Yarndale 2016 : Fundraising

OXFAM

Oxfam Skipton raised £220 from the Bag Creche at this year’s Yarndale, and collected a staggering FIFTY (50!!) sacks of yarn from the Yarn Amnesty which is incredible!!
Some of the donated yarn will be sold in the Skipton shop and the rest will be used by OMG (Oxfam Makers Group) who make beautiful knitted and crocheted blankets, cushions, bags and accessories to be sold in the Skipton Shop. We love working with the kind and generous ladies at Oxfam and would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who delved into their stash and donated yarn this year, it is much appreciated.

FLOWERS FOR MEMORIES

The unstoppable Sheila has been in a whirl of floral activity all year, following the amazing success of her Flowers for Memories project at Yarndale 2015. Not content with the hundreds of pounds she raised last year for the Alzheimers Society, during 2016 Sheila re-worked the huge floral panels, attaching brooch pins to the backs of every single one of the 5000 crocheted flowers before painstakingly re-pinning them. The flower panels went on an exciting journey all the way down to Hampton Court to appear on the Super Stage at Kirstie Allsopp’s Handmade Fair, before returning back to Yarndale.  Sheila’s flowers raised a further £2004.15 this year, which added to her 2015 total of £1811.80. All monies raised have been donated to the Alzheimers Society. If you’d like to keep updated with this beautiful project, please do have a look at the Flowers for Memories Facebook page.

S.E.L.F.A.

Members of the S.E.L.F.A. team (Skipton Extended Learning For All) volunteered to run our Children’s Corner at Yarndale again this year, providing woolly activities for our young visitors. Thanks to the incredible generosity of our Yarndale exhibitors, some amazing prizes were donated to S.E.L.F.A. which enabled them to run a very successful raffle during the weekend. A heart warming £1,162 was raised this year at Yarndale, many thanks to all exhibitors and visitors who supported the raffle.

S.E.L.F.A. is a wonderful local charity which aims to provide a range of activities for vulnerable, disadvantaged and disabled children who live in the Skipton and Craven district of North Yorkshire. Throughout the year, they offer a range of fun and inspiring out-of-school workshops, a holiday club and specialist after-school clubs; as well as trips for children and young people. Yarndale is thrilled to support such a dedicated team of all round lovely people doing all round lovely things for our community.

EWE MAKE

“Ewe Make” is a small group of yarn enthusiasts who meet every week at a local café in Skipton to share skills and socialise with their creative woolly projects. One of the highlights of the year is a day in July when the town of Skipton holds it’s annual Sheep Day festival. The Ewe Make ladies (and distinguished Gent!) love more than anything to share and demonstrate their skills, and during Sheep Day they can be found in the centre of town showing how they turn raw sheep fleece into something beautiful and unique. Local fleece is washed, carded, hand spun and knitted in front of an enchanted audience during the day, the spinning wheels really do draw a crowd! The resulting hand spun and knitted squares are stitched together to make a throw/cushion which becomes the star prize in a charity raffle held at Yarndale. This year, Ewe Make teamed up with our local hospice Manorlands and the raffle raised a fabulous £902 for this very deserving charity.

WOOLLY SCARF COMPETITION

Once again our creative competition was organised with local business The Tempest Arms.  Yarn lovers from all over the UK made and sent woolly scarves for a chance to win a fabulous prize, with the scarves then being sold at Yarndale to raise money. We raised a total of £80 for Macmillan Nurses. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this fun competition.

WOOLLY SHEEP

This year’s Creative Community Project was a stunning success with over 700 crocheted/knitted little woolly sheep sent to Yorkshire from 32 countries around the world. Each and every sheep was lovingly hand made and so full of character, they really were amazing. As the flock grew over the summer months we felt sure this would be a really fabulous fund raising project at Yarndale, and boy, were we right! The woolly flock looked fabulous nestled together in the bales of straw we had delivered to the auction mart especially, and they proved hugely popular with our visitors who were desperate to re-home them in return for a donation to Martin House Children’s Hospice. The flock was very well looked after by the fabulous Roma who is a volunteer for Martin House Children’s Hospice, and during the Yarndale weekend every single one of the little woolly sheep went off to find a new home. The Woolly Sheep project raised a baaaaarilliant £3103.01 for Martin House which provides family-led care and support to children and young people with life-limiting illnesses. A huge big thank you to everyone who made or re-homed a woolly sheep and made this project such a great success.

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