Looking Forwards to 2023

Since March 2020 there's been a viral pandemic, a European war leading to a global energy crisis and a disastrous Brexit in the UK. All of this has led to the collapse of many small businesses here in Scotland. And even worse is the climate crisis which many national leaders refuse to put at the top of their agenda. So, how do you remain hopeful as a maker? How do you contribute positively to your crafting community?

In an attempt to answer these questions, I started asking myself even more questions over the summer! What did I want out of Woolly Originals? What was my creative business trying to achieve? And would it be possible and yet still remain financially viable?

Since I started selling my Woolly bags in June 2015, I have always endeavoured to tell you a story through my designs and to make them in an environmentally and traceability friendly way as possible. That was and always will be a cornerstone to running my business. I have also tried to share my love of the botanical world, a follow-on from my training and working as a medical herbalist perhaps

After a lot of thought, actually a plethora of conflicting thoughts, I have made the plunge into not just creating the patterns but also the colours for my designs! I’m now feeling sufficiently confident, after more than three years of training, to start plant dyeing the yarns for my Woolly bags. I’ve always felt that my business should constantly evolve and this path fills me with excitement and hope, both rare commodities at the moment. I’ve already started dyeing up natural Jamieson’s of Shetland yarns to reproduce some of my designs’ original colours, but also to create new ones. Madder has produced beautiful reds for my First Aid Kit design; and weld yellows will be made into Nordic Star grellows! I will also knit up some designs such as my Inverewe Floristry in undyed wool. Guest yarn producers will continue to feature too.   

To celebrate this new botanical direction, I felt that Woolly Originals deserved a rebrand. This led to hiring a graphic designer, Tara of Red Dot Design based in Edinburgh to create an exciting new logo and taglines! And it was a joy to work with her as she carefully listened to my original brief and always took on board positively my requested feedback. I am so happy with the outcome of her new Woolly logo which will now be rolled out across my website, social media and on all my products.