Sourcing

Our darning mushrooms come from locally sourced wood and are made by a wood turner who lives within walking distance of the shop. Our rag rugging tools come from a family business in Cornwall.

Our new yarns are all natural fibre-based (although we do stock a small amount of mixed fibre yarn, mainly for socks, in which the small proportion of nylon ensures long life). Acrylic yarn is a petrochemical product with energy-intensive extraction and production processes, along with high levels of pollution – it may seem like a cheap option, but it’s very costly in environmental terms. The only pure acrylic yarn we sell is pre-loved. Natural fibres are biodegradable and make good quality garments.

Almost all our new wool yarn is British and comes from West Yorkshire Spinners. We sell some Cambrian Wool too, which comes from the flocks of Wales. By using British wool, we minimise transportation and support local agriculture. Wool can be composted at the end of its long life.

For those wishing to avoid animal products or with sensitive skin, we sell cotton yarn. Again, this is biodegradable.

We sell pre-loved needles and hooks and buy our new ones from Knitpro, a family owned company located in Jaipur, India. Knitpro provide their workers with a comfortable and safe working environment. In addition to paying equal and fair market wages, they provide subsidised meals, worker transportation, workplace uniforms and job training to personnel. The factory runs off renewable energy, rainwater is harvested and all water used in the factory passes through a treatment plant prior to reuse.

This refers to excess fabric that is left over from the production process and is no longer needed by the manufacturer. It can be the result of overestimating the amount of fabric needed for a production run, cancelled orders, or changes in design. By making use of this resource, it is saved from landfill and thus reduces the need for new fabric production. We generally have some denim, corduroy and cotton deadstock available.

There is such a wide range of haberdashery, so it’s not always possible to find the perfect option in terms of ethics. We are constantly on the lookout for products with less packaging from companies with good environmental and ethical credentials. As far as possible, we choose products without plastic packaging.

Almost all of our craft books are pre-loved and many are vintage publications, but where we do buy new, we support small independent publishers (for example Pottage Publishing) or liaise directly with designers.

The majority of our buttons are vintage or at least pre-loved, but we do sell a few new ones made from natural materials.