Plan your visit to Yarningham

photo credit: The British Oak by Katchoo/ Fiona Cullinan on flickr reusable under Creative Commons licence

We’ve been receiving a few questions from you about your visits to Yarningham.

So I’m going to try and collate some information that I hope you will find useful

Places to meet, eat and drink

The British Oak A redbrick pub with a large garden and seating area.  Food also available.

Change Kitchen Cafe, Award winning vegetarian and vegan caterers who run the cafe within Stirchley Baths.

P Café brings art, poetry and quality café fare to Stirchley high street. Serving hot and cold drinks, sandwiches and cakes.

Loaf is a food-based social enterprise. They run an innovative community supported bakery and cookery school. Visit the bakery shop to buy fresh loaves, cakes and pastries, takeaway lunches and useful baking equipment and books.

Wildcat Tap. Micro pub serving cask ale and craft beer.  Check their Twitter feed for updates on what beers and ales are on tap.

Lorna Bakes will also have a selection of delicious cakes for sale in the Yarningham marketplace.

Don’t forget we also have our pre Yarningham Hootenanny on Friday 15th July

Travel information

See our website here for details of how to get to Yarningham

Yarningham Extras

Cookies and Cream, 2 alpacas visiting Yarningham on Saturday 16th.  Make sure you go and say hello.

An outdoor seating area and gazebo (for those who prefer shade) to meet with friends, have a drink and compare purchases

Yarningham selfie board.  Take a selfie using our Yarningham character board.  More info on that later.

Yarningham Exhibitors – Solids and Saturated

Today we are featuring some more of our Yarningham exhibitors.

Our second category is Solids and Saturated.

First up is Phileas Yarns, Escapism heavy lace in  colourway Wat

In The Wool Shed, Lleyni Mini Wool Pots from their own flock of Lleyn Sheep.

and finally Yarn Cafe, who stock Literally Yarns Solar Sock in Yellow Peril

You can find out more about all of our Yarningham exhibitors here.

Tickets for Yarningham marketplace are £5 in advance (more on the door) and can be bought here.

Raffle prizes

We’re holding a raffle at Yarningham to help raise money for Animal Encounters who will be bringing Cookies and Cream the alpacas to the show.

Our exhibitors have been really generous and donated all of these goodies for us to give away.  Yes, give away.

To stand a chance of winning you will need to enter the raffle at Yarningham.  Tickets will be available at the show and the winners will be drawn on Monday 18 July.

Prizes are:

Beyond Measure‘ needles and pins set, inc. Hiroshima Needles Patchwork Pins and Tapestry Needles, Merchant and Mills Black Bulb Pins and Maison Sajou needles

Phileas Yarns, Wanderer Aran in Bedouin, 100% British BFL, 100g 166m

Whimzy, Sokkusu O Max in Colours of the Underground, 100% superwash merino, 150g 490m and set of 4 gradient mini skiens

The Knitting Swede, 2 x Wensleydale DK in Sequoia, 100% wensleydale, 100g 200m

Owl About Yarn, Cuddly Owl Sock Blank in Starry, 75% merino 25% nylon, 100g 425m and an owl stitch marker

Fab Funky Fibres, (top) 70% BFL, 20% silk, 10% cashmere, 100g, 400m.  (bottom) The Big One Gradient, 75% merino, 20% nylon and 5% stellina sparkle, 100g 400m plus contrasting blue mini skien.

(second picture) Fab Funky Fibres, Custom Blend Fibre Merino in Heathers of the Moorland 23mic 64s

Textile Garden, Cotton Seersucker, blue and white check, 190 x 145cm and 3 sets of 10 complimentary buttons

 

 

 

Podcast

Yarningham has been mentioned in the new episode of Owl About Yarn‘s podcast. Jennie from Owl About Yarn will be selling her gorgeous yarns at Yarningham so have a listen and see what she has to say! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rDczba6uOE

Yarningham Exhibitors – Brights and Stripes

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be showcasing some of the wonderful products that our Yarningham exhibitors will be bringing to the show.

Our first category is Brights and Stripes

First up is Fab Funky Fibres, self striping 4ply, Colourways from L-R are Spock, Big One Gradient, Navy Rainbow and Rainbow Chaos

Next we have Hand Dyed By Kate, colourway Nebula

And finally The Knitting Swede, colourway Tropical Rainbow

You can find out more about all of our Yarningham exhibitors here.

