What a fabulous, yarntastic weekend!

Yarndale 2014 was all it promised to be – and more.

Conceived and organized by a group of five yarnaholics (including the very popular Lucy of Attic24), Yarndale’s inaugural festival of 2013 was followed up with an equally successful event this year.

Three friends and I endured the 250 mile car journey north to Skipton, Yorkshire, which took a mammoth seven hours from South Somerset due to a typically busy Friday night’s traffic. We enjoyed real five star hospitality in luxury surroundings from Pam Gregory at Cononley Hall  – these were our two rooms: –

We really couldn’t fault it at all – the perfect place to relax and unwind after a full day on our feet (our heads were buzzing from inspiration overload!).

We set off Saturday morning after an amazing full English; just a five minute stroll to the station (which turned into a sprint as we saw our train on the platform from halfway up the road!) followed by one stop on the train to Skipton. There were two (free) buses put on this year to ferry passengers to and from the station and they set the tone for the whole weekend….

….yes, even the double-deckers had been yarn-bombed both inside and out!

We were at the front of the queue so managed to snap a couple of photos – this was pretty much the only man amongst 6,000 crochet-mad women in the entire place!!

The event was held in Skipton Auction Mart which, when we viewed the site from the hill, was enormous! Can you see just how vast the covered area is? I’ve circled it in red below: –

The approach through the park (for those walking) was well signposted with crocheted signs in various styles….

Local schools joined in with unique interpretations on bicycle yarn-bombing;

The walk took you past the picturesque canal…

…until you arrived at the site…

…which marked your wooly destination with yarn-bombed trees!

Apologies for the poor quality of the photos (and me, a professional photographer too!) but I left the camera at home and went with the iPhone. They’re not great but, hopefully, you get an idea of the atmosphere surrounding the event and the amount of thought and effort that went into organizing such a huge project:)

Once inside, a colourful gallery of all 1,182 mandalas sent to Lucy greeted you, stretching the entire width of the venue;

The Yarndale Hub (centre of operations!) was, again, strung wall-to-wall with last year’s contributions of 6,212 bunting triangles sent in from all over the world. Here we are, the only photograph of the four of us taken over all four days!

Can you guess where this is?

Of course you can – it’s the Knit & Natter lounge hosted by our favourite Lucy!

This creative lady sums up the yarn obsession shared by everyone at the show!

I think that’s more than enough for one post but do come back again when I have details of a little plan that we discussed briefly with Lucy and photos of some of the many stalls that were so beautifully displaying their wares.