APART TOGETHER

Pay What You Choose - Support How You Can

In stressful times, we turn to our craft for comfort. Brooklyn Tweed’s Apart Together initiatives enable customers to make a difference with their yarn purchases and support communities in need.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as businesses of all kinds prepared to shutter their doors to keep employees and customers safe, the Brooklyn Tweed team looked for a way that we could aid our interconnected community of stockists, makers and designers. Facing our own office lockdown and with no time to hesitate, our small team imagined, innovated, and launched Brooklyn Tweed: Apart Together in the course of a single afternoon. The response was astonishing. In just two months, our customers helped us to provide more than $320,000 in aid to over 100 local yarn stores, keeping lights on, shelves stocked, and employees paid.

Since then, Apart Together has helped to support independent knitwear designers, local communities impacted by natural disasters, and at-risk LGBTQIA2S+ youth. Together, we have the ability to change the world — one stitch at a time.

HOW IT WORKS

PAST INITIATIVES

2022

COMMUNITY SUPPORT: Bridging Voices

Supporting LGBTQ+ and allied youth through music in Portland, Oregon

2021

COMMUNITY SUPPORT: SMYRC

Supporting LGBTQIA2S+ youth in Portland, Oregon

$18,258 raised

2020

COMMUNITY SUPPORT: ACCESS

Providing wildfire relief to the residents of Phoenix, Oregon

$27,654 raised

LYS SUPPORT

Aiding local yarn stores

$320,868 raised

DESIGNER SUPPORT

Supporting indie designers

$1,338 raised

YOUR SUPPORT HELPS SO MANY

Apart Together: Community 2022

Bridging Voices

Now in their ninth season, Bridging Voices is a chorus for LGBTQ+ and allied youth in Portland, Oregon. More than just a musical group, they provide a safe, accessible space where queer youth can grow, thrive, build community, and experience a welcoming support system.

We were honored to attend a rehearsal to learn more about Bridging Voices and their work.

To the Brooklyn Tweed team, Bridging Voices’ mission has personal resonance – for many of us, music is a powerful way to find our identities, connect to others, and share our authentic voices.

visit bridging voices website

Apart Together: Community 2021

SMYRC: Sexual & Gender Minority Youth Resource Center

Your support helped provide a donation of $18,257.51 in 2021!

Started by a coalition of queer and trans youth in 1998, the Portland-based organization SMYRC provides a safe and supportive space for sexual and gender minority youth with a calendar of enriching events including open mic, art and knit nights, while also providing crucial services like gender-affirming clothing, hygiene supplies and counseling referrals.

We were privileged to visit the hardworking team at their downtown headquarters and learn more about this important work. For Brooklyn Tweed founder Jared Flood and his husband & co-owner Luigi Boccia, this partnership with SMYRC struck a personal chord and had them reflecting on their own journeys of self-discovery and searching for acceptance as their authentic selves.

visit smyrc website

Apart Together: Community 2020

ACCESS: WILDFIRE RELIEF

Your support helped provide a donation of $27,654.00 in 2020!

In the fall of 2020, unbridled wildfires devastated communities across the West Coast. The town of Phoenix, Oregon was leveled. Community-outreach organization ACCESS’s Fire Relief and Recovery efforts worked to help those affected by this tragedy.

The donation from your yarn purchase through Apart Together: Community, combined with a matching donation from Brooklyn Tweed, enabled ACCESS to support the former residents of Phoenix by re-establishing stable food pantries and distributing bedding, clothing and other essentials.

visit ACCESS website

Apart Together 2020

Designer Support

Your support provided $1338.00 in additional income for independent designers

With our “save a dollar, give a dollar” initiative, your orders provided extra income for the designers of our Wool People 14 collection when they needed it most, getting beautiful knitwear into your life at a lower price point and supporting each designer with a donation from Brooklyn Tweed in addition to their usual pattern commission.

more about designer support

Apart Together 2020

Support for your LYS

Your support raised $320,867.84 in total aid for your Local Yarn Stores

With every order you placed through our pay-what-you-choose Apart Together initiative at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, you sent a message of support to local yarn stores. And they heard you, loud and clear. By purchasing Brooklyn Tweed yarns directly from your LYS if possible, or by crediting your online orders to the store of your choice, you enabled beloved community businesses to stay open. What you accomplished is astounding.

In a time when few things seemed certain or easy, you showed up to help in staggering numbers. You raised peace of mind and employee paychecks for yarn stores facing closure – both temporary and permanent. Knitting together from afar, our fiber community found comfort in our craft and gave local yarn stores a moment to catch their breath and adapt to these new circumstances.

From all of us at Brooklyn Tweed and all the shops you helped, from the very bottom of our hearts: Thank You.

more about LYS support
read LYS testimonials

Each skein of Brooklyn Tweed yarn supports domestic manufacturing jobs, ethical labor standards, and sustainable environmental practices in the United States. With your help, Brooklyn Tweed does more.

View Our Impact Report