2020 was Promised Fibers first full calendar year in existence! So many things happened this year. We had some highs – figured out how to do our taxes properly! – and some lows – had our festival/conferences plans dashed due to the pandemic. Through it all we still managed to provide for our community. This year with your donations of ~$4,000, we provided a total of 21 mini-grants – 8 fiber artists and 13 small businesses. It was important for us to put more emphasis on small business this year due to the adverse effects of the pandemic on small businesses. I’m so proud of this community for helping Promised Fibers to provide for so many individuals and businesses.
We also accomplished a lot outside of the mini-grants. In February, we changed our min-grant structure so that recipients were chosen by the Promised Fibers Mini-Grant Committee. Thank you to Ashley, Jen, and Lisa for your hard work on the committee this year! We are looking for a new committee member and the application is available until January 4, 2021. In June, we turned 1(!) and hosted a make-along – the Make It Inclusive Make-Along or #miimal2020 for short. We were able to giveaway prizes to 12 fiber artists thanks to the generosity of participating fiber arts businesses. Thank you to Red and the Wolf Designs, Snickerdoodle Knits, Modus Operandi Fibers, and Bee Kind Yarn for your donations to #miimal2020. Also this summer, a website many fiber artists and small businesses relied on for their craft made some dramatic changes rendering their website inaccessible to many. We compiled a list of Ravelry Alternatives and Resources to Make Patterns Accessible to address the need for accessibility in the fiber arts community. Accessibility is not one size fits all, so there are many options to hopefully address many needs. In September, we launched the Community Notions Program. The program takes donated fiber arts notions and send them to people who request them. In November, we gave away 10 patterns so that fiber artists could participate in the Fasten Off YAL. In December, we provided a replacement package for a FibreShare participant.
2021 Goals
- Provide at least 2 mini-grants every month. Please consider donating to help us meet this goal!
- Host #miimal2021 in June 2021. Please reach out if you’d like to donate a prize.
- Write at least 4 educational posts related to the fiber arts. Please let us know what you’d like to read about.
- Continue the Community Notions Program.
- Collaborate with festival and conference leadership to provide access to marginalized fiber artists/small businesses. Please reach out if you are interested in collaborating.
Thank you for your continued support! We hope we can continue to count on you in 2021 and beyond.
-Meesha