All Things Yarndale

Part 2: The Show Edit

I’m still buzzing from my first time at Yarndale. Honestly, it was so exhausting and took me a good two days to recover. Usually in my crafty reviews, I weigh up my discussion and decide at the end if or when I’d return again, but I can tell you it’s a 100% yes for Yarndale. I do have plenty of things to save for in my life, so it would only be in a couple years’ time.

We all take in information differently, so I have also produced this content in video format. However, this post has all of my pictures so you can have a nosey and vicariously plan your own visit.

I’ll be sharing my experience and answering all those little questions you wish you had the answer to before your next visit. FYI, I went with my mum and three of my stitch and bitch friends. Skipton is about an hour and 20 drive from where I live and I arranged transport for this.

If you’d like to see my yarn haul and learn about the exhibitors, click here.

What is Yarndale?

For those of you yet to be introduced to the world of Yarndale, it is a craft show – predominantly fibre arts – in Skipton, West Yorkshire. It takes place at the cattle market and is held for one weekend at the end of September.

Yes, it really does take place at the cattle market. Mum still can’t quite get over that I took her for a lovely day where animals poo. The stalls are in the individual animal pens (without the front gate!) and there are talks in the ‘lecture theatre’ which is actually the show ring and auction space.

Yarndale is a celebration of British and Irish wool; highlighting the importance of local fleece and the technicalities behind it.

I would like to repeat, yes, it’s in a cattle auction market! I can assure you, however, that there area is well cleaned and there is no muck! Just a slight farmyard smell.

Live animals!

I feel like most of the sections will begin with ‘the best thing about Yarndale…’, but this really sets it apart from other craft shows. I think I’ll let the pictures do the talking. There were sheep and alpacas and you could give them a tickle through the pen. I know what you’re thinking…hand gel was provided. There was a little wait to get near to them, but not too long and people were mostly courteous of letting everyone say hello.

Accessibility

The ground is concrete and uneven in places with signposted, yet still unexpected, drops in gradient. People were using mobility scooters and I also saw prams. I appreciated that Yarndale is limited in tickets (a sell out event), so the experience wasn’t packed in like sardines: this made things a little more accessible for larger mobility aids and prams.

I saw three assistance dogs! Which is important to know, as some places can make accessibility with working dogs unnecessarily difficult. They were a Guide Dog, Hearing Dog and Canine Companion dog. It is a busy and crowded environment, so I’m not sure how suitable the environment was for an assistance dog. I can confirm none of them looked stressed (or their owners I’m pleased to say).

There are plenty of rest seating areas, which can be used by anyone. It was a good idea to have some between the stalls as well. Mum and I used them to kill time at the end, until our transport arrived.

Decoration

A massive thank you should go to the local community, especially the Skipton Knitters. Their decorations, again, made Yarndale feel special and homely, not like the standard commercialised craft shows. Yarndale certainly felt like a community.

In short, there were knitted bollard toppers, hundreds of crochet granny triangle bunting, in addition to the famous annual sheep of the year. I totally had it in my head these were huge. I’d advise getting pictures with the annual sheep on the way out, much less busier to get a snap with them.

I’d like to highlight how beautiful my mum looks in this sunny Yorkshire Tea picture.

Do I need my big coat?

“Sunny…in Yorkshire?” I hear you say. It was actually. Queuing to go in it was lovely warm sunshine. However, going out it was torrential rain and this even made our transport late.

This is the biggest thing that weighs on my mind when going to shows. You don’t want to be cold, but then you don’t want to be carrying your big coat round either or getting too hot and flustered.

So, I wore a high neck jumper with a vest top underneath (I hadn’t yet unpacked my thermals!) and jeans. For once, I was a perfectly suitable temperature at the show (not so much getting to the car in the rain). Mum wore a body warmer but said she was cold on her legs and feet. One of my friends wore a felt coat and didn’t take it off.

I mean, I’m just being tight, but the proper solution would be to take your big coat and there’s always the option of leaving it at the Oxfam cloakroom for a small fee.

Mum didn’t think we’d do many steps, but it ended up at over 6500! Who knew crafting could be so much exercise. Therefore, do wear your most comfortable shoes. We saw a lady in red high heels, which hats off to her because the uneven ground got me even in trainers. Also…her toesies must have been like ice cubes.

My advice would be light layers on the top and thick trousers (so jeans, not leggings) and covered ankles on the bottom. Mum had trainer socks on, so I think that’s why she got cold.

Food

We took our own sandwiches, which visitors are more than welcome to do so. To warm up, at around 2 o clock we purchased hot drinks and I eyed up the price list.

Cafe stand: Hot drinks-around £2.50 ish | Bacon barm, £5 | snack (e.g. flapjack, shortbread) £3, so I made me and mum share.

There was also a Thai food vendor and a crepe stand. The crepe’s were about £6.50 for 1 topping and went all the way up to £9.50!

‘Ow much, indeed!

For the café stand especially I wouldn’t advise going between 12-2. The queue was massive. There was a bit of a queue when we went for hot drinks at 2pm, but it moved quickly.

There was a lady with a guitar singing country songs at the food area, which was a nice surprise and she sounded great.

