My Dad suffered a stroke in December 2017 and although he has had several health issues since, he was incredibly lucky in that his stroke did not leave him severely impaired. Things could have been very different.

The release of our limited edition hand dyed yarn, ‘Make May Purple’, coincides with the Stroke Association’s Make May Purple campaign which begins on Wednesday May 1st.

The 100% British Bluefaced Leicester 4 Ply yarn will be available from Wednesday May 1st, exclusively from Baa Baa Brighouse and can be purchased throughout the month of May.

In January, ‘Tics Don’t Define Me’, raised £45 for Tourettes Action, ‘YoungMinds’, our February charity yarn, raised £21 for YoungMinds, ‘Marie Curie’, raised £30 in March for Marie Curie UK and ‘Autism Awareness’ raised £21 in April for the National Autistic Society.

A big thank you to everyone who has bought our charity yarns so far and helped these deserving causes.

I suggested that having a People’s Vote now that Westminster is effectively in stalemate was a good idea, particularly given that the demographic of the electorate has changed since the 2016 EU Referendum. Older people who voted have died and thousands of younger people are now eligible to vote. As whatever happens with regards to Brexit will undoubtedly effect younger people for the longest period, I said I thought it was only right and fair that they should have a say in their nation’s future.

The stranger I was talking to (on Facebook) suggested (and I’m paraphrasing here) that I had told her to go away and die because older people’s views didn’t matter. Of course, as you can see from my explanation above, she was clearly talking nonsense.

She went on to say that younger people now eligible to vote shouldn’t have a say because when the UK joined the EEC in 1973 and the electorate voted in a referendum in 1975 for continued membership, youngsters who had come of voting age shortly after were not asked what they thought.

Well, circumstances were different, the margins were nowhere near as close at 48%/52% and I believe, in hindsight, we did a lot of things in the 1070s that we wouldn’t do now – giving Jimmy Savile and his ilk free reign at the BBC for one thing.

My point is, in 40 years, one would hope we have progressed and would strive for better – to be better and to do better.

Well, Jeremy Corbyn, this week saw Gilette ask all men to “Be the best a man can be”. My challenge to you is to be the best man you can be because at the moment you are falling far short.

As Leader of the Opposition, you owe it to the 48% plus, who have been left mute for two years, to change tack and back a People’s Vote to decide Brexit once and for all.

I think I understand why you have failed to do so up until this point. I think you have backed Brexit because you fear losing the support of some at the next General Election. Those from former mining communities and the like, who are unskilled and have poor prospects since industry closed and found more economically viable alternatives.

But in trying to safeguard their interests, you are ignoring huge swathes of Labour supporters who see the massive benefits in remaining in the EU. What about them?

It is time you realised that Brexit is bigger than the next election. It is bigger than the Labour Party. It is bigger than the Conservative Party. It always has been. Brexit is about our children. Brexit is about our grandchildren. Brexit is about the future prosperity of our nation. Brexit is about protecting workers rights, the rights of the disabled, the rights of women. Brexit is about advancements within the scientific and medical community. Brexit is about ensuring another 70 years of relative peace on our continent. Brexit is about keeping a strengthening far right extremism at bay. Brexit is about holding our four countries together as a nation.

So, Mr Corbyn, if you are the man of integrity that your supporters claim you are, it is time to put your self interests aside and act in the interests of the UK as a whole regarding Brexit. It shouldn’t take a wool shop owner from Brighouse to spell this out to you – back a People’s Vote.

For a long time I have toyed with the idea of creating a “Bollocks to Brexit” yarn to make my own feelings known and that of countless others. I held off because I really wasn’t sure how people would react.

Last night I took to social media and asked: “Is it the will of the people that there should be a Baa Baa Brighouse Bollocks to Brexit yarn?”

Instead of being berated by a bunch of angry faced gammons who immediately started raiding their stash for any Baa Baa Brighouse yarn to burn on a collective pyre, I was met with a resounding “yes”.

Mr Corbyn, if I can ask the question, why can’t you?

Baa Baa Brighouse is backing a People’s Vote. To demonstrate our support we will be releasing a limited edition hand dyed yarn called “Bollocks to Brexit” with £3 of every skein sold going to the People’s Vote Campaign.

