Woollen creations to weave the county together ahead of Tour

Knitting enthusiasts are being tasked with stitching together a trail of Tour de France cycles that will stretch across Yorkshire.
Cassandra KilbrideCassandra Kilbride
Cassandra Kilbride

A ‘Yarn storm’ artist from Yorkshire, is calling on residents to join one of 20 woollen workshops from next week, which will create 10 bicycles inspired by the region.

Once complete the artistic cycles, themed on everything from whippets to the White Rose, will go on display together at Sheffield Cathedral from July 1 to 31 as part of the Yorkshire Festival that precedes the Grand Depart.

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The woollen cycles will then return to the towns, villages and cities across Yorkshire in which they were created, forming The Woolly Bike Trail across the county for 12 months.

Cassandra Kilbride, who is running the workshops, said: “It will be good to show the world Yorkshire wool and what can be created with it. I hope the trail inspires people to think about the towns in which they live, their heritage and what we have achieved as a county.” The 29-year-old from Ossett will host workshops in 10 Yorkshire towns to create bikes with up to 20 volunteers each time, starting at Wakefield One on Thursday, from 10.30am to 3.30pm, ahead of visits to the likes of Sheffield, Halifax and Haworth before her exhibition. For details visit www.yorkshireswoollybikes.co.uk.

The festival, which is the first arts celebration to build up to the Tour in its 111-year history, officially launches on March 27.

Henrietta Duckworth, executive producer of the festival, said: “It’s exciting to see the Yorkshire Festival 2014 projects get underway – this is such a terrific, quirky project.”

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Wool-weaving Tour fans in Harrogate have already shown their enthusiasm for the event, with almost 8,000 pledges to knit yellow, white, green and red dotted jerseys that will decorate the town as bunting for the big race’s arrival on July 5 and 6.

Harrogate Borough Council had a 3,000-jersey target but pledges from as far as Bermuda and Canada have seen the total soar. One even sent in 89 jerseys.

To contribute, jerseys must be sent to drop-off points by March 10. Visit www.harrogate.gov.uk/letourdebunting for details.