use to post in to request test stitchers!
• Participate in our games and activities to win patterns as prizes.
• Our searchable pattern database will allow you to sort pattern products by price; this can help you find an inexpensive project that might catch your eye.

Games

To increase the fun and community, we have games on a variety of platforms! Check our schedule to see when and where they'll be held. Games come with prizes!

Bingo

The event has a bingo game, where you fill out cards based on what event activities you've done.

The cards

We have two cards this year:

Try All Things 

This is for folks who make a bunch of smaller projects and want to try out everything. Alt text for Try All Things card 

Take Your Time 

This lets people focus on a big project or just enjoying a calmer pace during the event. Alt text for Take Your Time card 

How to play

You can fill out cards manually or digitally. Just make note of which project(s) and pattern(s) you use for each square as you go.

You can try to fill up one or both of the two cards, as you prefer.

If you finish a card, you can also start all over again and fill out more.

There is no "double-dipping", for example:

• Both cards have a 'Follow 3 new participating designers' square; to check this on both cards, you would need to follow six new participating designers.
• If you're doing the same card more than once, the projects you used for one card don't count for subsquent card(s). The exception is for specific activities like 'try a new-to-you-technique', e.g. if you filled out your first card using Project A for 'Start your 1st FOYAL project' and Project B for 'Try a new-to-you technique', you could use Project A for the 'Try a new-to-you technique' square on your second card .

You can use social spaces to share your cards (in progress or completed), and see other participants' cards being shared. We have a #games-bingo channel on our Discord server, and you can use the hashtag #FOYALbingo on social media channels. If you post on Discord, Instagram, or Mastodon, there are chances to win prizes!

If you have any questions, you can post in our Discord server or email FastenOffYALGames@gmail.com.

Submitting finished cards

Even if you haven't completed any cards, make sure to submit them before the event ends (11:59pmET December 31, 2023). You can do this in one of two ways:

1. Email your card(s) to FastenOffYALGames@gmail.com with the subject "BINGO card". Include in your email the names of the patterns you've used.
2. Submit via our Google form , marking all the boxes you've finished. Fill in the names of the patterns you've used beneath that.

Bingo prizes

At the end of the event, we will randomly choose:

• Five entrants from everyone who submitted anything for the game: One free pattern each
• Five entrants from everyone who got at least one row (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal): Three free patterns each from three different participating designers
• Three entrants from everyone who filled up a whole card: Five free patterns each from five different participating designers

Scavenger Hunt

We'll be playing Scavenger Hunt this year on Discord and Mastodon - check the event schedule for when this will be happening, and keep an eye on the #games-scavenger-hunt channel on Discord and/or the Mastodon event account .

Scavenger Hunt is a chain game. To start, at the very beginning of the chain, the game facilitator will post a prompt (examples below). Then, you reply with a link which matches the prompt, and post a new prompt for other people to reply to.

Links need to be from the website's database, or participating designers' websites.

You can enter multiple times, but leave at least two posts by others between your entries.

To diversify the designers and patterns highlighted in the game, we ask that you try to post something you haven't shared before. It's okay if you share something that's been shared earlier in the game by someone else, that's hard to keep track of.

If you're participating on Discord, the Scavenger Hunt channel is no-chat, to keep the game easy to follow. However, you can respond to posts using threads, or react in the #games-chat channel.

Some prompt examples to help you out:

• "Show me something by a designer with fewer than 5 patterns"
• "Show me something a beginning crocheter could make"
• "Show me something in bulky yarn"
• "Show me something using a new-to-you knitting technique"

Picture Party

We'll be playing Picture Party this year on Discord and Mastodon - check the event schedule for when this will be happening, and keep an eye on the #games-picture-party channel on Discord and/or the Mastodon event account .

Picture Party is a chain game. To start the very beginning of the chain, a picture of a design by one of our participating designers is posted by the game facilitator, and you need to answer with the name of the design and its designer.

