Leeds Wool Festival is back for a third year this weekend (Saturday June 4th) and Baa Baa Brighouse will be heading there again with a stall packed full of goodies.
As well as our own brand of hand dyed yarn, Baa Baa Brew, we’ll have a selection from other independent dyers including Sylvan Tiger Yarn and Little Boo Yarns and a wide range from old favourites like Louisa Harding, Rowan, Herdy and the ever popular, West Yorkshire Spinners.
You will also find Baa Baa Brew mini skein boxes, Baa Baa Brew yarn pops, Baa Baa Brighouse stitch markers, handmade charms, mugs and tote bags and a wide selection of pattern books and loose leaf patterns hand picked to support the yarn ranges we stock.
We will have a few new woolly related treats to showcase too including our Baa Baa Brighouse sheep earings, a wide selection of Britanny knitting needles and crochet hooks and Herdy felting kits.
Workshops will be taking place throughout the day at the festival which will be held at Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills, but if you haven’t booked, don’t worry there will be lots more to see and do.
There will be a living history re-enactment in the mill worker’s cottage, spinning demonstrations, a natural dyeing exhibition and the opportunity to see the mill’s spinning mule and steam engines.
In the garden you will find spring lambs, alpacas, folk musicians and Morris dancers.
The award winning documentary, ‘Addicted to Sheep’, will be showing and Alice Elsworth of Whistlebare Yarns, an independent yarn producer and farmer will be giving a talk.
Dr Caroline Radcliffe will be giving a talk on mill workers dancing or clogging followed by a dancing workshop and opera singer, Melanie Gall, who is also one half of the knitting podcast duo, SavvyGirls, will be performing some of her historic knitting songs.
The festival is open from 10am to 5pm and refreshments will be available at a pop-up not for profit cafe run by The Darling Roses branch of the Women’s Institute. Tickets are available on the door for £3.80.
Leeds Industrial Museum was devastated by the 2015 Boxing Day floods that hit Yorkshire and the festival is organised by volunteers, not with a view to make a profit for the museum but simply to raise the profile of the textile industry. To be back up and running six months later and to be hosting such a popular event is testament to the dedication of all those involved. We hope you can come along and show your support – we’d love to see you!
