YARNDALE Ltd is an award-winning festival of yarn and woolly creativity in the North which champions wool and making. Held annually at Skipton Auction Mart, it features a fabulous array of exhibitors and stallholders.
Kate Beard and Emma Sandoe, owners of Yarndale Ltd - T&A TRADER OF THE WEEK - tell us about their business:
The business operates an online shop all year long, selling yarn, kits, notebooks, tea towels and more. We were keen to create our own yarn so formed a collaboration with Keighley wool manufacturer West Yorkshire Spinners, who produced five exclusive colourways which are dyed onto their award-winning signature 4ply wool, taking inspiration from the colours of our Yarndale sheep mascots.
* How long has the business been operating? Yarndale Ltd. was formally established in July 2012, with the first festival taking place in September 2013.
The seeds of Yarndale were sown researching another event for a local arts festival. The project focussed on sustainability generally and the viability, specifically, of sheep farming back in 2010, when the cost to shear a sheep was £1 and the price paid for that fleece was around tuppence. It was abundantly clear that something needed to shift. That encouraging a greater understanding of the value of wool, of its brilliance and its worth was a good thing to do.
It raised so many questions: Why use synthetic fibres when sheep are there growing wool on the fells? And what better way to showcase wool than a show focused on wool? The idea was discussed at the knit and natter group which met regularly in Skipton and those tiny seeds of the idea began to germinate.
The name was conjured. We didn’t want to be too specifically wool, so it became yarn and of course the Dales were important to all of us. The auction mart, where livestock are traded, is a brilliantly appropriate venue.
Yarndale had to be held in Skipton, or ‘sheep town’ since the name translates from the old Norse word for sheep - sceap. Known as the gateway to the Dales, where sheep have been farmed for their wool for centuries, since before the arrival of the Romans. In Medieval times the monks of Fountains Abbey and Bolton Priory grazed their sheep in Craven. Sheep farming could be very prosperous: Fountains Abbey made three times more money from selling wool than anything else it produced. A stark contrast to today, with wool mostly considered a by-product of sheep farming.
Skipton has a strong textile heritage, where the finest yarns and threads were spun for the world. Sheep farming still has a huge impact on the life and landscape of this area of the Yorkshire Dales. It also means there’s a local auction mart where during the week, sheep and cattle are sold. The livestock pens are in many ways perfect to be transformed into venue for our show.
We want to encourage people to think about making, about the materials they use and to consider supporting small scale producers where possible. As one of our recent exhibitors said, “Wool is seen by farmers as worthless, but put that wool in the hands of a knitter, and all of a sudden it becomes priceless.”
* Connection with Bradford: West Yorkshire, and Bradford especially, is known throughout the world for the wool trade and its role in the worsted industry. The city is often referred to as ‘Worstedopolis (Worsted is a high quality wool yarn typically used in the making of tailored garments such as suits) and of course we are connected because of the wool grown on the hill farms of the Dales, and Skipton’s textiles heritage. The area was built on the wealth created by wool - the wool travelled to Bradford and the wealth travelled back - many of the grand houses around Skipton were built by mill owners and wool barons.
Wool is still processed in the Bradford area and spun in the remaining mills of West Yorkshire and although the wool trade has now declined, much wool is still sent from the dales to the HQ of British Wool (formerly the British Wool Marketing Board) in Bradford to be graded and sold.
*About the business: Yarndale is more than the show - it is a year-long venture for everyone interested in wool and making and we want to inspire people to get involved in knitting, crocheting and crafting.
We run weekly Yarndale Social sessions where people can get together to make and chat, and we have an online Craft Club to encourage crafters to share ideas.
We have produced, in conjunction with West Yorkshire Spinners, five exclusive colourways in 4ply yarn which we sell online and at events throughout the year. And of course, we’re passionate about shining a light on British wool because of the versatility and sustainability of this amazing resource.
* Business during lockdown: During lockdown, we knew from speaking to the Yarndale community, that knitting and crocheting was a source of relaxation and therapy which helped people through difficult times. This is why we started our series of Yarndale Make Along With... videos and starter kits at that time to help people get started. Since then, our MALs have grown from strength to strength, embraced by people keen to create their own clothing for sustainability reasons as an antidote for the fast fashion industry.
In lockdown, we couldn’t hold the physical festival, so we took the show online together with all our exhibitors, which was a huge success. To ensure it is widely accessible, a virtual element has been included in all shows since.
* Yarndale is at Skipton Auction Mart on September 28 and 29. Visit yarndale.co.uk
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