Wool on Wheels travels across Cardiff helping the housebound and people in residential homes
VANS delivering goods aren’t uncommon in Cardiff, but one vehicle zooming around our streets is packed full of something different – wool.
Wool on Wheels is a mobile knitting business bringing supplies to customers including the housebound and people living in residential homes who can’t nip out to the shops.
“I take the van to them so they’ve still got the independence of coming and buying their own products,” said owner Leanne Harrington.
“They can come out and choose their own. It’s nice that they can still do that.”
When making house deliveries to those who are struggling to get out, Ms Harrington often stops for a cup of a tea and a chat with her customers.
“I might be the only person that they see throughout the week. It’s really nice,” she said.
Wool on Wheels also visits knitting groups, delivering “wool wherever it’s needed” partly as a response to the decline in craft shops.
“I wanted to help people that were stuck at home, still wanting to do their hobbies. It’s just grown. The van is absolutely amazing. It does so, so well,” added the knitting enthusiast.
The van makes visits locations in Fairwater, Llanedryn, Llantwit Major, Pontprennau, Rumney, Radyr, Splott, Sully and Thornhill every week.
“It’s been described as an adult ice cream van,” said the 46-year-old.
“I don’t think I will ever tire of seeing people’s faces when they see it.”
The 46-year-old has been inundated with requests for deliveries. She even had a police officer follow her one morning, asking if the van would come along to her knit and natter group in Pentyrch.
“I didn’t really realise how much it was needed out in the community until I started getting phone calls coming through. I still get people now two years on who say ‘I’ve only just found you, I can’t believe that you’re mobile and you’ll bring me some wool’.”
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‘It’s just taken off’
Ms Harrington started attending her local knit and natter group in 2019 while in recovery from cancer and the knitting bug soon took hold
“I would have just been sat at home wasting away otherwise,” she said.
Members of her group began to worry about where they would buy their wool after their usual haberdashery store closed.
Ms Harrington joked that she could buy up the stock and sell it out of her car – and the joke quickly became a reality.
She started delivering Wool on Wheels from the back of her seven-seater car in 2023 but quickly had to buy a van to keep up with demand.
A year later the business outgrew the van and she opened a shop in Norbury Road, Fairwater – a cosy and welcoming space which is only just able to accommodate a wide range of items including patterns, needles, hooks, sewing needles, buttons, and ribbon.
“It’s just taken off like I wasn’t expecting,” said Ms Harrington.
She keeps product prices down in part due to the low costs of running the van and renting the space in an office block.
And now she has started running knitting lessons for people of all abilities, for £5 a session. Some people who took them last year have now joined together in a group to share new skills, techniques and items they have made.
“We have so much fun, it’s a really good laugh,” said Ms Harrington.
‘It’s still a pinchable moment’
With orders for wool deliveries coming from as far as Sheffield, appearances at craft fairs in Newport and Barry and featuring at Llanelli Pride later this year, the business shows no signs of slowing down.
“It’s still a pinchable moment because I just didn’t expect it to be this big.
“I only started to go into the groups with my mum and now I’ve got ladies and men coming to me and going ‘oh my God, you’re the wool lady’,” Ms Harrington said.
The cancer survivor credits knitting for helping her during her recovery, improving her mental health and helping her forge friendships.
“Knitting helps because you don’t need to concentrate on anything else. It’s just you. You go into your own little bubble and nothing else matters,” she said. “It’s your own little world.”
Details of the Wool on Wheels van schedule can be found via these links:
The Wool on Wheels shop is at Unit 8, Office 6B, 24 Norbury Road, Fairwater, Cardiff, CF5 3AU.
