Well, it’s that time again – time to put away the decorations, think of some resolutions, and, for us, get SUPER excited for the new Yarnathon!! 2014 was more than memorable and to be frank, we had a blast! We thought it would be fun to look back at all we did right before we ramp up for another yarny year! So cozy up with your favorite hot beverage and enjoy this trip down memory lane a la ESK:
The Yarnathon was a super close race pretty much all year. The Stitchosaurs and Robos were neck and neck towards the end of the year with the Fiber Monkeys right on their heels. We were SURE the Octopurls had something up their tentacles with the hundreds of orders you guys placed on Black Friday! Here is a little breakdown of how the whole race played out:
Stitchosaurs: 75 total finishers + 6 virtual finishers from the quarterly events
Roboknits: 73 total finishers + 2 virtual finishers from the quarterly events
Fiber Monkeys: 68 total finishers
Octopurls: 56 total finishers
Look at those fresh ESK faces!
Q1 New-to-You & 5M Challenge
The 2014 Yarnathon was the first year we played with teams! To get the year started, we challenged you with the New-to-You KAL and to reach the 5M milestone.
Q2 Team Mascot KAL & T-Shirt Scavenger Hunt Challenge
We really brought the big guns of fun for Q2 with the t-shirt scavenger hunt and team mascot KAL! Look at the super cute mascots but we must say that seeing all your bright faces in the scavenger hunt was the most fun! It was so nice to finally put faces to the people we have been chatting with for so long!

Q2 Mascot Challenge – so many adorably colorful Fiber Monkeys, Roboknits, Octopurls, and Stitchosaurs!
Q3 Oldie but Goodie KAL & Crossword Challenge
We put your brains to work in Q3! We asked you all to go through your queues, favorites, and/or libraries and dust off the patterns you wanted to knit when you first joined Ravelry. Then we put you to the test with the crossword challenge which so many of you aced!
Q4 WestKnits KAL & Stock-a-long Challenge
A favorite designer of ours is the one-and-only Stephen West! His patterns are simply amazing so we knew he would be perfect for our KAL! For some of you the challenge was looking past his artsy photos and for other it was to pick only one of his patterns. The FOs blew us away…then we saw the stockings/socks! O-M-G! You all really outdid yourselves!
Here are some other exciting things that happened around here…you all may recognize this snuggle boy!
We added some new members to our ESK family in 2014!
Looking at all those pictures brought back so many great memories! Sorting through bags of unicorn tails and making bundles, opening the boxes to finally see the enormous Blue Moon skeins of Electric Kool Aid, making grab bags, saying goodbye to friends like Cephalopod and ToshLace, watching Levi grow a mile a minute, placing Golden Kitties into random shipments, chatting on Ravelry with yarny friends from all over the world, the Black Friday sale of the century (you all really put us to work!), and who could forget Thighlighters? Thank you all for a wonderful year! ESK brings so much joy to each of us and we hope you feel the same.
We see lots of you already having tons of fun ordering yarn and helping your team by earning badges in the Booster Club and KAL! Let’s see what kind of things we can get into in 2015, kitties!