Yarndale, the two-day festival of yarn and woolly creativity in Skipton, has announced the recipients of its Start Up Bursary in Memory of Amanda Bloom and Jenny Machin.
The bursary was originally launched in 2022 to support emerging fibre artists and fledgling creative businesses, providing them with the opportunity to showcase their work and gain vital experience exhibiting at a major yarn show.
It was supported from the beginning by Amanda Bloom, founder of Cosy Life Boxes and Little Box of Crochet, in memory of her daughter Jenny, who passed away in 2017.
Following the death of Amanda in June 2025, the bursary was renamed in memory of both women.
The bursary has been awarded to three innovative and passionate makers, who will each bring an innovative perspective to the show.
Auspicious Stitch
Sammy, who lives in Easington Colliery on the North East coast, founded Auspicious Stitch, transforming her long-time spinning hobby into a vibrant fibre arts business.
When she started spinning 15 years ago, she pined for colourful art batts but the equipment to make them was well beyond her budget, and her home lacked the space.
She believes that fibre arts should be accessible to everyone and this belief drives her every day to share what she’s learnt.
She’s looking forward to the opportunity to showcase her colourful fibre batts, that she blends by hand on a second-hand drum carder, so that her fellow fibre artists can experience the joy of spinning colour and texture blends regardless of their financial status or ability.
Esca
Sheffield-born Fashion Textiles–Knitwear graduate Lauren, launched Esca, a brand dedicated to avant-garde knitwear, bags, and accessories after noticing a huge gap in the market for avant-garde knitwear made in the north of England.
Her experience navigating the fashion industry outside London revealed that it was very hard to find work in the industry with a progressive ethos on sustainability.
Despite the North being a hub for Lambswool production, she found there are very few brands operating in the region using the wool.
Derived from the Celtic word for river, Esca embodies her deep connection to nature and reflects the importance to her of creating a sustainable and locally sourced brand, with a focus on wool and other natural fibres.
She hopes to be able to bring more of a knitwear community up to the north.
Oxford Biocolours
Jim and Darren are industrial biochemists who founded Oxford Biopigments to transform the dyeing industry and developed the World’s first colourfast, plant-based dyeing system for wool.
Unlike traditional natural dyes, their dyes meet the textile industry standards for colour fastness and do not require mordants to bind to wool.
This allows the dyes to work in existing commercial dyeing machinery and be blended together to create a wide range of sustainable colours.
Commenting on all three recipients, Kate Beard from the Yarndale team said:
“A huge congratulations to Auspicious Stitch, Esca, and Oxford Biocolours.
"Each brings something wonderfully different to the table, and we were very impressed with their applications.
"With such exciting and diverse ventures, we knew immediately that we'd like all three to have a place at this year’s Yarndale to mark new beginnings for the Yarndale Start Up Bursary."
Yarndale is at Skipton Auction Mart on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th September.
For more information about the show and to buy tickets, visit: www.yarndale.co.uk.
Applications for the 2026 Yarndale Start Up Bursary will be open in January 2026.
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