Are you a woolly blogger or podcaster? Would you like to receive press releases from S&H/Yarningham?
We are currently updating our press distribution lists. If you would like to be added please send us an email.
Add to our press list
Monthly Archives: October 2020
S&H/Yarningham SHOP – New Scarf Designs
We’ve added 4 new scarf designs to our online shop. First up is COLOUR BLOCK SCARF. A made to order machine knitted colour block scarf in up to 3 colours. The scarf is double thickness for extra warmth.
Choose up to 3 colours from our palette of 6 (scarlet red, mustard, grey, navy, cream and peacock) to create your personalised colour block scarf. Put your colour choices in any order. Have the same colour twice or even just a single colour. The decision is yours.
Next is ‘LADDERS’ SCARF. A made to order machine knitted slip stitch scarf in ‘Ladders’ pattern. The scarf is double thickness for extra warmth. ‘Ladders’ pattern is available in colour way grey and mustard
Our 3rd design is the ‘HEXAGON’ SCARF in scarlet red and navy. The scarf is double thickness for warmth.
Our final scarf design is ‘ZIG ZAG’ SCARF. This design is available in peacock and cream colour way and is double thickness for extra warmth
All of our machine knitted scarves are made to order from 100% merino wool. Dimensions: 185cm length 15cm wide. Dispatch time: approx. 12-14 days.
All of our scarves are available from our online shop here.
To ensure delivery before Christmas Day our last order date for ‘Made to Order’ items is MONDAY 7 DECEMBER.
The Cake Economy
I want to tell you a secret. It’s that a cake can ‘buy’ you things when you don’t have any money.
Here at S&H/Yarningham HQ we have a DIY attitude. Most of the time this is a necessity rather than a choice. We don’t have the resources or budget of some other organisations so we have to use our creative nous to help solve our problems.
Let me let you in on what I like to call The Cake Economy. Like other economies it works on the premise of goods and services being produced and exchanged. However, in The Cake Economy rather than goods and services being produced and exchanged for money they are produced and exchanged for cake (or other enticing goods).
When we started Yarningham, we did so with absolutely no money whatsoever. We needed lots of work, goods and services to set the festival up. But how could we get a logo designed, for instance, if we had no money? Well what you do is think about what you’re good at – is it baking? Sewing? Gardening? Then ask someone who is good at the thing you need to see if they will do your job in exchange for your skill.
So that’s how the Yarningham logo was designed in return for cake (and some trouser repairs). We use The Cake Economy a lot and you would be surprised what can be ‘bought’ with your skills.
The secret to getting good results from The Cake Economy? Ask nicely and always make sure that you give the person(s) you’re asking a way of saying no easily. Make sure that the exchange is fair and two way. You have to do something of equal or equivalent measure.
How We Select – The Panel
In our last post about how we select exhibitors for the Yarningham marketplace I’ll talk a bit about the panel. The panel is made up of TEAM YARNINGHAM – myself (Sara Fowles), Helen Winnicott, Venetia Headlam and Lilith Winnicott.
Sara Fowles “I grew up in Birmingham and learnt to knit at school aged around 7. I then promptly gave up knitting and learnt to sew instead, crafting clothes for myself out of pillowcases and my mothers cast offs. I didn’t take up my needles again until a friend gave me a birthday gift of 2 balls of chunky Rowan yarn. Less than a year later I had started Stitches and Hos, a monthly knit night held in a pub. Over the last couple of years I have expanded my making repertoire to include machine knitting after buying a machine in a charity shop.”
Venetia Headlam “My mom taught me to knit when I was about 7 or 8 years old, I forgot it all then she re-taught me when I was 11, ill and needed something to do. She also taught me the basics of crochet when I was 14, and I have surpassed her in my skills, she will now call on me if she needs “help” with something (ie wants me to do it for her!). Over the past few years I have expanded my skills and added knitting machines and an electric spinning wheel to my arsenal of yarn crafting instruments. The spinning wheel doesn’t get as much action as the needles/hooks/machines but I am determined to make yarn that actually looks decent, and not like spun carpet fluff.”
Lilith Winnicott “I began knitting as a child and promptly forgot how to do it. I re-learnt when I was about 18 and chose the most complicated pattern to knit, on dpns! I also sew, bake and build things. My life seems to revolve around one craft or another but I love it all”
Helen Winnicott “My mom taught me to knit when I was 6 or 7, but I don’t remember making anything until I was a bit older. My cousin and his wife had a baby girl when I was 12 and I knitted bootees and a cardigan for her. I began knitting again in 1989 when I was pregnant with my first child and have never stopped since then. I knitted things for all my children when they were small and now for my grandchildren. Thanks to the internet, I found lots of indie dyers and gorgeous yarns and love to knit socks and shawls for myself. I have tried to crochet but am not very good at it and can only manage a chain.”
S&H/Yarningham SHOP – Seasonal Products
We’re pleased to announce that the S&H/Yarningham shop is now full of seasonal products.
We’ve created a small range of hand made accessories and decorations including machine knitted scarves (pictured below), traditional bauble sets and hand knitted colour work door wreaths (pictured above).
Each one of our seasonal items has been designed, developed and produced by one of the core Stitches and Hos team.
Most of the items are made to order. Dispatch is within 12-14 days of your order.
