While the rest of Australia melts......

While the rest of Oz melts in 30plus temperatures, in Tassie we enjoy the fickle weather that we're famous for -  4 seasons in one day and no day the same as the last. Tourism Queensland came up with the slogan "Beautiful one day, perfect the next." Sound freaking boring to us Tasmanians, may as well be saying don't open the curtins to see what the day will be like, cos it's gonna be stinking hot again! Anyhow, this is the view from our sock making workshop, photo taken around knock off time, with rain threatening. Gorgeous, eh?

A lovely Salamanca Market day

After a break of a month, with Tom and Kels doing us proud at Salamanca Market, Loz & I hit the Market with renewed energy yesterday. Caught up with lots of our lovely fellow stallholder friends, sock customers old and new, and thoroughly enjoyed our day.


We had the fantastic Guerilla Zingari busking near us at Salamanca Market - lucky us!





Jewllery Designer Rebecca Roth's Xmas window has got us feeling all festive.

Rebecca's shop, in the Salamanca Arts Centre, not only showcases her own creations, but also emerging local artists. One of our favourite shops.

Dawn breaking over Seven Mile Beach as we left for the Market - the picture doesn't do it justice.

A wallaby  in our old bath salvaged from our bathroom reno, greeted us when we got home from Salamanca. It was a bizarre sight.

Keeping up............

Cold Comfort-Tasmania manufacturers the Pure Wool “Mongrel Tasmanis” brand range wholly in Tasmania, from certified non-mulesed Tasmanian grown wool (April ’11), as well as presenting a range of Australian and imported product.

With wool prices rising by up to 12% right now and we think they’ll easily hit 20% or more, we’re more than a little bit worried.

With PETA actively campaigning against Aussie Wool, we more than a little bit worried.

As small business drowning under convoluted paper work and tax collecting, we are more than a little bit worried.

We are, however, confident in the product and the people in this industry. Not that either can’t be improved on. We need to lift our game. We will........and then will stop worrying. 

The following 2 articles are sourced from www.fashionsource.com.au  a TCF industry resource I love. It great to keep up with business specific news.

Wool prices hit A&B Knitwear
Fred Seligmann says that he can't recall a more difficult time for his knitwear business, A&B Knitwear in Brunswick.
On top of a very difficult retail market, Seligmann said A&B was being asked to absorb a 10-12 per cent increase in woollen yarn.
And although the 10-12 per cent increase is considerably less than the 25 per cent lift in greasy wool prices in the last three months, he knows the full price rises would eventually have to be absorbed.
A & B Knitwear manufactures the Merino Gold Brand wholly in Australia as well as manufacturing fashion and corporate knitwear in China.
Seligmann said most knitwear manufacturers would buy yarn on forward contract.
He said any sharp rise was generally buffeted by spinners selling out of their stocks.
"But eventually we are going to have to pay the full price," Seligmann said.
While it may be tough for processors, wool growers continue to rejoice in the market rises.
Nick Weeding said he runs about 5000 Merino ewes based on the Wallaloo Park, Petali and Glenlea Park bloodlines.
But after struggling through drought and several years of poor prices, Nick declared that "now was a good time to be back in wool".

