Virtual Mill Open Weekend – 2021
We had such a blast at last year’s Virtual Mill Open Weekend (MOW) and are already looking forward to throwing our (virtual) Mill doors wide and inviting you all in again. This year’s Virtual MOW is particularly special as it marks the 20th Anniversary of John Arbon Textiles – cor bloomin’ blimey, it may be virtual, but we reckon that this year will be our biggest and most exciting MOW yet! We love a good party so John, Juliet and the Mill Folk are pulling out all the stops and planning to make it a birthday bash to remember!!
You’ll be able to catch a glimpse of what we are cooking up below, and do keep checking back in as we will keep adding to this page as new events and bits and bobs are confirmed! In addition to the info below we are also planning to have lots of videos, lives and interviews with both us (and a few swanky special guests) and the machines throughout the weekend.
MORE INFO & FAQ:
Date: Friday 4th, Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th June 2021
Location: online – on our website and on social media
Telephone: 01769 579861
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.jarbon.com
Entry Price: All events are free – as always!
When will the schedule be published? You will find some of the bits and bobs we are planning below, to wet your whistles a little, and the full schedule of events will be published by the 18th of May, so you’ll have plenty of time to plan your weekend with us.
Appledore Launch! We are so bloomin’ excited to announce that we will be celebrating 20 years of JAT by launching a brand new permanent addition to our ranges: Appledore! This new blend of fibre is sourced from within 20 miles of our Mill and with a palette of playful heathered shades, perfectly encapsulates our ethos. Appledore is a deliciously bouncy and grippy fibre blend, packed with that characteristic real woolly-wool texture. Available in 20 shades in both yarn (250m per 100g) and Tops: 40% Devon Closewool / 40% Romney / 20% Exmoor Blueface.
Will you have other limited edition specials too? Yes! Like last year we’ll have oodles of other goodies in addition to launching Appledore – hurrah! We’ve started planning these already and can’t wait to show you what we’ve been up to in May.
20 Years of JAT Party! We quite simply would not be here without you! So we would love for you to join John, Juliet and the rest of the Mill Folk over on Zoom (an online group chat platform) for a few cocktails and a bit of a celebration with plenty of reminiscing down memory lane, witterings and silliness. This shindig will be kicking off the weekend in style. We’ll be hosting you all at 7pm (UK time) on zoom Friday 4th June. We’ll post more info (and the zoom link) closer to the time.
Virtual Personal Shopping Sessions – We will be offering 20 minutes of one-on-one personal service via Zoom with one of our fab Mill Folk (Sonja, Frankie or Helena). We love nattering with you in person at shows, helping you find colour combos, and matching a pattern with one of our bases. If this is something you miss too, then we reckon these sessions could help fill that gap! More info (and booking form) coming down the line, so keep an eye out.
Virtual Show and Tell – Like last year, we’ll be running this both on Instagram (#jatshowandtell2021) and on Ravelry. We invite all you splendid Mill ‘visitors’ to ‘bring along’ something you have crafted (spun, crocheted, knitted, felted or even woven) in our Fibre or Yarn by posting a photo of it. Each and every item you post will be eligible for a chance of winning a £35 gift voucher. We will have 15 winners, so your odds on winning a gift voucher are pretty good!
Cuppa Tea & Crafting – Grab a project and join us Mill Folk (plus a few special guests) over on zoom for a little relaxing Sunday afternoon making to close out the weekend’s festivities. Why not bring along something you’ve made in our yarn or tops? We’d love to see what you’ve been making! We’ll post more info (and the zoom link) closer to the time.
Technical Difficulties – We know there were quite a few gremlins in the website last year – apologies again if you were affected! We have been very busy behind the scenes and are chuffed to say we now have a brand new website which can handle much more traffic, so all should be well this time!
Why No In-Person Show? We did hope that we might be able to have an in-person element to our MOW this year, but given the ongoing situation, it seems of the utmost importance to prioritise the health of all you splendid customers (and us Mill Folk) above all else. For this reason, 2021’s MOW will be virtual, like it was last year. We know that many of you will have booked machine viewing slots – these have, of course, been cancelled – apologies and we are very much looking forward to opening our doors and seeing you all in person again when it is safe to do so.
