Comfortable, practical, colourful, stylish.

In 2013 our daughter was born. We, like most people, received bags and boxes of presents for her from our generous friends and family. Babygros and vests and dresses and teddies and cardigans and jumpers and all sorts. Tonnes of it.

She wore a lot of pink that first year.

When she had finally grown out of all the clothes she had been bought when she was born and I had to start shopping for her I naturally started gravitating towards purple, red, yellow. Anything that wasn’t pink. All she had worn for a year was pink and I was pretty sick of it. Who knew that pink was the only choice? It was so difficult to find anything without pink on it for a girl. I started buying boys clothes.

She was born with a bit of a dicky ticker so she gets cold easily. That first winter I needed to buy her cardigans. Really warm ones. Thick ones. Fleece-lined ones. Who knew only boys were allowed to be warm? Girls could wear bolero cardigans, cotton cardigans, but not warm cardigans. Not woollen, thick, snuggly cardigans. Certainly not anything other than pink cardigans.

Then, 6 months later it was summer. I had the opposite problem. She needed to be cool and comfortable. She was starting to crawl and you don’t get very far crawling over a dress. Shorts, then, eh? Except the girls shorts were three inches shorter than the boys shorts. The girls shorts were hot-pants. Age 12 months hot-pants. (It’s OK to vomit a bit, here).

I had learnt to knit again about 10 years previously and had begun to crochet whilst pregnant. Whilst I was off on maternity leave I made some pom-pom slippers for myself, everyone wanted a pair and The Slippy Chicken Company was born. I made all sorts of things for all sorts of people, and I think it kept me sane the first year of being a Mummy.

I started to think more about what my daughter was wearing and more about what I was making. I started designing things for Gwendoline to wear because I couldn’t find the right type of patterns to buy.

On the 1st January 2016 I decided to make a change to my business. I would become a unisex kids knitwear company. The clothes I design and make will be, above all, comfortable, practical, colourful and stylish. Those are the rules I now work by.

COMFORTABLE.

PRACTICAL.

COLOURFUL.

STYLISH.

If you see me doing something else, call me out on it.

It’s really very basic for me. I want my daughter to know that she can be anything she wants to be. A doctor or a nurse. An engineer or a secretary. A solicitor or a Mum. It’s all OK.  In order to realise her full potential she needs to be able to play and explore the world, freely. Without feeling like she needs to be prettier than she is comfortable, or warm, or safe. I want her to have fun.

I’ve started this blog to help share my work with you. Over the years I have garnered a decent amount of experience. I’ll share hints and tips, tutorials, patterns and photos. I would love it if you could join me, this henhouse is big enough for everyone.

You can find me at:

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/theslippychickencompany

Instagram  – @theslippychickencompany

Twitter – @slippychickenco

Pinterest  – @slippychickenco

Welcome to the coop!

Cluck-cluck!