released: Monday, 21 February 2011

PETA takes mulesing campaign to the paddock
International animal welfare activists PETA are moving their anti-mulesing campaign from the board rooms to the paddocks.
They've sent the first 500 of 1,500 letters to registered sheep breeders, asking them to breed sheep that don't need mulesing.
Jason Baker, from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says his group has lost faith in national grower body Australian Wool Innovation to deliver change, and denies PETA has failed with its international campaign against mulesing.
"I think getting the message directly to farmers is the key, because for too long we relied on the AWI and talking to them, and they really didn't have the whole industry's interest in mind," he said.
"There is too much infighting, so we have really given up and gone directly to the farmers."
Australian Wool Innovation director Chick Olsson says PETA has lost credibility globally. He says the letters to growers are an insult, as the national industry is spending $27 million on mulesing alternatives.
"I take it as a sign that we are doing a good job as we have no confidence with them, never have," he said.
"The issue is not so much with PETA, the issue is that this industry is doing all it can to provide solutions to this problem.
"We have spent over $27 million in the last five years looking for alternatives and we are going to continue looking at alternatives."
People for the Ethical Treatments of Animals has campaigned for years against mulesing, where skin is surgically removed from the rear of a sheep.
Sheep producer and breeder Robert Belcher says the letters have a threatening tone, as they promise PETA's endorsement for producers who comply with their wishes.
"I would describe it as a very subtle threat. They are saying that we have no choice in the matter, and that as I breed Merino sheep and can breed the odd Merino ram, it is my responsibility to do as I am told and that is follow the PETA line," he says.
Supporters of mulesing might be tempted to ask what all the fuss was about with wool now fetching high prices, particularly with the expiry of the so-called mulesing deadline two months ago. But those dealing with downstream processors and retailers in North America and Europe are adamant it's a problem that can't be ignored.
Australian Wool Exporter and Processor Council consultant Dr Peter Morgan said the issue was highlighted by the British retailer Marks and Spencer - one of the world's staunchest supporters of Australian wool for many decades.
But like many of the big northern-hemisphere retailers, the last thing M&S wants is to have People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on its doorstep.
M&S has been very public about its specifications for non-mulesed wool, including declarations and documentation to confirm the status of the wool used in its apparel. Until December, M&S was prepared to accept Merino wool from mulesed sheep that had been treated with pain relief. Now it will only accept Australian Merino wool where there has been a declaration for un-mulesed or that the grower has ceased mulesing.
US retailers are also touchy about the subject, which is why their representative body, the National Retail Federation, has seeked support from Australia to placate or fend off PETA.
Peter Vandeleur, managing director of direct supply marketer NewMerino, said it would be foolish of Australia to ignore those major retailers sensitive to the mulesing issue.
"At some stage, when wool prices are under pressure, Australia is going to need all the help it can get," Vandeleur said.
AWI is also fully aware of the issue, which is why "Australia" is not or rarely mentioned in any of the Prince Charles-endorsed Campaign for Wool or No Finer Feeling promotions which target the non-Asian markets.
"We include Australia in our promotions in Japan, Korea and China, but for obvious reasons Australia is not mentioned in North American and European promotions," AWI director Chick Olsson said.
WoolProducers executive officer Greg Weller is confident Australia can win back the support of the major retailers - provided it can demonstrate it is genuine in its attempt to end mulesing.

released: Monday, 28 February 2011

Oprah's Oz

 

As you have probably heard by now, the Oprah Winfrey Ultimate Australian Adventure airs in the US and Australia this week and we’re delighted that Tasmania will feature in the very first episode! 

After meeting Gayle King and Oprah's holidaying Ladies at Salamanca Market when they were down our way, team Mongrel Socks is very excited to see just how our much loved home will look to the rest of the world. Don’t miss it!  The “Oprah” show’s first Australian episode airs 19 January at 7:30pm on TEN.


Long weekend

After having a fantasic time at the Red Wine Weekend, tasting many of the 76 beautiful Tasmanian wines on offer, I want to share my top 3 picks. Number one and way head of the rest was a fine Birches Bay grown Pinot - Yellow Point "Bloody Eleventh" no website for this grower, but if your interested in purchasing your can email an order you won't be dissappointed. Number 2 pick is Riversdale 2008 Centauris Reserve Pinot Noir is just devine. #3 gong goes to Cape Bernier Vineyard 2008 Pinot Noir, another fine Tassie wine. I went home with all three. I also treated myself to some Bruny Island Cheese to take home - I sampled their wares - Tom and Oen cheeses and took home a beautiful cheese matured in Pinot grape skins (it's name escapes me, must have been the wine). A very special treat. Looking forward to Wine South's October White Wine Weekend. I'll be there with bells on.

Proud!

I submitted this note to our local newspaper "The Mercury" for hopeful inclusion, I'm doubtful about geting it printed so I'm posting it here!
I was filled with a great sense of pride, as I read the Sunday Tasmanian (2/11/08). Three separate articles featured a diverse bunch of innovative, creative, hardworking Tasmanians. All kicking goals. These people, Scott Kilmartin-Haul, Robert Pennicott and Michaye Boulter-Bruny Island Charters and Tasman Island Cruises, Nick Haddow-Bruny Island Cheese, Matthew Evans and Ross O’meara-Rare Food’s all have something else in common. They all have stalls at Salamanca Market. As a fellow stallholder at Salamanca Market, I know I’m in very good company. Salamanca Market has been the backbone of my own small business, and many hundred’s of others over the last 30 years. I highly recommend the Market to any Tasmanian producer looking for exposure and to anybody wanting to find some of the best things our little island has to offer.