The yarn will launch on Sunday January 20th at 10:00 GMT and will be exclusively available from Baa Baa Brighouse.

With an ever increasing reliance on foodbanks, the number of homeless people on our streets growing day by day, children being plunged into poverty by callous welfare reforms, a healthcare service close to breaking, the disabled being ruthlessly ignored and none of us really having a clue what to expect come March 29, the world can feel like a selfish, uncaring place.

For the past two years, at least, the UK has been divided and seeds of hatred, suspicion and intolerance sown. I fear things will get worse, much worse, before they get better. For that reason, I have tried to focus on the positive whether that’s creating yarns that can put a smile on someone’s face, involving myself in community knitting projects or simply showing up at our much loved knit and natter sessions – a place where everyone can unburden themselves and not feel judged.

One other positive to come from this year is that Baa Baa Brighouse has been involved in raising funds for a number of worthy causes by creating bespoke charity yarns.

We first caught the bug with Countess Ablaze and her Tits Out Collective. Through that initiative, we raised £189 for the WomenCentre in Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Our “Carnival of Resistance” yarn, in protest of President Trump’s visit to the UK, raised a total of $126 for the American Civil Liberties Union.

We raised £100 for the Batley & Spen Youth Theatre Company with our ‘Deeds Not Words’ yarn.

We also donated $25 to The Vitalogy Foundation and £26 to the Royal National Institute for the Blind following the creation of a limited edition yarn, “There Ain’t Gonna Be Any Middle Any More” and a sales drive in which we gave 25% of our takings on Black Friday weekend to charity.

Baa Baa Brighouse has decided that because, like most, we feel unable to influence social, political or economic change in any significant way, it can instead take care of its own very small corner of the world.

In 2019, we will be releasing a monthly charity yarn where £3 of every skein sold will go to a chosen charity (this too will change on a month by month basis to enable us to help more deserving causes).

Our chosen charity for January will be Tourettes Action in recognition of our daughter, Florence, who suffers with tics due to severe anxiety at school.

Tourettes Action aims to support children like Florence in the classroom, train behavioural therapists, pay for support group meetings and provide resources to schools so that they can better assist youngsters with tics and tourettes in managing their condition.

We will launch “Tics Don’t Define Me”, a 100% British Bluefaced Leicester DK yarn at 12 noon GMT on New Year’s Day, Tuesday January 1st. Watch this space!

It would appear that my favourite Seattle based band has been causing somewhat of a stir with their latest concert poster depicting a burning White House and the skeleton of President Donald Trump being pecked by an eagle.

Love it or loathe it, the collaboration between bassist Jeff Ament and Bobby Brown is art.  It is often said that art mirrors life, if that is true then perhaps people shouldn’t be offended by a picture but should be offended by reality. I know I am.

I’ve spent a good few hours trawling the very bottom of the internet (and by that I mean the comments section on any news story mentioning the band’s artwork).  Mostly I found outraged Republicans who said they were currently dancing round a bonfire of Pearl Jam discs and I quote “[would] never allow another of the band’s songs to be played in [their] presence”.

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but you have to have been living under a rock for the past 28 years to not be aware of Pearl Jam’s politics. Similarly, Baa Baa Brighouse nailed their colours to the mast some time ago. See our ‘Carnival of Resistance‘ yarn as an example.

It seems to me that whenever fascists raise their ugly heads, one of the first things they attack is art – whether that is paintings, music, books or sculptures. Just look at the recent attack on Bookmarks, the socialist bookshop in London. Or, look at how an art installation depicting the names of dead refugees has been repeatedly vandalised in Liverpool.

I do wonder what next? Will the fascists turn up at Knit and Natter armed with scissors and proceed to cut up my wool? I’d like to see them try. Have you ever seen an angry woman with knitting needles – she can really do some damage.

So, Baa Baa Brighouse is showing solidarity with Pearl Jam – quite frankly the best band in the world – and artists everywhere who find their work threatened by the narrow minded.

On Saturday August 18th, we will be releasing an exclusive limited edition hand dyed yarn inspired by Pearl Jam – their music, their artwork, their activism and we will be donating £3 of every skein sold to The Vitalogy Foundation set up by the band in 2006.