Please note that if you would like to ensure delivery before Christmas our last order day for made to order products is MONDAY 7 DECEMBER 2020. Our last posting day to ensure Christmas delivery is MONDAY 14 DECEMBER 2020.
You can find our online shop here.
How We Select – What we are looking for
In this blog post about how we select exhibitors for Yarningham, we’ll look at what we are looking for.
The Yarningham marketplace is the place to find the best independent dyers, producers, designers, online retailers, brick and mortar shops from around the UK and beyond.
Once the application closing date has passed we hold a meeting to assess the applications. The Yarningham panel is made up of myself (Sara Fowles), Helen Winnicott, Venetia Headlam and Lilith Winnicott. We use a scoring system to assess the applications. Each member of the panel scores individually. The scores are added together and a mean average taken. Those with the highest scores are selected.
The scoring system we use is divided into categories with points given for each category. Points are awarded for uniqueness of style/voice, diversity of range and price points and quality of the products. We award points based solely on the application form for that year.
A point is given for applicants new to Yarningham which helps us to ensure that 50% of our marketplace is new to Yarningham each year. A point is also given to those who have followed the application guidelines and sometimes this can be the difference between being selected and not.
In the next blog post about how we select I’ll tell you a bit more about the Yarningham panel a.k.a. TEAM YARNINGHAM
How We Select – Images
In this blog post about how we select exhibitors I want to talk about images.
On our application form we ask you to upload 4 images to support your application. These images should represent what the applicant would bring to Yarningham. We ask that 3 of the images are of products and 1 of their stand at a previous show or festival. If the applicant hasn’t exhibited at a show/festival before we ask them to supply 4 images of representative products.
There are image guidelines for the application form. We specify what format the images should be in and how they should be labelled. We also ask for information about the image including product type, name and price.
We know that not everyone is au fait with technical terms for images or how to change their images so that they meet our guidelines. So we provide an email address on the application form to get in touch if you are having any problems.
If you are selected the images you provide on your application form are used for marketing purposes including on our website, social media accounts and in promotional material.
We are looking for clear concise images where the product featured is centre stage. To achieve this you don’t need to be a professional photographer. I took the image used in this blog post with my phone. Whilst a professional photographer would be able to produce a better photo the image is a good, clear representation of the enamel badge which is what I wanted.
The best recommendation I’ve seen for taking photos of products is to invest in a background. A large piece of plain paper will do and is much easier to use than fabric (saves on ironing too!)
In the next post about how we select I’ll talk about what we are looking for and a little bit about scoring applications.
How We Select – The Application Form
Usually at this time of year we would be receiving applications for the next Yarningham. As we all know 2020 has not been a usual year.
We thought we would share some more details about the application process. We have always tried to be as transparent as possible about our application process and we hope this information will help anyone looking to apply to the festival in the future.
So first up is the application form. We think this is the fairest way to assess applications. Exhibitors are selected blindly, based solely on their application form. This helps us to ensure that 50% of our marketplace each year is new to the festival.
The application form is simple. In the old days we uploaded a Word document or PDF to our website for people to download. We’ve since upgraded to an embeddable form that automatically files each application on our shared drive.
We ask applicants for their details (business name, their name, website, social media accounts and a short biography). We then ask them to upload 4 images that represent what they would bring to Yarningham. 3 images should be of products and the 4th an image of their stand at a previous show. If they haven’t exhibited at a show before they should supply 4 images of products.
Once the images are uploaded they then need to submit their application form and that’s it. Yarningham exhibitor application completed.
In the next post I’ll explain a bit more about the images you would need to apply.
Feedback – Part 5
So we’ve reached the final infographic showcasing the feedback Yarningham has received.
This infographic shows the age range of our audience. We attract visitors from a wide range of ages and the majority of our audience are between the ages of 35-54.
What this feedback tells us is that the festival is a reflection of the team. The variety within our team is reflected in our audience. This is one of the things we set out to do with Yarningham and it is fantastic to see that we are achieving our goals and aims.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed learning a bit more about Yarningham and what our audience and exhibitors say about the festival. It’s been a valuable exercise and a chance for us to take stock of our achievements and celebrate them.
Feedback – Part 4
A large part of Yarningham is our marketplace. It’s THE place to find the best independent producers, dyers, designers, online retailers and bricks and mortar shops.
From the beginning we set a rule that at least 50% of the marketplace each year must be new to Yarningham. This helps to ensure that the marketplace never feels like its gone stale or we’ve just repeated last year’s festival. It can lead to some very difficult decisions when going through applications but this rule is crucial for Yarningham.
This exercise of looking back through our feedback and compiling statistics has been really eye opening. We’ve never properly analysed our feedback and usually take a much more practical approach to using it. What needs to change? What can we improve? But there’s nothing like a cold hard figure staring back at you unexpectedly from the calculator to surprise you with what you’ve achieved.
And so it was with this figure. Out of 107 exhibitors over the four editions of Yarningham, 71 are unique. Meaning that over the 4 years of the festival 65% of our marketplace has been new to Yarningham. I always knew that we had achieved our target each year but never imagined that we had such a high number of unique exhibitors.
This success is really about TEAM YARNINGHAM. Without Lil, V and Helen as part of the team I think this figure would have been difficult to achieve.
There’ll be one more feedback post after this one. If you’ve missed the other three you can find them here (Part 1), here (Part 2) and here (Part 3).