Mongrels on the move!

I've just received this photo along with a number of others taken by Mongrel wearer's while holidaying around a wintery Tasmania. This one's taken at Freycinet National Park on Tasmania's East Coast. Not far from the pristine beach of Wine Glass Bay. Don't be deceived by the clear blue skyed, sunny day. Typically of Tassie in winter, the day was clear but only 10 degC max temperature on the day. She was fine, preventing brain freeze with her pure wool "Mongrel Tasmanis" Head Warmer, and kitted out with her pure wool Mongrel Socks and Leg Warmers, she kept the cold at bay, and was able to enjoy the glorious day.

Good Days

The sun is shining, sky all blue, it's a great day here in Tasmania. Busy, busy making socks. Here at the birth place of the mighty Mongrel Sock, we try to take advantage of every bit of sunshine mother nature gives us. Although, winter is the busiest time for wool sock sellers like us, the rest of the year is when we get most made, and when the work shop is the most pleasant place to be. It can get really cold in the shed through winter, so best we do take advantage of the long warm days of summer. Anyway it's one of those days so best get off the computer and in to it.

Loving my Inbox!

Checking my emails today I got this lovely response (together with a good order) to a customer query and reply. Love it, when someone takes the time to let you know-they like what you.

Thanks Helen,

I'll have another crack at it. I thought I HAD picked airmail, but perhaps I accidentally moved the mouse when moving to the next box.

Thank you for your VERY prompt reply. I wish all businesses were as efficient.

I think the socks are fabulous, by the way, because I suffer from cold feet. My mum, who lives in Tasmania, sent me a pair of the wool socks for my birthday in March and now I'm "hooked" so need to get some more.

Cheers,

Debra

Snow in February-Tassie full of surprises!

Unbelievable and unpredictable!
Here we are in February, ( usually the best days of summer here in Tassie) enjoying long, warm days and cool nights. On Wednesday we had a scorching 34.5 degrees Celsius and only a few days later we've got snow. It must be global warming stuffing up the weather patterns. This summer our Tasmanian weather has been superb. Tassie always cops a bad rap about our weather-the general consensus( from people that don't live here) is that we are a cold place with frigid winters and no summers. Tasmanians are mostly happy to let people think the worst of our climate, if it means we get less tourists, that's OK. They won't know what they're missing, and locals can continue to enjoy our island just the way we like like it. Tassie has quite a low population and temperate climate, makes for easy living, hardly any "peak hour traffic", we've never had to learn how to que, every day Tasmanians wake up and have to look out the window to see what the day will bring, because every day is different. This year Australia's Northern states have had flooding rain and wild weather for weeks, we haven't. They are still on water restrictions, 4 minute showers, we're not and haven't been. A what is the difference between the sunny Gold Coast beaches on a good day and Tasmania's beaches? In Tassie, the water and beaches are clean and you don't have to share it with a zillion people. It really is a pleasure.
Living and working in Tasmania, as we do, and having lived and worked in some of Australia's bigger cities, gives us the appreciation for what we do have here. Lucky us. Making our pure wool, tuff and possum Mongrel Socks, in our home work shop, we experience the most amazing "office" views, fresh air-no smog, and family friendly work hours and best of all our Mongrel Socks are a unique product, by name, nature and origin.
It's good to be different.

Christmas here and there

Tasmania has experienced its hottest November in many years, not very good conditions for the sales of wool socks. Luckily, there is a northern hemisphere that is cooling down as I write. We have had plenty order’s coming through from Canada and the US where winter is just beginning. Yay! One of our long time customer’s in the Yukon, told me about his 2 daylight hours of Christmas day, and below zero temperatures, where every thing happens indoors. Now I know why socks are hung by the chimney with care, it’s not for filling with gifts (they always seemed far too small for anything on my wish list) but putting in frozen toes to thaw before they break off.
Here we must have around 14 hrs of daylight, lots of time for the obligatory Aussie games of back yard cricket, the riding of new bikes, visiting the family, afternoon snoozes, BBQ’s teas, and evening strolls. It’s a completely different experience. Just once I’d like to see a white Christmas, and probably one will be plenty for me.
It’s nice to think that people halfway around the world will be pulling on their new Mongrel Socks on Christmas morning and discovering the luxury of pure wool right when they’ll appreciate it. Makes me smile!

