The August 2018 HaldeCrate, Midnight Garden, is now closed for preorders (it will ship on the 15th and at that time I'll have a limited number of extra pieces that I'll be listing here)... and that also means that it's time to announce the next crate! It will be shipping in October and you know what that means.... Día de Muertos! Día de Muertos - Day of the Dead - is a Mexican holiday that while celebrated around the same time as Halloween here in the United States, is not a spooky holiday - not centered around scares and frights. It is a celebration that spans days, during which family and friends gather to celebrate loved ones who have passed, and to help the spirits on their journey. It is a time to honor the dead, to remember those who may have gone, but not left our hearts, and a time to celebrate our memories of them.
What exactly is a HaldeCrate, in general? Are you familiar with themed crates, like BarkBox, or LootCrate, or Hello Fresh? This is like that, but with my spin on it.
For a long time HaldeCraft has offered a yarn club, wherein you could pre-order if you liked the theme that was planned; I would tell you the theme but not show off the yarn until after pre-orders were closed club was ready to start shipping.
HaldeCrate is a different type of club… in fact, it’s more like a one-time box, every other month, with a different theme and listing page each time. Not only do I tell you the theme at the beginning but throughout the time that pre-orders are available, I show off more and more pictures of what’s being offered. Not only is there the ability to order yarn, but also soap and ceramics – or, also the ability to NOT order anything you don’t want. It’s much more either/or, and while people who were in yarn club aren’t losing anything, people who would also like a ceramic club, or a soap club, now have options as well.
For example, if you just want the yarn, you only pre-order the yarn. If you only want the ceramics, you only pre-order the ceramics. If you only want the soap set, you only pre-order the soap set. It’s all the same listing, it’s all called HaldeCrate, but you put together your individual crate from the offered options. You can see all the current and previous Crates here.
If you like ceramics, this HaldeCrate has two choices - a small Sugar Skull ornament which will be richly painted, and/or a mug that may look familiar as it was the Mug of the Month in 2017. It will be brought back in a limited style for this crate, and will be painted in colors to match the ornament.
If you like soap there will be a set of soap, hand lotion, and lip balm. The soap will be scented as pan de muerto, which is also called bread of the dead and is a decorated type of sweetbread]. The hand lotion will be scented with Cactus Flower, and the lip balm will be flavored as calabaza en tacha, which is a candied pumpkin treat made from winter squash and (typically) brown sugar (some also add orange and/or cinnamon).
If you like yarn, the Día de Muertos colorway will also tie into the colors of both the mug and the ornament, and will be available in seven base yarns. Original six yarns Andre, Joy, Lynn, Tepper, Tiptree, and Yolen are now joined by new base yarn Nagata (a sock yarn with multicolored neps that looks heathery).
Pre-orders for anything in the Day of the Dead Crate will be available through Tuesday, October 2nd, and will ship on Tuesday, October 16th. At that point a limited number of extra yarns, soap sets, mugs, and ornaments (if any) will be listed and they will remain available until sold out. You can play around with adding and subtracting things from your crate, here!
Thanks, y'all!