2023 dates
10th June - Thread Festival
Thread is a one day festival dedicated to all things sewing. There are various workshops available, plus lots of independant sewing businesses like mine present for you to peruse and purchase from!
Tickets for Thread are £8 if bought in advance or £10 on the door, or if you book one of the workshops your entry ticket is included.
Thread is held at Farnham Maltings, Bridge Square, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7QR and there’s on site parking plus a bigger nearby car park at The Waggon Yard, so you don’t need to worry about where to leave your car. Check out the Farnham Maltings website for more information.
15th & 16th July - Make & Mend Festival
Make & Mend Festival is a celebration of all kinds of crafts. Held at the beautiful National Trust Ormesby Hall, there’s yoga, demonstrations and workshops all available to book.
Saturday 15th July is a National Trust open day for Ormesby Hall, so you can visit the house and gardens for free as well as check out all the makers in the marketplace. Sunday 16th July is the festival day, with all workshops and activities taking place on the Sunday. Tickets for Sunday are £39 and include a workshop of your choice, plus you can book onto additional workshops if you’d like. Ormesby Hall has a large carpark and parking tickets can be purchased in advance through the Make & Mend Festival website.
With an onsite cafe and bookshop, in addition to the house and gardens, there’s plenty to check out over this weekend at Ormesby Hall, Ladgate Lane, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, TS3 OSR.
8th & 9th September - Unravel Autumn
Unravel Autumn is the second Unravel event of the year and is dedicated to all things yarny. There’s a brilliant marketplace full of all sorts of makers and woolly vendors, plus various workshops you can book on to covering a wide range of techniques – from natural dyeing, to tunisian crochet, repairing your knitwear and more.
Tickets for Unravel Autumn are £10 if bought in advance or £12 on the door, or if you book one of the workshops your entry ticket is included. Unravel Autumn is open from 9am – 5pm on Friday 8th and 9am – 4pm on Saturday 9th.
Unravel is held at Farnham Maltings, Bridge Square, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7QR and there’s on site parking plus a bigger nearby car park at The Waggon Yard, so you don’t need to worry about where to leave your car. Check out the Farnham Maltings website for more information.
23rd & 24th September - Yarndale
This year is the 10th anniversary of Yarndale, the first festival having been held way back in 2013! Hosting over 180 makers, doers and yarny businesses (including me), there’s a lot to see and do over this weekend. As a finalist for “Best Knitting show/event” (British Knitting and Crochet Awards 2022) and “Event of the Year” (Yorkshire Post Tourism Awards 2022), you can be sure you’ll have a fantastic time exploring the festival.
Tickets for Yarndale cost £17.50 (including booking fees) and include a show guide and travel from either the Rotary Charity car park or Skipton railway station. Yarndale is open from 10am – 5:30pm on Saturday 23rd and 10am – 4:30pm on Sunday 24th.
Yarndale is held at Skipton Auction Mart, Gargrave Road, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 1UD.
23 October - Great Northern Textile Show
The Great Northern Textile Show is a one day event celebrating all things fibre art related! In addition to the traders market, there are workshops and three fibre artists will be exhibiting their work. There’s something for everyone who has an interest in textiles – from embroidery, to weaving, knitting, applique and more
Tickets for the Great Northern Textile Show cost £8.83 (including booking fees) and the show is open from 10am – 4pm. There’s parking on site, plus the venue is a stone’s throw away from the Trafford Centre with plenty of restaurant options should you get peckish after the show ends.
The Great Northern Textile Show is held at BeActive, Urmston, M41 7FJ.
2022 dates
15th October - Hale Barns Makers Market
This free to attend market is open from 10am to 4pm and takes place in the car park of The Bulls Head Inn.
The pub can be found at Wicker Ln, Hale Barns, Altrincham WA15 0HG and you can find more details about the fair on The Makers Market website.
29th & 30th October - The Big Textile Show
The Big Textile Show is a large fair solely for (as you can probably guess) lovers of all kinds of textile crafts! There are various workshops as well as exhibitors like myself, and it’s on from 9:30am to 5pm on the 29th and 9:30am to 4pm on the 30th.
You do need to buy tickets for The Big Textile Show: it’s £14 per adult for a one day ticket or £28 per adult for the weekend ticket. Children’s tickets are £5 per day and carers go in for free. Workshops do cost extra, so check them out before purchasing your tickets – there’s lots of different things happening on both days.
The show is being held at Leicester Racecourse, Leicester Rd, Oadby, Leicester LE2 4AL and there’s free parking, so you don’t need to worry about where to leave your car.
23rd & 24th November - Christmas Fair
This Christmas Fair is packed to the brim with all kinds of independant businesses, making it perfect for you to find unique Christmas presents from all kinds of businesses.
You do need to pay to enter, but it’s only £2 on the door and under-18s go in for free. Open from 10am – 9pm on Wednesday 23rd and 9:30am – 6pm on Thursday 24th, there’s plenty of opportunity to peruse the stands of the 140+ businesses attending!
The fair is being held at Farnham Maltings, Bridge Square, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7QR and there’s on site parking plus a bigger nearby car park at The Waggon Yard, so you don’t need to worry about where to leave your car. Check out the Farnham Maltings website for more information.
18th December - Sale Christmas Makers Market
This free to attend market is open from 11am – 4pm and takes place along Stanley Square and School Road, Sale, to the south of Manchester.
This is the last market of the year for me, and it’s the Christmas Makers Market so you’re sure to find all your last minute gifts here.
More information can be found about the fair on The Makers Market website.