The Foundation supports the efforts of non-profit organisations doing commendable work in the fields of community health, the environment, arts and education and social change.

Our Pearl Jam inspired yarn will be available to view on our social media pages tomorrow (Friday) and will be available to purchase from 9:00 BST on Saturday August 18th, 2018.

Stand up for art, stand up for freedom of expression, stand up for what is right and never ever be silenced.

The colourway was created in response to President Donald Trump’s visit to the UK in July. We were personally unable to show our protest to his presidency by joining the hundreds of thousands of people who marched through our streets and thought there must be many others in a similar position.

Our colourway allowed those people to register their dislike whilst raising money for an important cause that helps to fight injustice for immigrant families in the United States.

And if you haven’t heard, the 287 creatives that took part in the Collective raised an astonishing £55,219.35 worldwide for charity!

The Tits Out Collective was formed as a result of negative experiences involving misogyny and then plagiarism. Instead of reacting angrily, Countess Ablaze decided to turn the episode into something immensely positive.

She offered indie dyers and makers worldwide the opportunity to collaborate with her on a charity project and the result is truly a testament to the power of the creative community when it works together towards a common goal.

Our ‘Carnival of Resistance‘ yarn has so far raised £84 for the American Civil Liberties Union to help defend the rights of immigrant families in the US.

But this August we are asking again for your help. This time we are supporting a cause that is very close to our hearts – the Batley and Spen Youth Theatre Company.

The Company was formed in 2017 by award-winning West End director, Nick Evans, as a creative response to the devastating murder of Jo Cox MP, which shook not just the community of Batley but the country as a whole.

‘Hear The People Sing’ was created to celebrate Jo’s passion for togetherness, collaboration, comradeship and theatre. Nick led 100 young people from across West Yorkshire over three weeks of residential teaching and rehearsals to professionally stage Jo’s favourite musical, ‘Les Miserables’, and a new piece called ‘More in Common’, devised by the young cast to celebrate her values.

Performances took place at The Jo Cox Theatre, a pop-up theatre built at Oxfam’s textile sorting house, Wastesaver, a venue that Jo visited as an MP and a charity that she worked for early in her career.

The Batley and Spen Youth Theatre Company is a registered charity and relies on the generosity of the public, as well as industry professionals. This August will see the cast of incredibly talented youngsters perform ‘Deeds Not Words’, a theatrical project which seeks to highlight the struggles of the Suffragette Movement, 100 years on since The Representation of the People Act gave women the right to vote. It will also commemorate 100 years since the end of World War I at a time when our fundamental freedoms appear to be increasingly under threat with the resurgence of right-wing extremism.

If you have followed Baa Baa Brighouse on social media for some time, you may be aware that Elaine and Gary’s eldest son, Jonathan, is a member of Batley and Spen Youth Theatre Company and last year played several roles during the staging of ‘Hear the People Sing’.

To help support the Company’s latest project, Baa Baa Brighouse will be releasing an exclusive Baa Baa Brew Marble 4 Ply colourway called ‘Deeds Not Words’ with £3 of every skein sold going to Batley and Spen Youth Theatre Company.

We decided to use the same yarn base used for our Mulier Fortis Collection as this already celebrates strong women.

If you believe in the arts, youth theatre and the values that Jo stood for, then we hope you’ll consider supporting our initiative.

The ‘Deeds Not Words’ colourway is available to preview on our social media pages now and will be available to purchase from 7am on Friday July 27th until the end of August.

The very idea that he will be here by invitation sticks in the throat.

For Prime Minister Theresa May to call herself a feminist and then entertain such a man is an insult to feminists everywhere.

Of course, she will site diplomacy, international relations, the ‘special relationship’, but we all know she’s really just shitting herself that come March 2019, the UK will crash out of the EU with no Brexit deal and will be desperate for trade deals with any Tom, Dicktator and Harry. That’s why she was the first to go running to him following his inauguration – it’s enough to make one vomit.

Anti-Trump campaigners have promised to meet his visit with a ‘Carnival of Resistance’ with massive protest marches planned in London and other pockets of resistance across the country. Full details of the plans can be found on the Stop Trump Coalition website and many woolly friends up and down the country are taking part.

