An Annual Pilgrimage: Yarn, Needles, and a Stay at Thisledo

26th September 2025

What our Yarnfest guests say…..

Every year, without fail, the calendar gets a special ring around one particular weekend: Skipton’s famous Yarndale festival. Or as I like to call it, “Yarnfest” — because for those of us who spin, knit, crochet, dye, or simply have a dangerous weakness for skeins in every shade of the rainbow, it’s nothing short of a festival of fibre.

As an exhibitor, it’s become my annual tradition: pack up the car with woolly wonders, samples, displays, and just enough emergency snacks to get through a weekend of chatting, demonstrating, and (let’s be honest) sneaking off to buy more yarn than I could possibly need. And where do I stay? Well, for me, there’s no question — it’s always Thisledo Holiday Cottage in Skipton.

Why? Because after a full day of yarn-fuelled excitement, I need somewhere cosy, central, and mercifully quiet to retreat to. Thisledo ticks all the boxes: just a short stroll from Skipton’s town centre, a proper comfy sofa for tired feet, and a kitchen where I can make a late-night brew while I admire the new skeins I absolutely didn’t mean to buy.

There’s also something rather grounding about returning to the same place each year. The cottage becomes a familiar basecamp: the kitchen table has seen many a frantic “last-minute price tag cutting session,” and the living room has hosted more than one impromptu planning meeting for next year’s stand. Even the bed feels like it’s on my side when I collapse into it after a long day of chatting to fellow yarn enthusiasts.

And then, of course, there’s Skipton itself. Yarnfest might bring me here, but the town keeps me coming back. A wander along the canal, a pint in one of the pubs, or even a cheeky fish and chips from Bizzie Lizzie’s — it all rounds off the weekend beautifully.

So yes, for me, the annual Yarnfest trip isn’t just about the wool, the workshops, or even the community (though they’re all marvellous). It’s about the rhythm of returning to Skipton each year, with Thisledo as my home-from-home. Same time, same place, same cottage — and just as much yarn-induced joy.