Craft variety

I was getting nervous that my friends wouldn’t be into what was on offer at the show, but I’m pleased to say they had a wonderful time. My friends prefer to use acrylic yarn for various reasons and there were actually quite a few stalls selling it. I’m not quite sure how this fits with Yarndale’s ethos, but I didn’t mind as it wasn’t saturated with acrylic and it meant all budgets could be included.

If you’d like to see what I bought and the exhibitor flyers/list, have a read of part 1. Here is a whistle stop summary of the variety of crafts on show and what could be purchased.

Pre-made baskets, children’s crochet animals and accessories, block printing, felt art, undyed yarn for hand dyeing, pom pom maker, all the John Arbon, hand dyed yarn, branded yarn, plenty of miniskeins, yarn dyeing equipment, making felt slippers, British Wool, bidding on actual fleeces, spinning, weaving, a couple of hand embroidery kit stalls, macramé, punch needle, small amount of tapestry, fabric and hand-made clothing, yarn on the cone, plenty of sock knitting, lots of shawl patterns and kits, wool education, lace making, sewn animals, felting, a good balance between knit and crochet, amigurumi, artwork, plenty of blanket kits, heritage crafts.

Phew, time for a brew.

I know a lot of you are fans of Black Sheep Wools – I even have a blog write up on them.

They were also exhibiting at Exeter the same weekend, so excellent teamwork from BSW. On Facebook, people seem to go a bit crazy over one of the owners, Sara and she was there at Yarndale and giving great advice from what I could hear.

They certainly sold mostly arcylic, with some Lang and a small selection of West Yorkshire Spinners sock yarn. Their stand was completely different to previous shows I’ve been to – I’m not sure if this is their new set up or just for Yarndale. So, they’d have one section with yarn packs over the floor and you’d buy the full pack at a discount, then another section with wool and plenty of cross stitch.

Sadly, no cross stitch for my mum at the show this time. The set up at Yarndale was just knitting and crochet, with plenty patterns on offer, as well as blanket kits and individual balls.

The loos

Always a thought…what are the toilets going to be like? Most people used the outside portaloos and there were plenty, so not too much of a queue. I was not keen on the idea of a portaloo and you needed to be short to close the door! I will say, however, they were very clean. For hand washing, there was a station outside with soap and you press the pedal to release water. I had no idea and kept holding my hands under the tap, expecting it to magically flow out. There weren’t any paper towels when I went, so I had to sacrifice a 10ply tissue. A bin was provided, so nothing looked dirty or messy.

My friends said there was an indoor disabled toilet, but the queue was massive. There were separate toilets for exhibitors only and they were strict on this (so I’m told!).

Getting there (and home)

I arranged transport and if you let them know you are just dropping off, they let you go on the carpark and drop off at the site. Otherwise, you park at the Rotary Club car park and make your way to Yarndale. This is due to limited onsite parking.

There is a free shuttle bus to and from Skipton, but I’m glad this wasn’t part of my agenda. I was honestly so tired and there was so much to see at Yarndale, personally, I wouldn’t have had the time or inclination to go into Skipton the same day. Having said that, Skipton is beautiful and my favourite place, so I’d highly recommend a visit if you can. I know some people make a holiday out of going to Skipton.

Purl and Jane is a local wool shop. They weren’t at the show this year, but the shop in Skipton was open and had a wee sale on.

‘Owt else?

My family aren’t known for being patient in crowds. Whilst I am pleased with the appropriate amount of people at Yarndale, the business did challenge me at times. It got frustrating not being able to get near some stalls with people plonking themselves in the way.

To my surprise, it gets a lot quieter, I’d say 3.30 onwards. I went back to a couple of stalls I couldn’t get near previously (you know how sometimes you just need to ask the vendors questions about their kits or patterns).

Yarndale certainly isn’t over when it gets quieter and when I left there was still a good hour to go. This is a good opportunity to spend time with the livestock, talk to vendors and get pictures with the fabulous decorations.

All I kept hearing was “ooh there are make and takes, I wonder if they are free”. To answer that thought, no, they aren’t free. Prices seemed to be around £30-40 with some at £60. A lot sold out fast and were booked way in advance.

Personally, my mind couldn’t take the excitement and business of the show with a make and take. There are two day tickets for Yarndale, so I’d certainly consider that in the future and when I live a bit closer.

I’m not sure if they’d do this course again, but I was particularly interested in the Entrelac knitting session by Baltic knits. This is one which sold out quickly.

And finally, the best things in life are free and this extends to the Yarndale brochure. There were people offering them whilst we were queuing to get in and I was looking at my friends to see if anyone would ask how much they cost, as they were being offered rather eagerly.

I’m thrilled to say they were absolutely free and on quality paper. I’d found it online and printed bits off, so it’s good to know for future they are available for free and much nicer. In the show guide are all the vendors, location and a summary/website. It came in very handy when writing part 1 of my Yarndale adventure. There are even free knitting and crochet patterns inside and some educational material on proper wool.

Thank you for reading about my latest woolly adventure. Do let us know if you went to Yarndale and what your impression was.

Take care, Rachel G x