Though Baa Baa Brighouse would love to be present at the demonstrations in London, logistically it isn’t possible with three children (one currently nursing a broken arm).

However, on Thursday we will be releasing an exclusive Baa Baa Brew DK colourway called ‘Carnival of Resistance’ with £3 of every skein sold going to the foundation arm of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Union is focused on defending the rights of immigrant families and says it “won’t stop fighting until families are reunited.” The organisation has raised over $1 million and is advocating for the immediate release of all the parents and children held at detention centres. The federal government has missed today’s court-imposed deadline to reunite more than 100 children under the age of five with their parents.

To be honest, it was difficult choosing a charitable organisation to support as the Trump administration and its policies are affecting so many marginalised groups.

If like Baa Baa Brighouse, you’d like to protest but are unable to take to the streets, perhaps this will provide a way of showing your resistance.

The ‘Carnival of Resistance’ colourway will be available to preview on our social media pages from Wednesday and will be available to purchase from 7am on Thursday July 12th.

Earlier this year, Countess Ablaze, a Manchester based indie dye business was approached by a restaurant wanting to ‘collaborate’ on a crochet evening. They expected the Countess to provide £800 of yarn for free along with her teaching time – a total cost in excess of £1,000 in return for ‘exposure’.

The restaurant claimed it would be a charity event. They went on to say that the customers would be “middle aged women who’ll bring their girlfriends, we can serve them shit tea and tray bakes which would cost the restaurant very little but the ROI would be massive.”

In response to the outrageous and misogynistic attitude displayed by the restaurant in question, the Countess introduced two limited edition colourways called ‘Shit Tea and Tray Bake’ and ‘If I Want Exposure, I’ll Get My Tits Out’.

£3 of every skein sold was donated to Women’s Aid, a UK charity that helps women to escape domestic violence. More than £3,000 was raised in support of this worthwhile cause.

Fast-forward to June and the Countess discovered that another indie dyer has copied one of her iconic charity colourways.

Instead of naming and shaming the dyer, she has responded by setting up the Tits Out Collective, inviting indie dyers, designers and notion makers from across the world to create their own versions of ‘If I Want Exposure, I’ll Get My Tits Out’ in aid of charity.

So far, more than 100 creatives have signed up to take part in the project – including Baa Baa Brighouse!

The rules for indie dyers involved are that £3 of each skein sold must be donated to a charity of the dyer’s choice. Baa Baa Brighouse has chosen to raise money for WomenCentre which is based in Huddersfield, Halifax and Dewsbury.

The charity offers a wide range of emotional and practical support to women on issues such as debt, benefits, mental and physical health, domestic abuse, counselling and education, training and development.

Similar rules regarding donations to charity are also in place for pattern designers and notion makers. All yarns, designs and notions inspired by ‘If I Want Exposure, I’ll Get My Tits Out’, will launch on July 1st and will be available through that particular creative’s website or selling platform.

So, if you want to get your hands on our version, pop back on July 1st to order. Meanwhile, follow the project on social media using the hashtags #titsoutcollective and #ifiwantexposureillgetmytitsout or head over to Countess Ablaze for more information.

Looking for something to do this Sunday? Then why not join Baa Baa Brighouse at Wild About Wool, a pop-up yarn market which will be held at The Watershed, Slaithwaite in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

As well as showcasing a host of local producers and suppliers of yarn and accessories, there will also be a stash bash, knit and natter area, pattern reference and informal demonstrations.

The event, on Sunday April 22nd, will be open to the public from 10.30am to 4pm and is completely free to attend.

We’ll be taking along a selection of our own brand yarns  – Baa Baa Brew DK, Baa Baa Brew Marble 4 Ply and Baa Baa Brew Blends along with yarns from Rowan, West Yorkshire Spinners, Erika Knight and more.

Our range of accessories will also be available including stitch markers, knitting needles, crochet hooks and a wide selection of patterns from Baa Baa Brighouse and many other brands.

Don’t forget to bring along your unwanted quality wool to the stash bash and swap it for useful yarn!

For more information, visit the Wild About Wool Facebook Page. We hope to see you there!