Yarndale 2013:: part 2

Hello again Lovelies, 

ready for part 2 of my Yarndale report ? Great , I hope you are sitting comfortably .

After buying my ticket on the door.... a most reasonable £5 I thought..... I headed inside and was immediately greeted with this wonderful sight.....Isn't it stunning ! I joined the queue of people and stared at the fantastic display.

So much happy, colourful crochet in one place.....WOW

Then a kind lady ( who reads my blog...Hello, sorry I didn't get your name ) told me I was in the queue for food.........ooops....well it was a fantastic place to line up don't you think.

In the same area were some lovely displays of yarny food....this knitted picnic was my favourite...everything on this table was knitted or crocheted ........

On the other side of  this area you came to the main exhibitors hall. I'm sorry about the rubbish photo, it was very busy so difficult to get a picture without loads of people in ...........

 I loved this colourful crochet 

You can see that the individual stalls were set up in the pens used to hold the livestock on market day. It worked brilliantly and the whole space felt light and airy despite the press of people.

I met up with Heather and had a nice chat with her and her lovely mum. Heather kindly told me where Lucy was ( in the wooden structure you can see on the right in the above picture ) . She also told me to look out for her houses so I went off to investigate..........

 Aren't they stunning, just like the ones on Lucy's blog header and so big....they must have taken you ages Heather ....I love them.

Sure enough Lucy was here, chatting to so many people who were keen to say hello. While I waited for my turn I admired this display of bunting triangles arranged so beautifully on Lucy's ripple blanket......

They all had something special about them and the information sheet explained ( to anybody who didn't already know ) how they came to be created........

over 6000 triangles from 30 different countries....amazing.

It was lovely to see so much of Lucy's handiwork up close .....

 Sorry about the colours in this photo, they are not accurate.

This picture is a better likeness. It was a gorgeous display........

Chatting with Lucy was great. I met up with Heather and Lucy  for the first time last year, so it was nice to catch up a bit. I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that they are just as lovely in real life as they are on their blogs.

This photo is Lucy showing Sara, Claire and I her Japanese flower scarf....it really is beautifully soft.........

While we were there many other people came up to tell Lucy how much her blog meant to them, there were some touching stories and it was constant. I'm not sure how Lucy kept going..it must be wonderful and exhausting in equal measure.

And in among everything Lucy even remembered to point out the bunny triangle I sent in as part of my donation....

Having seen Heather and Lucy I headed over to talk to Fiona.....her stall looked wonderful and it was lovely to meet her in person after reading her blog for so long and admiring her beautiful work..........

As well as buying all things related to yarn, you could do a workshop, I'm not sure what was going on here , but it looked very popular..........

I was happy to bump into a couple more lovely bloggers Gillian and Jo . Sadly I missed Heather. I was also very sorry not to bump into Jones....I did look for your stripes and strawberry bag Jones :0(

Happily I did find some cute angora rabbits and I was very tempted to buy some of their yarn , but I resisted as I'd already made a luxury yarn purchase...........

After a couple of hours indoors I was happy to head outside again and  was delighted to bag this spot under a yarn bombed tree.......

This was the view as I looked up..........

and here's the view to my right...........

 Everybody loved these crochet balls and many , many people stopped to get their photo taken next to them while I was there. I think they had "ball pool" type plastic balls inside them, aren't they great.....I would love to try and make my own........

I sat and got out my purchases to have another look at them.
A greetings card of Fiona's gorgeous felt field mouse and flowers.......

Some bargain fat quarters ( £1.50 each ) and I skein of yummy luxury yarn. I'm planning to make myself a scarf out of this. It's super soft and I couldn't resist the dip dyed effect....I've no idea how it will look when it's crocheted ,  exciting ...........

I was happy that I had popped my latest project in my bag. It was an idylic spot to sit and crochet like so many others were doing around me.........

Finally I decided I wanted to see a bit more of Skipton before it was time to leave so I tore myself away.

Whoever thought to hang this gorgeous, autumnal coloured bunting next to these fallen leaves was very clever....such a perfect seasonal display............

I headed back up the bunting decked steps.........

Past more truly stunning yarn work............

 The bunting and all the other yarn bombing really made this event stand out to me. It was so lovely that we all got chance to contribute in some small way , towards making the very first Yarndale Festival extra special......Just wish I'd done some bunting like this :0)

At the top of the hill I looked down on the Auction mart in the afternoon sun for one last time......

It's so steep around here that you don't need to run, just walking up hills is a great work out.........

Rather reluctantly I began to wander  away when  a sweet lady called to me "excuse me, are you Bunny Mummy? I recognized your bag ....I'm sorry but I just wanted to thank you....you taught me to crochet" I hardly got chance to say anything back before this lady and her daughter were gone.........

