Wool festival pulled people from all over the world to celebrate joy of yarn in all its forms

The first ever Yarndale festival took place in September 2013 which proved to be a runaway success for both exhibitors and visitors alike. It was declared an outstanding success when 6,500 visitors flocked into Skipton. Held at Skipton Auction Mart, yarn lovers travelled from far and wide to attend this much anticipated festival.

This year the festival boasts an increased number of exhibitors as well as an enhanced programme of textile workshops and demonstrations. People travelled from all over the world for this year’s Yarndale Festival.

Yarndale is a festival of creativity celebrating the joy of yarn in all its forms. Thousands of visitors headed to Skipton Auction Mart at the weekend for a two-day celebration held on 27- 28th September 2014 of all things connected with wool.

It showcased the talent and creativity within the wool community, with more the 180 exhibitors, and encouraged the sharing of yarn-based skills and ideas with demonstrations on knitting, crochet, weaving, spinning, dyeing and felting skills.

According to organizer Kate Beard, it was a great weekend for Skipton, with visitors coming from all over the world. There were people from New Zealand, Tasmania and Saudi Arabia attending the event.

Every aspect of the yarn journey represented from the woolly animals themselves, through the various stages of production to the beautiful finished products.

This year Yarndale welcomed another impressive display of colourful crochet. Co- ordinated by Lucy, author of the popular crochet blog Attic24, more than 600 crochet mandalas were displayed at the festival, sent to Yorkshire from 42 countries worldwide.

Knitting, crochet, weaving, spinning, dyeing and felting skills are shared and celebrated at Yarndale, providing the visiting public with an inspirational weekend full of colour, texture and creativity.