Celebration of knitting at Skipton Yarndale Festival (From Craven Herald)

Celebration of knitting at Skipton Yarndale Festival

11:00am Monday 4th February 2013 in News

A festival “celebrating all things knitting” will be coming to Skipton later this year.

Yarndale, which will be making its debut with a two-day event at Skipton Auction Mart on September 28 and 29, aims to celebrate the beauty and diversity of wool, cotton, linen and silk fibres in all their forms.

Featuring stalls on knitting, crocheting, spinning, dying and felting, the event will also include workshops, demonstrations, displays and an assortment of hand crafted goods for sale.

“It’s a festival celebrating all things knitting,” said organiser Carole Rennison, of Littondale, who runs a knit and natter group in the Wild Oats café on Skipton’s High Street. “It’s been a good community project for our knit and natter group.”

Co-organiser, Skipton resident Lucy O’Regan, who is also a member of the group, said: “People can be really passionate about wool and knitting.”

She said the festival has received a lot of support locally, which includes funding from Skipton BID. It has proved very popular with potential exhibitors as well.

“We’ve had 44 bookings for stalls,” she said. “Stalls are filling up fast, but we still have some available.”

Lucy and Carole are confident that enthusiasm for their craft should bring knitters flocking to Skipton.

“The thing with ‘yarny’ people is that they are so enthusiastic that they will travel,” said Lucy. “This festival will bring visitors to the area, but it’s nice for us to have something local so we don’t have to travel.

“It will allow people to take their craft into a social setting,” she added. “A lot of people do knitting at home, but don’t get a chance to experience the social side of it.”

Carole said: “There’s been a big rejuvenation recently with people making things out of nothing. Young people are learning the old craft.”

Yarndale will be open to the public from 10am to 5.30pm on September 28 and from 10am to 4.30pm on September 29. Entry costs £5.

To coincide with the event, organisers have knitted a sheep that they want people to name, and the person who comes up with the winning name will receive two free tickets to Yarndale.

To submit a name, simply write it on a piece of paper with contact details and put it in the drop box on display in Healthy Life, 10 High Street, Skipton.

For more information about the festival, visit yarndale.co.uk.