Then, you post a picture of a design by one of our participating designers, for other people to answer.

We don't expect that anyone will post a wrong answer, so don't halt the game by waiting for anyone to confirm your answer is correct; you can just post a new picture right after you answer.

You can enter multiple times during the chain, but leave at least two posts by other people between your entries.

To diversify the designers highlighted in the game, we ask that you post a picture of a design from a designer whom you haven't posted something from yet.

If you're participating on Discord, the Picture Party channel is no-chat, to keep the game easy to follow. However, you can respond to posts using threads, or react in the #games-chat channel.

Depending on the device you're using, you can grab images from the database on our website by right-clicking or tapping-and-holding, and then selecting 'copy' or 'download' (or a similar option) to grab the image.

Quizzes

We're runing quizzes on Instagram this year. These are random, so keep your eye on our Instagram account ! The quizzes pop up as stories in our account, so they're available for 24 hours before they go away.

Each quiz consists of one question about the event, with four answers to pick from.

Everybody who participates (right or wrong) gets entered into a random prize draw. Watch our Instagram post feed for the "prize wheel" posts showing the winners!

This or That

This game happens on Instagram. Each This or That is random, so keep your eye on our Instagram account ! The game pops up as stories in our account, so they're available for 24 hours before they go away.

Each This or That is a poll, consisting of one general crafting question, with two options to choose from.

Everybody who participates gets entered into a random prize draw. Watch our Instagram post feed for the "prize wheel" posts showing the winners!

"Meet the designers" events

To connect our participating designers with our stitching audience even more, we will be scheduling interactive events where makers can find out more about the design talent behind all these great independent businesses. Keep an eye on our schedule, and announcements on our social media channels, to find out when these will be! We'll be having events such as...

Ask Me Anythings (AMAs)

For a half-hour on a specific platform, people can ask questions, and the designer will do their best to answer as many as they can.

Even if you miss the live AMA, you can catch up after the fact by checking out the forum post (for Discord) or session hashtag (for other channels). Our event schedule will link to these from the description of each individual AMA.

Video panels

These are video calls with one to four designers, using the Zoom platform. They last about an hour. Folks can tune in to watch designers talk about their creative process, inspirations, design business, etc. If you have questions or topics that you'd like our video panel designers to discuss, let us know!

We'll be recording these sessions, as long as all the participating designers and the host are okay with this. You can find the recordings on our YouTube channel , or check out our event schedule - the recordings will be linked to in the description of each individual video panel session.

We'll also set up a #video-panels channel on our Discord server for anyone who wants to chat about the video panels.

New Year's Boonanza

This is the final event of the Fasten Off YAL! As we stitch our way to 2024, we host a New Year's Boonanza on our Discord server for everyone who participated in the yarnalong. There will be a channel just for chatting in the new year, and this year we're going to open it up as a video call as well!

Planning for this year's Boonanza is still in the works, but in previous years, the event gave you a chance to win pattern prizes, through random draws and games.

Spotify playlist

Our Spotify playlist  is full of songs related to our Fasten Off event in fun ways. Songs about stitches, about ripping back and going faster and many more are represented. The playlist is best played on shuffle so you get a nice variation of songs and associations to our yarnie world. Listen to it while browsing the (discounted) patterns by our participating designers, when you stash-dive or while you knit or crochet a project during our stitchalong

If you have any suggestions, just reach out to Marieke/Solace in Stitches .

Prizes!

Our event comes with prizes! Each participating designer is donating virtual prizes, valid for one single pattern of choice from their shop. We give out prizes randomly throughout the event for things like games participation, sharing projects, participating in "meet the designer" events, community participation, and partying in our New Year's Boonanza. At the end of the event, we also draw random winners from those who have submitted Bingo cards and finished projects.

Winners of digital prizes will be contacted via email with instructions on how they can receive their prize.

All prizes should be claimed as soon as possible, and the last day to claim prizes is January 31, 2024.