Disclaimer: I received two free press tickets to attend The Knitting and Stitching Show from the show organisers. However I have not been financially compensated by the company to write this blog post. All opinions expressed are my own and based on my own experiences of my visit.
Howdy folks, how was your weekend? Mine was a great one! Mum and I went down to The Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate for a weekend away and we had such fun!
This year the show, which is held over four days, was on 16 – 19 November 2023 held at the Harrogate Convention Centre. After am early start and rather an epic journey (3 trains later) mum and I arrived into the city just before midday. After dropping our bags off at a nearby Travelodge we made our way straight to the show.
Have you ever visited a Knitting and Stitching show? For craft lovers it’s like a little slice of heaven! So much to see and do and featuring hundreds of retailers selling fabric and patterns, yarn and thread, sewing machines and equipment, accessories, crafts kits and gifts, from well-known global brands to small artisan companies.
I don’t know why but I wasn’t expecting the Harrogate show to be quite as big as the London shows I’d visited previously (read about those here and here). But it was actually quite huge! Held over 4 large rooms (Halls A, B, C and M) with several places to get refreshments dotted along the way.
As we were going to be there for two days we resolved to be fairly systematic in our approach – we decided that the first half of our day would be spent mainly looking at what was on offer, and the second day would be more purchasing. Now it didn’t work completely like that, as there was some buying on the first day, but it seemed like a good way to see the show.
Show guides were priced at £5 and were available from a show merchandise stand at the start of the show. This handy programme included details of events and workshops and list all the vendors – great if you want to plan out what you are going to see before you start walking around.
There was about 150 plus vendors, which in the guide were themed for things like yarns, craft supplies, fabrics and buttons to name a few, Though it is kind of fun to walk around and come across new stalls I found the guide particularly useful later on when we wanted to backtrack to a stall where we’d seen something that we liked.
The first day we arrived was the Saturday, which as you can expect, was very busy. At times, just because of the amount of people, it was a bit slow going to get through the crowd, and to see a stall if there were people around it, so we did do some doubling back at times. But we worked our way through all of the rows looking at both sides, through each of the buildings and I would say we took about 4 hours in total – as we were oohh-ing and ahhh-ing over things we spied as we went.
As we were browsing the stall and we found ourselves at Tanya’s stand from The Woolly Tangle. Tanya has been our stall neighbour a couple of times when we’ve been out on the road with Dear Ewe. It was really nice to catch up with her and hear about her experiences of the show – and I may have rescued some yarn from her that needed to come home with me.
It was nice to see the dedicated ‘The ‘Yarn Village’, section of the show, it was a place of small-scale specialist retailers who were offering a selection of unique, high quality yarn and accessories, not found on the high street.
As a fan of all things yarn I wouldn’t have been sad if ‘The Yarn Village’ section was even bigger and included even more yarn and things for crocheters and knitters, though there was a very nice selection to be had from the vendors that had their stall there.
A highlight of the show were the fabulous textile exhibitions that were a delight to walk round. Even if it’s not your particular craft I don’t think you can fail to appreciate the artistry involved in the work -and they are incredibly inspiring! This year’s Textile Galleries featured exhibitions by Art Textiles: Made in Britain (Illuminate),
Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn (Rhythms & Reflections), Ailish Henderson (Maker: Mended), Mandy Pattullo (Well Worn Work), Batool Showghi (Talking Threads), The Quilters’ Guild Collection (A Diverse Patchwork), Sabine Kaner (Hand Stitched Stories), Susie Chaikin, Susan Chapman and Sue Dove (Head, Heart, Knees and Hands), the winner and shortlisted entries for The Fine Art Textiles Award 2023, and winning entries from The Festival of Quilts 20th Anniversary Quilt Competition.
As well as stalls and exhibitions there are also demos and workshops that you can choose to take part in. We didn’t actually catch any of the Creative Living Theatre shows this year – though there were several free daily demonstrations. We also decided not to do one of the workshops (though there were several that looked really fun) as we decided we were going to do something else that Harrogate is famous for.
As we’d walked our legs off at the show we decided we needed a bit of a rest so we headed off to find Betty’s Tea Rooms! Betty’s is quite a famous tea room that has been serving irresistible treats in Harrogate for over 100 years. I’d had the opportunity to go once, possibly about 15 years ago, but mum had never been so we decided we needed to make a visit whilst we were in town.
You don’t have to book for Betty’s but you do have to be prepared for a bit of a queue. We waited for about 10 minutes and were provided with a menu to peruse whilst we were waiting. We opted for the festive afternoon tea option and it didn’t disappoint!
Our sandwiches consisted of things like Wensleydale with red onion and cranberry chutney, and then we had mini cakes like chocolate cubes. Our favourite though had to be the cranberry and orange scones which were absolutely delicious! I would definitely recommend a visit to Betty’s if you visit a future The Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate.
The next day we walked back to the show and enjoyed a closer look at some of the beautiful textile exhibits before finding our way to the stalls we’d earmarked the day before. It was a little quieter on the Sunday so getting around to look at the stalls was much easier.
We got to have a lovely catch up chat with Sara (and Steve) from Black Sheep Wools. You may remember that Black Sheep provided yarn kits for the last two crochet-alongs and it was nice to chat about what’s been happening and possible future plans.
As we were walking round we also bumped into one of the winners of the giveaway for tickets for the show and had the opportunity to chat to them which was lovely. That’s one of the really nice things about visiting the shows, it’s the catching up with people, meeting new people and of course finding new things you didn’t know you needed in your life.
We did an awful lot of walking that weekend, I had turned on Strava (an fitness app) on whilst walking round the event (and Harrogate) and over the two days we walked over 12.2 miles (19.6km) so it was great exercise whilst enjoying ourselves! Then before we knew it, it was time to catch the 3 trains and a tram home again.
Between us mum and I managed to pick up things for 13 new projects – 10 of them were mums, but she’s very much of a multi-crafter so she picked up sewing, cross-stitch and yarn items to use.
I bought some yarn and several lovely pom poms, one to re-make a hat pattern I want to re-release. I also bought some beautifully soft DK brown alpaca yarn, with no plan other than I wanted it. Then we both bought some bits to make some wreaths which I’m looking forward to doing on a crafty afternoon with mum sometime soonish.
And I think that this blog post is quite long enough! Hopefully you get the general idea about the show and maybe fancy attending one yourself. The Knitting and Stitching Show runs in several venues across the UK. The dates for 2024 have now been released; 10-13 October 2024 will be at the Alexandra Palace, London, 7 – 9 November 2024 there’s one at The Titanic Exhibition Centre, Belfast, and finally 21-24 November 2024 is the Harrogate show at The Convention Centre.
Like all the craft events I’ve attended the show is not only about the pretty things I have the opportunity to buy it’s about the people and the experience. If you get the chance to go to a future Knitting and Stitching Show I can thoroughly recommend it.
I’d like to say a big thank you again to the shows organisers for offering me the opportunity to visit and for offering the special deals to my lovely KCACO.UK readers!
Until next time folks! Happy hooking and keep calm and crochet on my friends xx
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