'I moved my yarn shop from rural Kent to Leeds - and found a ready-made community at Sunnybank Mills'
What began as a small haberdashery in rural Kent has blossomed into a vibrant fibre shop at the heart of Leeds’ creative hub, Sunnybank Mills.
For Vanessa Lingwood, the move north was more than a change of address - it was a leap of faith that’s paid off in community, creativity and a renewed sense of purpose.
Vanessa's journey with yarn began when she set up Hoop Haberdashery in Tenterden, a small town in the heart of Kent.
“I started the shop nearly 15 years ago in Kent, and I sold predominantly knitting things, but I also sold supplies for embroidery and stitching and general crafting supplies as well,” she told the Yorkshire Evening Post.
The arrival of Covid brought big changes. Vanessa moved away from the high street, instead running the business from an outbuilding at her rural cottage - and narrowing its focus entirely to yarn.
As she and her husband, William Lingwood, began planning their return to Northumberland, where Vanessa is originally from, their trips to Leeds to visit their student sons made them fall in love with the city. Instead of moving further north, the family decided to pack up their lives and resettle in West Yorkshire.
She said: "I didn't know if I was going to bring the shop with me or not. In fact, my husband thought that he was going to retire.
"So I was looking for an office space originally, because I also sell yarn wholesale business to business. I came over to Sunnybank Mills and thought it was just fabulous.
“John and William [Gaunt, cousins and owners of Sunnybank Mills] were so enthusiastic and encouraging. They said, ‘Can we persuade you to open a retail space here?’ - because they didn’t have a yarn shop at that point.”
Encouraged by the Sunnybank Mills team, Vanessa reconsidered her plans.
"I went back to my husband and said, 'How do you feel about having a yarn shop again, you know, taking it back out onto the High Street?'"
Vanessa takes a personal approach to selling yarn, and offers expert tips as well as in-store classes which have sold out before even launching.
She said: “I’m a specialist fibre shop, focusing on natural fibres. I only stock products that I love and know, and I’m happy to show knitters and crocheters of all levels and abilities what they could produce with gorgeous yarn.”
While the store has been popular since day one, she has noticed one key difference between Farsley and Kent: “There’s a much broader range of ages who are crafting... there’s a lot of, you know, 20s, 30s crafters and knitters, which is fantastic.
"In Kent, all ladies who were kind of 50 plus. Here, people are more crafting as a community. They’re younger, and they’re crafting for their mental health and their enjoyment.”
She also has a helping hand now, something she was missing when running her original shop on the high street: “In Kent, I ran the shop entirely on my own, but now I’ve got my poor husband to nag," she laughed. "Anything I don’t want to do or that involves Tech, I just tell him.
"But the other nice thing about being in the Mill is that, because there’s a ready-made community here... it made all the difference, and that’s why we [moved here].”
From a rural outbuilding to a creative hub in Leeds, Vanessa’s journey has always been about more than yarn - it’s about connection.
“Once you start building up a community of crafters - that’s half the beauty of crafting these days. A lot of people do it not just for mindfulness, but to connect with others who share a similar mindset - and to do something that supports their mental health.”
Hoop is now open at Farsley’s Sunnybank Mills - Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, and Sunday, 11am to 3pm.