Rescued juvenile hedgehog

Driving back from a lunch meeting recently, I drove past a hedgehog in the road. It was heading for the grass verge, so I drove on. Seconds later, I realised I'd have to go back - turned round as soon as I could, and just got onto the road again in front of a large grain lorry. Got back to where hedgehog was, and of course it'd changed direction and was right in the middle of the road, just where the lorry would have crushed it.

I stopped my van, and made the lorry stop with arm gestures to die for, and scooped up the sorry little creature. I let the lorry continue with a big thank you (he must have thought I was nuts, but who cares), put the hedgehog in the passenger footwell and drove home.

I left him there because I had loads to do to get ready for a show the next day - I needed to bring everything up from the garden studio before it got dark.

I then googled looking after hedgehogs - I've done it before but needed a refresher. The main thing they kept saying was keep them warm. Oh my goodness - I'd left this one in the van all afternoon!
I rushed out to bring him in - he was a bit chilly, but after a while on a warm hot water bottle, all seemed well.
He's now functioning extremely well (oh, does he smell!), and very active at night, and living in a very tall cardboard box in the bathroom. He got out of the normal size box with no trouble.

When we over-wintered one before, he managed to rattle the door of the rabbit hutch where he lived until the door opened. He'd fall to the floor, some 3 feet below, and was off. All this happened several times, always in the middle of the night. I'd go to sort him out in the morning and the wretch had made a run for it. But he was always found curled up in an awkward corner - the dogs always smelt him out!

He's so cute!! Or she, of course.

British Wool Marketing Board won't allow welfare standards on British Wool

Izzy Lane has a wonderful business - ethical fashion from the fleece from her own flocks of rare Shetland and Wensleydale sheep. It's an amazing story - read more here

This is Izzy with one of her Wensleydales:









But the following is one of the issues that she and many sheep farmers are up against. This is her press release:

"For several years Isobel Davies has been working to bring attention to animal welfare standards in wool production, as well as give support to, as well as to create markets for British Wool and aid the ailing British Textile Industry. While continuing to use the wool from her won600 strong rescued flock, a deal was pending to break into the mainstream with Tesco having sought out Izzy Lane for a diffusion range.

Izzy Lane was to deliver the first wool cloth ever with an animal welfare standard on it.

The cloth would be made in Britain using some of the last scourers, spinners, dyers, weavers and finishers in the country and located in areas now depressed and with a high unemployment as a result of the demise of the textile industry. It was a glimmer of hope in a struggling industry, British wool heading for the first time to supermarket rails and with an animal welfare standard to boot.

In the initial work, Isobel was supported by certain employees of the Wool Board who helped to identify farmers who met her strict criteria which included:

No sheep from the flock to ever be live-exported
No sheep to ever be sold in livestock markets, with the exception of breeding stock
No sheep to ever be transported for more than 120 miles or a maximum time of 3 hours, with the exception of breeding stock.

Each farmer by law has to send their wool to the British Wool Marketing Board. Once it arrives, it goes into the bulk and loses its source and identity. It is then auctioned off to the wool merchants. The farmers are paid so little that many just burn and bury it as it doesn't even cover shearing costs.

Britain's wealth was founded on the wool trade in the Middle Ages and it is what later fuelled the industrial revolution. But it is now sadly deemed a "waste product".

The wool for Isobel's project was sent to the wool board, all tagged up and ready to be sent off to be processed. Then the shock, that the Wool Board would not endorse the use of animal welfare standards in the promotion of British wool as it didn't think it was fair to those farmers who do not meet the criteria.

British wool in British supermarkets, Britain setting the precedent for animal welfare in the fashion industry, the support of the British mills in these difficult times, premiums paid for the wool to the struggling farmers. There was also a deal to supply the fabric for coats to export to Japan.

Isobel Davies"

If you are surprised, or shocked by any of this, please let others know.

I'm currently using fleece from Shetlands, Portlands and Manx Loaghtans among others for my work - you can see some of it here. I love them all, with their fine fleece and beautiful colours.