I was very touched. Out of a day with so many special moments I think this stands out as one of  the highlights to me.
That and seeing all the hard work the Yarndale team have put into this event paying off.

I know I said I would do two Yarndale posts , but there is still more I want to share. So rather than making this the longest post in history, I'll do a separate post on my walk around Skipton ...please join me....I know you will love it.
Back soon with part three.
Jacquie x

P.S. thank you for your comments on my first Yarndale post.

For those of you who asked how my running was going ...
Running Update
the good...managing to run 16 miles in total in a week when I had a cold...thankfully it wasn't too horrendous
the bad...missing a 10k I was looking forward to last Sunday because of my cold.
Trying to do a 11 mile training run on Wednesday and giving up after 7 miles, and walking home the last mile.
Hey ho.Hopefully this week will be better....less than three weeks to go now !

Yarndale 2013:: part 1

Hello Lovelies,

I don't really know how to begin this post. I'm not sure I can find the words to describe how amazing my day at Yarndale was.

I guess I'll just do my best and hope you lovelies get a flavour of the Yarndale magic.

I know I was lucky to be able to get to this fabulous event and I want to share everything I saw with those of your who were not so fortunate.

I promised lots of photos and I didn't forget....I was madly snapping away all day:0)

 There are so many that I think I had better do two separate posts.

Today it's the Studio and the yarn walk.

On Saturday morning we awoke to thick fog. Thankfully the visibility was not too bad on the motorway. As Mum and I  travelled the smaller , increasingly hilly roads that lead to Skipton we willed it to clear so we could see the lovely hills that surround this special town. 

Despite originally being from this part of the world I'm not that familiar with Skipton it's self so I originally planned to head straight to the Auction mart where Yarndale was being held......but the traffic was at a complete standstill.....was the event so popular?!

Instead we went into town , looking for the train station as I thought there would be directions from there. 

But happily before we even got to the station I spotted Coopers cafe where Lucy and Tracy's studio is.

I said bye to Mum as she was going to spend the day with an old friend.

I took this photo later in the day as I was a bit nervous when I first got out of the car.

The ladies in Coopers directed me towards the stairs when I enquired about the studio..... up a little narrow staircase and  I was there !!

It was relatively  quiet when I arrived and Tracy was very welcoming. We chatted and a steady stream of visitors arrived to "oooooh" and "aaaahh" at the wonderful creative space created by two very talented ladies.

I'm sure these images will be so familiar to many of you and we commented how surreal it felt to be in a room that we knew so well , but had never actually set foot in before.........

Lucy's corner was delightful , my photos are rubbish, I think it was the excitement......

I love the view across the stone roofs and was pleased to finally  see some blue sky.

Happily, within minutes of entering the studio, I had got chatting to another lovely blogger thanks to my daffodill  brooch :0)
Sara and her friend Clare were kind enough to let me join them for a while, we headed back down the cute stairs into the cafe where and we all enjoyed a yummy drink and a ginormous piece of buttery, sticky flapjack while we chatted.......

Energized by caffeine and sugar we set off to seek out the yarn bombed walk through the park .

I had only taken a few steps before I had to stop and capture the buildings and chimneys we passed......

I just love the gorgeous stone architecture of these old mill buildings..........

Soon we were at the station and turned right up a narrow road towards the canal.
There were lots of people gathered near a little bridge and as we got closer we could see what they were looking at.........eek!
We all knew who's handy work this was ....this photo doesn't do it justice, but I love that you can see our three shadows all taking a photo ..........

Here's a better close up .........too cute !!!

It was so nice that many visitors and locals were enjoying coming across this fun display....who could not smile at these sweet little duckies :0)

once across the bridge we were into the park and smiling at more yarny goodness.........

The park was looking gorgeous , with just the start of Autumn colour...........

It was so pleasant to wander along chatting with new friends and following the wooly markers of the route to Yarnadle........

It was such a tranquil space and again so familiar thanks to Lucy and Heather's blog posts .......

All the lamp posts had these yarny " leg Warmers" ( as Lucy later told me the children had called them )

Once out of the park we were a little uncertain of the route but then we spotted it....Bunting!!........

We wondered if we would be able to spot our own donations......ummmm, not these lovely triangles......

Then we got our first glimpse of Yarndale's home through the trees...........

All the while we were admiring the bunting that lined the route and I was saying ( hopefully not screeching ) "Oooh Look !" by the time I spotted bunting with YARNDALE written on it......

Then there was more........

And more..... why didn't I think of this ? So many imaginative , clever and kind crafty people.

This one , displayed on a gorgeous dry stone wall, was so effective.......

By now we were nearly there and I was a little sad to have got to the end of the stunning yarn walk. 

There was just time to admire the prettily decorated trees before it was time to go inside.....

But more on that next time :0)

Back soon with  Yarndale part two.
Jacquie x