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Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Yarndale 2016

Wow! That's about the only word that describes Yarndale this year. Yarndale has always been a great show but this year was better than ever! I heard there were over 5 000 people on Saturday.


We left for Yorkshire on Thursday and decided to break our journey at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. It's a beautiful property, just off the M1 motorway, and the weather was glorious. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the house and the gardens.

 

On Friday we decided to explore Skipton. Yarndale is held just outside Skipton and so far I've not actually made it in to the town centre but every year I hear people say how lovely it is so we decided to spend Friday morning in Skipton. We walked around the town and look at some market stalls and shops. The Leeds to Liverpool canal runs through Skipton and we enjoyed a walk along the canal.


We got some sandwiches and headed into the Dales and stopped at Grassington for a picnic and a short walk. 


In the afternoon we headed back to Skipton Auction Mart (ie cattle and sheep market) where we started setting up for the weekend. It's quite daunting arriving at a venue but it's especially daunting when you're faced with an empty cattle pen and you have a few hours to try to turn it into a pop up yarn shop.

 
Before                                            After

On Saturday we got busy as soon as the show opened (the first hour is normally quite) and it didn't calm down until about 3pm. Our sales on Saturday were nearly as much as we did over the whole weekend last year and over the two days we set a new sales record. I'm so grateful to everyone who purchased yarn, patterns, books or shawl pins from us. I nearly sold out of my book, Beaded Lace Knitting - I have one copy left! We sold over half the Tattysquawk shawl pins we brought to the show. And we sold out of a few patterns and got down to the last copy of a few others.

We sold a lot of yarn too. Stocking up for shows is hard, because you want to have enough stock for the entire show but you don't want to bring lots back home. We did sell out of several colourways and almost sold out of others.

The best thing about shows is meeting lots of lovely knitters and fellow stall holders. Some I've interacted with on social media for years, some are knitters who love knitting from my patterns. Lots of knitters came to say hello and to say they read my blog or followed me on social media and it's so great to meet them all (even though I may not remember your name next time I meet you, I really love meeting you). Several people showed me shawls they've knitted from my patterns which I really love! I took pictures of some of them but I forgot to take pictures of them all. But I really enjoy meeting everyone! 

 
I saw several Gondola shawls, including Jodi from Cuddlebums Yarn and her friend (on the left) and another lovely knitter whose name I've also forgotten.

If you do see me at a show, please do say hello and if you've knitted things from my patterns, I love to see it!


One knitter in particular impressed me. I have forgotten her name (see above photo) but she knitted the Kiri shawl (free download) as her first knitting project. That's not an easy shawl to knit as a first shawl. It has short rows, decreases and yarn overs. 


Rosy (above) came all the way from Devon and she's been to my workshops at Spin A Yarn several times, knitted Gillian from Beaded Lace Knitting but she used a thicker yarn and she used buttons instead of seaming it. I know she got lots of compliments at the show and they were well deserved.


One thing Yarndale does really well is decorations. In the Yarndale Hub there was beautiful crochet bunting and outside there was giant crocheted mandalas.


A few photos from my stall: 

   


We were so busy that I didn't really get a chance to look around properly. I did manage to run around the show quickly on Sunday afternoon and I bought an Injabulo basket. I've been lusting after one of these for a long time. And I got a skein of beautiful Swiss silk/sea cell form Siidegarte from Switzerland. I really enjoyed meeting Fides (who runs Siidegarte) and her lovely daughter.

This week, I'll be counting and sorting through my stock and on Friday I'm taking part in a local Wool Market (4-8pm in the Public Hall, Liskeard on Friday 30 September). Therefore, I won't re-open the YarnAddict Shop until next week.

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2 comments:

Rosy said...

What a lovely surprise to see me in your blog, that's my five minutes if fame! So pleased you had such a successful weekend, that stall looked fabulous. I had another lady stop and ask me about "Gillian" when I was at The Fent Shop in Skipton on the Monday, I'm giving everyone your name and telling them about your book! X

helenpollard said...

Glad you had a wonderful time! :) - Helen