Yarndale & Oxfam

Yarndale and Oxfam Skipton recently got chatting and together they hatched a Creative Plan.

Oxfam told Yarndale that it was desperately seeking yarn for a new creative venture it wished to launch. So Yarndale offered to ask all the lovely visitors coming to the festival to bring with them a few unwanted balls of yarn for Oxfam’s “Yarn Amnesty”.

You know how it is.  You love to knit/crochet, so it goes without saying that you love yarn. You buy yarn often, lots of it. A little bit here, a little bit there, and often rather a lot in the sales. Gather it, hoard it, stash it. You even make things out of it from time to time. You then buy more yarn, as you can never have too much. It feeds your creative soul in a way that non-yarnies simply do not understand.

Inevitably, when a project is completed there are leftovers. Little balls of gorgeousness that you can’t bear to throw away. Your stash might also contain those weird colour combos that you were never quite happy with. Or the yarn that was simply too hairy/splitty/shiny/thin/thick to float your boat. There might be the odd ball of acrylic that came as a free gift on the front of a magazine. Or the bag of sad yarn you inherited from your Mother-in-Law. Maybe you ordered yarn from the internet and the real life colour came as a major shock.

Whatever the reason, I’m sure all of us yarn addicts could dig out a few oddments that we wouldn’t mind letting go of. Whole balls, half balls, little scraps. It can all be put to very good use by the crafty ladies at Oxfam Skipton.

So what is Oxfam planning on doing with it’s hoped-for haul of donated yarn? Well, the lovely Mary, manager of Skipton Oxfam explains.

“Oxfam receives lots of textile donations that we can’t easily sell, or can only sell very cheaply, ” she says. “Things such as part balls of yarn, bits of fabric and ribbon, lace doilies, cushion inners etc. It would be a much better use of these materials – and make lots more money for Oxfam – if we ‘up-cycle’ them into lovely products to sell in the shop. We’re always looking for more materials, especially yarn”.

By working with us at Yarndale, we are hoping that Mary’s call for yarn will be answered. Her newly established Oxfam Makers Group (affectionately known as OMG) is a small group of keen crafters, thrifters, knitters and crocheters who have pledged to help Mary put the unwanted baskets of materials and haberdashery to good use. They plan to create “a range of hand made domestic items, including blankets, scarves, hanging hearts, brooches, bags, cushions and bunting”. The range of OMG hand made goodies will then be sold in the Skipton shop to help raise much needed funds for Oxfam.

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So do you think you can help? Please can you bring a few bits in your bag when you come to Yarndale? It’s a great chance for all of us to have a sort through The Stash and rootle out some leftover balls of yarn to donate. After all, if we take the opportunity to de-stash, there’ll be just a little bit more space to accommodate some fresh new woolly balls. Shhhhhh. We won’t tell.

♥♥ Find Oxfam at Yarndale, STAND 31 ♥♥

Thank you ever so much for your support xxxx