My Life: Carole Rennison

The evidence may not be strictly scientific but never mind statistics and controlled experiments, Carole Rennison can prove that her knit and natter group is a wellspring of great ideas.

New patterns, designs and techniques are continually being invented over coffee and cake and now the group is putting the finishing touches to its biggest and best concept yet.

Yarndale, a festival of creativity and craft, is about to take Skipton by storm 
and the buzz surrounding the event has spread worldwide.

It all began at Knit and Natter HQ, the Wild Oats Café on Skipton’s High Street, which is owned by Carole and her husband Paul.

“I’ve always loved knitting and stitching, it’s my hobby and I started the knit and natter group because there wasn’t one in the town,” says Carole, who bought the first floor business and the health food shop below 13 years ago.

A born entrepreneur, she also runs Hooked by Design, selling rug hooking kits, and has a B&B at her home in Littondale. So she couldn’t help noticing the potential when she visited Woolfest, which is held in Cockermouth auction mart.

“I sell my kits at shows like Woolfest and I often thought ‘why don’t we have something like that in Skipton?’

“I mentioned it to the knit and natter group and they were very excited. We asked the question ‘Can we do it?’ and the answer was ‘Yes we can’. We agreed that our auction mart was a great location.”

Similar sized events can be months in the planning, but Carole and the team, along with a handful of co-opted members, had the basics sorted and the venue booked with within weeks.

Nattering is one thing but long meetings cluttered with business jargon and box ticking were banned in favour of getting things done.

“There’s a lot more to it than we thought but we’ve learned as we’ve gone along. The first job was to find out whether the mart was free as they are busy with sheep sales. It was and then we thought, right, if we can manage to get 70 exhibitors that will be good.

“We’ve now got 161. It’s amazing how it’s taken off.

“It looks like we may get 5,000 visitors,” she says.

The name, Yarndale, has undoubtedly helped. It was born from that first discussion at Wild Oats and beat Skipfest and Skipdale. A branding agency charging thousands couldn’t have found a better title. It has captured the attention of crafters across the world thanks to Carole’s friend and fellow group member Lucy O’Regan, who publicised the festival via her crochet blog Attic 24.

“We’ve even got a knit and natter group coming over from Spain. They’re into knitting Andalucian food so they’re bringing some over to display. We’ve also got someone coming from Australia, someone from Italy and one of the workshop leaders is from Canada,” says Carole, who is busy crocheting a swarm of bumble bees for a yarn bombing. This involves lining the route to the festival with knitted and crocheted flora and fauna. The main feature is a 3ft by 2ft sheep named Betty.

“That was another good idea from the group”, says Carole, “We’ve all knitted a square for her.”

Celebration of all things woolly

Yarndale is a festival celebrating traditional and contemporary crafts in wool, cotton, silk and linen. The event is at Skipton Auction Mart on September 28 and 29.

It includes stalls selling everything from kits to materials and finished products plus workshops on everything from finger knitting to dyeing wool.

A big red bus will run from the railway station to the mart via the town centre.

Tickets for Yarndale are £5.50, www.yarndale.co.uk