5.55pm - Monday 26th June 2023 7,687

The wool is sheared from the sheep, any vegetable matter removed and the fleece is then washed and carded to align the fibres so they all all uniform and go the same way. The wool balls created can then be used to make backgrounds using the traditional wet felting technique and embellish the details using a small barbed needle. The needle felting process is simply pushing the wool through another material where it is held in place

I am behind my craft and wool And a big advocate of wool and the rural way of life, wool is natural, sustainable, biodegradable and has no air miles. wearing wool clothing reduces micro fibre pollution and in a world where people are becoming increasingly aware of their impact upon the environment I do feel wool is having a resurgence. As a champion for wool I feel I can reach a wide audience and promote my craft through social media.

I feel people respond to a back story that is honest and real, traceability of materials that are hand processed helps, countryside art is becoming more popular and shopping local and independent is more popular due to accessibility online.

in 2009 i had no experience of farming or the realities that came with it. That soon changed when I met my other half Roy, I had a job as a carer and in every spare moment threw myself into farming. I had only ever driven a Nissan Micra and had experience with horses, I learnt the hard way as nobody had the time to show me and soon after arriving I found myself mothering on calves to three quarter bred limmy cows. We spent every available moment on the farm between our day jobs. Fast forward to 2016 two children later we moved into our very own farm overlooking the northern Pennines, Laitha.

we are in a transitional period at present and will finally be milking cows and making the final switch later this year, after years of planning and implementing infrastructure we will be milking 120 Jersey cows on two Lely robots. This will be a huge change and a steep learning curve

I will be taking you all along for the ride so hit that subscribe button and see you every other day for farming vlogs.

I am overjoyed to be a farmer. I feel so fortunate every day to wake up and do what I love and even better share it with the world and hope it inspires more young people from Preston to spread their wings and think outside the box the world doesn’t need more childcare workers or hairdressers it needs more farmers.

Catch @Charlotteashleyfarm on all social media channels

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/laithafarm
INSTA: https://instagram.com/charlotteashleyfarm?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Tiktok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8Gg83t8/
WEBSITE: www.charlotteashleyart.co.ukl