Yarndale Festival Returns to North Yorkshire

On this week’s Dian Skelton blog I will be discussing the announcement that the Yarndale festival will return following the 6,500 strong turnout success of the first festival last year. As you may have gathered my readers, the ‘Yarn’dale festival celebrates “all things woolly and wonderful”.

Artisans Coming Together

Dian Skelton is Director at ViewPoint Software Services Limited, founder of the MostlyManx artisan shop on the Isle of Man and co-owner of the Laxey Woollen Mills. The Mills specialises in producing Laxey Manx Tartan which is unique to the Isle of Man.

Officially called Yarndale 2014, the festival is an excellent opportunity to bring together artisans of yarn, fibres, haberdashery, kits, books, handmade garments and artwork. It also hosts a full programme of textile workshops that include lessons in Crochet, knitting and cloth dyeing. These programmes  

The official Yarndale website describes the event. ‘Artisans and retailers of the highest quality are selected to exhibit at Yarndale which makes it very inspiring for anyone with a love of yarn.’ The festival will once again take place at the market town of Skipton; an ideal location for such an event given its proximity to the Yorkshire Dales.

Enthusiasts Keeping Tradition Alive

As readers of the Dian Skelton blog will know, Dian is a keeper of traditions. Her ties to the Laxey Woollen Mills and Laxey Manx Tartan prove this. For Yorkshire, the wool industry used to be a thing of pride and tradition. That’s not to say that it isn’t any longer, but the cheap cost of imports and synthetic wool has shrunk and damaged an industry that once clothed the modest and the wealthy without distinction.

So, in some ways, the Yarndale festival harks back to the days where Yorkshire wool was a symbol of the county. Likeminded people gathering to celebrate a tradition that they were proud of, as a recent Yorkshire Post article addressed, the Yorkshire wool industry was prolific.

Dian Skelton’s Thoughts

Dian effectively promote the same concept as the Yarndale festival. The MostlyManx shop serving as a literal shop window for some of the highly skilled artisans that populate the Isle of Man. These artisans bare the Manx name as does the Tartan that the mills create, it does get much more traditional than that.

Dian was keen to describe her pleasure at seeing a group of people showing such enthusiasm to keep traditions alive. Given her Manx heritage, Dian commented on the importance of maintaining the identity of a specific region.    

Dian Skelton – Director – ViewPoint Software Services Limited