knittingmag.comballs and skeins.” Yarn weights range from 4 ply up to chunky and
the couple also sell a range of needles and crochet hooks, including
KnitPro tools, along with a good selection of patterns.
Carole likes to knit with all the ranges of yarn she sells so she can
give customers informed advice about what they are like to work with
- “though she has only knitted one sock to date,” according to Colin.
The boat, which is also the couple’s home, tends to open its shop
a couple of days a week, mainly at weekends. Over the winter it has
a mooring in Burscough, West Lancashire, and during the summer
it travels Britain’s waterways and the couple moor and set up shop
wherever they choose to land. “We don’t travel the same route each
year, so we sometimes get complaints from people asking where we
were last year, but we travel where we feel like exploring,” explains
Colin. “We still have regular customers, some of whom will travel to
ind the boat.”
Updates of where they will be next can be found on the Wool Boat’s
website, Facebook page and social media. “We like to be moored
somewhere there is towpath-side car parking, which is often a pub car
park, a convenience if customers fancy some refreshment,” Colin says.
“We pride ourselves on having, as much as possible, a yarn for
everyone who comes aboard – and on bringing wool by water to
towns and villages that are now devoid of a local yarn shop,” he says.
Find out more at thewoolboat.co.uk or facebook.com/
thewoolboat
19“We pride ourselves on having, as much as possible, a yarn for everyone who comes aboard –
and on bringing wool by water to towns and villages that are now devoid of a local yarn shop.”
A customer browses the pattern selection
ABOVE: Carole knits aboard