Yarndale 2016

A couple of weekends ago my friend Amy and I had a lovely day out at Yarndale. Yarndale is, as the name suggests, a festival of yarn in the Yorkshire Dales (Skipton Auction Mart, to be precise) and is now in its fourth year. As Amy and I live at opposite ends of the country, we decided to make a weekend of it, and stayed in an AirBnB apartment in York. It was the first time either of us had found accommodation using AirBnB and, based on this experience, would recommend it.

On Saturday morning, we drove from York to Skipton, only getting lost a couple of times (for the satnav to be useful, you actually have to follow the instructions it gives you). We parked at the Park and Ride car park, which was already pretty busy when we got there a little after 10. As the queue for the bus was long, we decided to walk (via a supermarket to pick up some sandwiches for lunch; there is catering at Yarndale, but it's limited and we didn't fancy queuing). As previously established, I am not the best at navigating, so I let Amy find the way from the centre of Skipton to the Auction Mart, and we stumbled across the Yarn Walk, which used crocheted decorations to point us in the right direction. The walk through the park was lovely, and I really like some of the yarnbombing (it certainly helped us find our way!).

Yarndale yarn walk yarn bombing

Entry into the show was quick and easy - we'd pre-booked tickets, but they could be bought on the door, and were given our wrist bands and allowed to enter in a matter of minutes.

The exhbition hall is, in fact, a sheep market, with the stalls in pens. The gangways between the stalls were fairly wide, which was good as there were a lot of people! Amy and I happily wandered about the stalls stroking yarn and admiring many project bags. I had a very specific list of things I wanted to buy (you can't let me lose at a yarn event with no clear direction on what I want to purchase, or I will buy all the things), which did stop me spending too much time admiring things I definitely wasn't going to purchase. In the morning a lot of the stalls were rather crowded, which did make it a little hard to see things, but most people were polite, so the busy-ness wasn't unpleasant, and so long as you were patient you could see everything.

While I wandered round I took photos of a few things that caught my eye: I loved Sparkleduck's stall, where the mini skeins were called Ducklings, and there were many giant rubber ducks modelling scarves and shawls. Cuddlebums' stall was a riot of rainbows, all beautiful (her yarn was on my list, so I am now the proud owner of a skein of jade rainbow 4-ply yarn, which may become a scarf, it is too beautiful for socks). Sincerely Louise (and Amy, who has created several animal heads, and most of a tiger rug) almost convinced me to buy a unicorn head, but at this point I don't really have anywhere to display it, boo. I might still relent and buy a reindeer head via Etsy though as there is always more space for Christmas decorations!

A duck with a shawl! I loved everything about Sparkleduck's stall

Gorgeous rainbows from Cuddlebums

This one came home with me

Sincerely Louise's unicorn. Who doesn't want a mythical friend?

 
My purchases were pretty restrained: one skein from Cuddlenbums, a stripey grey and purple skein from Rosie's Moments, a printed fat quarter from the Knitting Goddess (which I will make into a project bag), a souvenir mini skein from Devon Sun Yarns (which will be added to my sock yarn blanket), a birthday card for my mum, some more 4 mm needle tips (I own a set already, but always have two projects on the go using them, and swapping the tips out is annoying), and that's it.

My lovely purchases

I haven't decided if I'll go to Yarndale again next year. It's great fun, but it's far too easy to spend lots of money, and I was really tired by the end of the day from all the walking (and driving!). If you get the chance, go!

One final Yarndale essential: a hot chocolate, some cake and a sit down!