The Blackpool Knitting Hotel

Yes, there’s a hotel in Blackpool, the Westcliffe Hotel, which caters exclusively for knitters! I was amazed and delighted when I first learned this last year from one of the members of ‘Bitter and Twisted’ (the knitting group I belong to which meets in a Huddersfield pub). We decided we must experience this incredible reality, and so early October saw a number of us in residence for a weekend.

When I tweeted about being at the Blackpool Knitting Hotel, someone replied that ‘this sounds like a scene from Wallace and Gromit’! A great analogy! Westcliffe is a small, family-run hotel with wonderfully warm hosts, lovely Art Nouveaux decor (William Morris and Rennie Mackinstosh wallpapers and fabrics), and an abundance of extras to delight knitters. It even has it’s own knitting shop, as well as a well-stocked knitting library. I could spend weeks there just enjoying the many inspiring knitting books they have.

One of the many delights in the on-site knitting shop was an intriguing box covered in Christmassy pictures; an Opal yarns Advent Calendar, with 24 mini skeins of Opal sock yarn hidden behind 24 doors. We all coveted that box, and it was the subject of lots of lively discussion among us about how we could acquire it. On our final day we decided to make it a joint purchase which we will host for 6 days each. Then we excitedly drew lots to determine which skeins each of us would get; I won the skeins for the 5th, 6th, 14th, 15th, 23rd and 24th of December. We had lots of fun deciding how to do it and it promises much more fun for us in December, which we’re going to share with everyone by posting pictures each day on social media. I am soooo excited!