Tickets for Yarningham marketplace are £5 in advance (more on the door) and can be bought here.

Steeking with Ann Kingstone

 

One of our workshops at Yarningham will be a Steeking for Beginners taught by Ann Kingstone. Steeking is used when working in the round is easier that working flat, i.e when working armholes. As you knit, you create a bridge of waste stitches which can then be cut – yes cut!

You will learn:

• A variety of steeking stitch patterns.

• How to set a steek before cutting it.

• Several options for reinforcing a steek.

• How to pick up stitches from a steeked opening.

• How to apply i-cord to a steeked opening.

• Options for finishing a steek.

You will need to complete 2 swatches in advance of your workshops (instructions will be sent). Each swatch is knit in the round in two colours. This workshop is not suitable for beginner knitters.

Materials are not included with this workshop. You will be sent a materials list when you book. If you would like us to provide you with materials please choose the with materials option when paying for your workshop.

Ann Kingstone is a British designer and tutor based in the beautiful county of Yorkshire. Her designs are generally inspired by history, literature and traditions of her native country and its neighbours.

Tickets can be bought here and also include entrance into the Yarningham marketplace on the day of your workshop.

 

WWKIP day @ Sin Eater Festival

On Saturday we held a hootenanny at Sin Eater Festival to celebrate World Wide Knit In Public Day.

A big thank you to David and Liz from Sin Eater for hosting us, everyone who came to get their stitch on and most of all to the knitting weather gods who supplied us with some sunshine.  

ChangeKitchen

ChangeKitchen run the cafe at Stirchley Baths, the former Edwardian swimming baths that is our venue for Yarningham.

ChangeKitchen is an exciting social enterprise co-founded in 2010 by trainer and long-term caterer Dr Birgit Kehrer and the well-established Birmingham charity SIFA Fireside.

Since 2012, ChangeKitchen has stood on its own two feet. Birgit and her team are ‘Cooking up Change’ by creating delicious catering for all kinds of events, whilst also offering training and work placements as a stepping stone into employment to those facing social exclusion.

ChangeKitchen’s ethos is for ethical, locally sourced, organic food. They say good food is good for the soul and, ChangeKitchen believe it has the power to change lives.

ChangeKitchen cafe will be open on both days at Yarningham providing a menu of vegetarian and vegan dishes (inc gluten free options) so that everyone can eat from the same menu.

Animal Encounters at Yarningham

Meet Cookies and Cream, 2 gorgeous alpacas owned by Animal Encounters.

Animal Encounters are a community based project in Winson Green, Birmingham who work with local schools, churches and community projects to give inner city residents the chance to meet and learn about non domestic and exotic animals.

We are very excited that Cookies and Cream will be our special guests on Saturday 16th July at Yarningham, opening the festival.  They will then stay a while to be petted, brushed, feed and walked by you lovely lot.

Animal Encounters have also kindly agreed to donate 2 fleeces from Cookies and Cream for our Yarningham raffle.

The fleeces will be our star prize.  So to be in with a chance to win you will need to attend Yarningham and buy a raffle ticket. We’ll be announcing more raffle prizes from our exhibitors over the next couple of weeks.

Not sure what you would do with 2 alpaca fleeces? Sign up for our drop spindle workshop and learn how to spin your own yarn.

Lorna Bakes @ Yarningham

I would like to introduce you to Lorna-Mary Webb.  She runs LM Projects as a freelance producer and is a massive lover of cake.

Lorna has been catering for quite a few years and started to include it under the title of ‘Producer’ after she found a real passion for baking. After some time working in tour catering, she decided to stay closer to home and trained as a Barista. She now runs Front of House at Buddy’s 232 cafe, in Digbeth, baking cakes, making great coffee (she’s been told) and keeping customers happy and in check.

Now everyone knows that you can’t have a fibre festival (or any kind of festival) without cake. So we got in touch with Lorna to make sure that we have lots of delicious cakes for Yarningham.

Here are some  of Lorna’s previous bakes to whet your appetite.

Lorna has chosen to bake some traditional cakes and loaves, some naughty tray bakes, a gluten free and vegan option, as well as a ‘ Yarningham show stopper`. So, hopefully something for every sweet tooth.