The bonuses of fund raising

We've just dispatched the younger daughter off to Sri Lanka with a group from her school - all very exciting, but also very expensive. We've not paid for this trip - she's had to raise the funds herself. But I did help - I decided that my stiffening fingers could do with a work-out, so I got out the crochet hook and made flower brooches and hairclips - loads of them!! We've been selling them at all sorts of events and they've been really popular, so I keep on crocheting. Here's a few of them:

These are made using left-over bits from hand spinning years ago - Wensleydale fleece and camel wool. I enjoyed making these, and may even get out my spinning wheel again.



And these use bits and pieces from the wool bag and have been really popular with youngsters:




And these ones have leaves!

The great bonuses in all of this are:
Nicola has learnt to crochet and has made some of them herself
And my fingers are benefitting from their work outs.

Big Red Bag went to Autumn Fair trade show

Big Red Bag - you may remember it: I won this amazing canvas bag in a business raffle at a Wire meeting. It was donated by Toy Tidy who supply great storage solutions for all that stuff that kids have.

I had a problem at the Autumn Fair this year, because I had to take a delivery with me for a customer to collect from my stand. But there's really no storage space on my stand, especially for a box as big as this one. But then I had a brain wave and rushed to get Big Red Bag. I stuffed it with lots of my lovely dyed fleece that I use on my handmade greeting cards and art work (have a look here if you can't remember what I do - lots of amusing fluffy animals!) and took it off to the show.

And lo and behold, behind Big Red Bag, and hidden beneath all the overflowing fleece, is the box for my customer! (Well, you can't lo and behold it actually, because it's hidden...)


That fleece is so scrummy - soft, warm and with a lovely smell. I can't resist it! I do find myself emptying my supplies onto the studio floor sometimes, just because of the warmth and the colour!

An unusual afternoon snack

Please don't get us to send our dog back to the Dog's Trust - we do feed him, really, but he obviously doesn't think so!



Here's he's taken some mount board for his mid afternoon snack, but really he prefers some nice offcuts of handmade Himalayan mountain paper!

A fresh start

October already and not a blog posted for weeks. Oh dear.

September is traditionally a busy month for us with the Autumn Fair trade show and the start of a new school year both falling together in a the first week or two, along with both daughters' birthdays in the middle of the month.

But this year we had some added "busy-ness" with Emma leaving to go to university, and a couple of business market place events falling at the same time as the birthdays.

But here we are, in October, and the start of a hectic time preparing for the Christmas season. The office has been blitzed, with all the filing up to date, raw materials have been ordered, and the team are busy putting together the outstanding orders for our customers - Christmas cards, calendars (lots of these!), pictures and clocks.

Order your cards and gifts soon, from the website, while stock levels are high. We'd hate you to be disappointed.

Here's one of our most popular Christmas cards for this year:

this was a cat I sketched while in Germany a while back - she was just lying on the pavement enjoying the sunshine, so I thought she could now just relax in front of the Christmas tree and contemplate playing with the fallen bauble.

Autumn Fair Birmingham

Well I've not been good at posting here - it's been an incredibly busy and eventful summer - but it's officially the start of autumn here as I'm off to Autumn Fair at the NEC in Birmingham in about an hour. The van is loaded - amazingly this was actually done last night! Now I just need some sustenance to keep me going - apricots, nuts, that sort of thing - as it's hard to get off the stand during the show - I shall be on my own this time as Emma, my trusty co-pilot, is off to Birmingham University in a couple of weeks and has lots to do herself.

I'll certainly know the way to Birmingham!

It's been a challenge helping Emma to prepare for uni - student finance being the biggest challenge. She's still not heard about her finance yet.... But everything else is finally falling into place and it's getting quite exciting. She's even got herself a Facebook page - reluctantly!! My 2 daughters must be very unusual teenagers - neither are bothered about Facebook - yet!!

The Big Red Bag will be coming to the trade show with me - filled with lovely goodies... It may even get into another photo. I'll post something up on my return.

Since I've decided that it is now autumn, I shall just go and put raincoat and boots in the van.

If you're coming to the show, do come and say hello - Stand 3 X19 - if not, why not leave a comment here so that I can see if anyone actually reads the blog!