Blog

Coronavirus

With the changing global situation with regards to Coronavirus, we wanted to give an update to our customers with regards to how Baa Baa Brighouse is responding to the situation. First of all, we hope you are all staying safe, looking out for yourselves and each other, adhering to the advice that has been offered and using your common sense by not taking any unnecessary risks. The scale of this pandemic is inevitably going to impact upon us all in our personal and professional lives. With regards to Baa Baa Brighouse, the opening of our bricks and mortar shop will be delayed. With shops, cafes, restaurants and non-essential businesses closing in other countries to prevent the spread of this outbreak, it seems like the logical course for us to follow at this point in time. However, as of Sunday March 15th, small independent businesses...
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A Message to EU Customers

Following the UK's departure from the European Union, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our valued EU customers for their support in enabling Baa Baa Brighouse to grow as a business over the past six years. We are personally very saddened to have left the EU but we would like to reassure all of you that we remain committed to trading with our EU friends as far as is possible in the future. During the 12 month transition period from now until December 31st, 2020, there is expected to be no change to customs duties between the UK and EU, which means that EU customers will not incur any additional fees by your country's customs agencies when you receive a parcel from us. Details of future trade arrangements have yet to be finalised and we will keep you updated when we are made aware of them. International orders from...
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Where Do We Go From Here?

It's late. The house is asleep. But my mind won't let me rest. So, I'm writing. Sometimes it helps to get the words out. Yesterday, I had no words. Today, I have too many. There is no sugar-coated way to say this, so I'm just going to say it because as one of my Facebook followers reminded me, I'm 'one feisty lady', and that's definitely a label I can be proud of. Unhappily, the label I'm about to give the Tory voting public isn't. If in Thursday's General Election, you voted Tory, then I'm afraid you voted for a racist and a homophobe. By enabling Boris Johnson, you too are a racist and a homophobe. There, I said it. It's not nice, is it? But there it is. In the very same way that those who voted for the Nazi Party in Germany were Nazi enablers, those that voted for the Tory Party have enabled racism and homophobia. I guess there...
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December Charity Yarn

Guest Blog By Julie Turner of TurnAcre Ryeland Wool   Like many people living in West Yorkshire we knew of Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice but didn’t know much about it. At Christmas 2017, that all changed when our grandson, Irvine Jack Turner, was born sleeping. Irvine passed away before being born at 31 weeks and his mummy and daddy, Jack and Leah, were put in contact with Forget Me Not who helped them plan for his birth and beyond. Thanks to the excellent Snowflake suite at the hospice, we were able to spend precious time with him as a family making memories before we had to say goodbye. Forget Me Not have continued to provide support and help to all of us over the past 2 years. Helping us to get through the early days of grief, the anxiety and emotions of being pregnant again and the birth of our rainbow baby, Iris...
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Knit A Rainbow

Our charity yarn for July is called 'Knit A Rainbow' and aims to raise funds for Stonewall, an organisation that supports the LGBTQ+ community. As we reflect on 2019's Pride Month and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, we are reminded of how far the fight for LGBTQ+ rights has come but also how much more work there is left to do. Discussion within the knitting community has been raging for some time about the need for inclusivity and this was heightened during Pride and then again with Ravelry's recent announcement that they have banned posts in support of President Trump and his administration in a stand against white supremacy. When I created 'Knit A Rainbow', both of these events and discussion around them were occupying my mind and I think the dyed result reflects that. There has been a lot of ugliness directed at those...
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Ravelry Bans Trump Support

The knitting website, Ravelry, which has over 8 million members worldwide, has taken the bold move to ban posts in support of President Donald Trump and his administration. The announcement has been made on the site's homepage in response to the Trump administration's blatant support of white supremacy. Ravelry, like Baa Baa Brighouse, promotes an inclusive environment which cannot be maintained if hate speech of any kind is allowed. That is why today we applaud Ravelry's stance and fully support its actions. At Baa Baa Brighouse, we strive to make our website and social media pages a safe place for all people of colour and those belonging to minority, marginalised groups. Last year we voiced our protest at Trump's presidency during his visit to the UK with our yarn, 'Carnival of Resistance', which raised funds for the American...
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Pride…What Has It Got To Do With Knitting? Everything.

June is Pride Month, a time which commemorates the Stonewall Riots of 1969, considered to be the most important event for the gay liberation movement leading to the modern fight for LGBTQ+ rights. Baa Baa Brighouse is an inclusive business which welcomes people of all sexual orientations and in order to show our support for the LGBTQ+ community at this time, we changed our logo on our social media pages to Baa Baa wearing his Pride jumper. Unfortunately, a rainbow sheep appears to have upset a few people and although we haven't directly received any negative comments ourselves, we see you leaving our Facebook page. We see you unfollowing our Instagram account. We see you unsubscribing from our newsletter. We see you. It saddens us that still so many narrow minded individuals inhabit our planet. Love is love after all. In these...
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Deafblind UK

Throughout June, we will be fundraising for Deafblind UK, with our monthly charity yarn. We have named the exclusive limited edition yarn, 'Deafblind Awareness', as Deafblind Awareness Week also takes place in June. Deafblindness is the loss of sight and hearing to the point where your communication, mobility and ability to access information are impacted. This includes ‘progressive’ sight and hearing loss; where your sight and hearing may deteriorate over a period of time. Deafblindness is often also referred to as ‘dual sensory loss’ or ‘dual sensory impairment’. It is estimated that there are nearly 400,000 deafblind people in the UK. This is expected to increase to over 600,000 by 2030 due to our ageing population. Deafblindness affects people of all ages, including children and young people, but it is more common in...
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Female Bodily Autonomy Or Lactose Intolerant?

Meet Florence. My daughter. She is feisty, opinionated, strong willed, stubborn and Hell would freeze over before she would ever do anything she didn't want to do. One day she will grow into a feisty, opinionated, strong willed, stubborn woman. I wouldn't want her to be any other way. But for some girls and women their ability to make up their own mind is being curtailed and their ability to choose is being removed. I of course refer to Roe v Wade and the 1973 landmark decision of the US Supreme Court to protect a woman's liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion. That precedent is now being eroded by the right-wing religious Republicanism sweeping the US under the presidency of Donald Trump with so-called 'heartbeat bills'. So far, as many as seven states have enacted a ban on all or most abortions with a further nine states...
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How Much Is Too Much?

At the moment it seems like every other day there is some new outrage on Instagram. I enjoy using the social media platform - it helps me to connect with customers, like-minded business owners and keep up to date with a variety of craft and cultural interests. At times it can be a force for great good such as the recent debate about inclusivity. This provoked many of us to analyse our own practises and make improvements to ensure that people of colour have their voices heard within the knitting community and those of us that are privileged use our privilege to help them, not undermine them. But, sadly like any form of social media, it is open to abuse and misuse. I refer to the ongoing furore regarding pattern pricing. I have been thinking about what to say about this for several days but have struggled to find words that will do it...
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