Tasmanian dollars and sense.

We’re big fans of all things Tasmanian. Not only do we proudly manufacturer ( and wear) our own Pure Wool Mongrel Socks, Tuff Mongrels, Mongrel Tasmanis Arm/Leg Warmers and Head Warmers, we always seek local product when ever we can. If it’s shopping for vegetables or browsing for a gift, we regularly look for a locally made product over an imported line. We do this for many for reasons. The main being we see the higher value of a dollar spent locally rather than spent on imported goods. A local dollar employs, it enables local enterprise to grow, it stays in the area, ready to be passed on again. It’s not only economic benefits that entice us to spend locally, more often than not, the quality of the local product is superior to the imported equivalent. One huge plus not to be over looked when buying locally is the environmental benefits. Obviously with less transportation, there is less carbon impacting, locally and globally. All good! So it’s more than dollars and cents, its dollars and sense. I’d like to introduce a few of the great Tasmanian made products I’ve found, here in this blogg space over the next few months. All can I personally recommend.
Meadowbank Estate Vineyard is located only a few kilometres from our place, in the beautiful Coal River Valley, over looking the Coal River. Not only is the situation idyllic, the wine is superb. Check out their website www.meadowbankwines.com.au and you’ll see all they have on offer, or even get out there and have a tasting and a bite to eat, the food is impeccable. Check out the FGR Riesling and Pinot Gris both are stunning, and are personal favourites.

Love it! Treasure it!

I was checking out our web site stats etc today and noticed a bit of traffic coming from a source I wasn’t expecting. Most of our traffic is via direct address or the most common search engines. Today’s little surprise made me smile. We are a family of readers, reading all genre’s, with a particular liking for Aussie authors. So when I noticed we had traffic coming from a website of a best selling Australian author, one whose books I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I had to check out the how/why/where. I was so happy to read her blog and find she loves our pure wool socks and is giving our Possum Socks a go. It’s always’s nice to hear good things about what you do, especially from someone whose work you respect yourself.
She’s a local girl, turns out we live only a few hills apart. Not close by road but not far at all “as the crow flies”. What are the chances of us making one of our favourite authors, some of her favourite socks? It’s a small world. The authors name is Rachael Treasure, rachaeltreasure.com , a woman of many talents. Not only does she write great Aussie fiction and has particularly good taste in socks, she’s I also a wife, mum, farmer and busy writing a guide on dog training. Those mongrel socks she wears must sure get a work out. Anyway, if your in the market for a guide on how to get your mongrel to toe the line, keep an eye out for her next literary offering, and in the meantime check out her books, “Jillaroo” “The Roustabout” or “The Stockman”, they’re a good Aussie escape.

Possum Mayhem

Living on the edge of native bushland, as we do, we have wildlife aplenty. Generally, its a delight, and a special treat to have creatures both furry, feathered and scaled, close to us. An unexpected pleasure watching them go about their business. Not having any domestic pet's (since our dear old dog died), has seen the native population explode. Having lost our much loved and irreplaceable family mongrel, the gorgeous staffordshire bull terrier, Zac, we just couldn't take on another. He'd be a very hard act to follow. He was placid, obedient, and pretty tolerant around other animals, (even cats didn't get his attention), but would still play-up like a puppy well in to old age. All good except when it came to possums. Zac was a very effective deterrent. So we never really had the problems with possum damage we are now experiencing. As cute looking as possums are, we really do regard them as vermin, the rat's of the Aussie bush, around our house. Being a protected species here in Tasmania, there's not a lot we can do about them. They are voracious eater's, and not fussy either. Not only is our garden being knocked around, all the natives tree's we've planted on our acreage are taking a hit. Worse still, they some how are able to un-clip the lids off our garbage bins and rip, spread and scatter all our household rubbish. And just to add insult to injury they cover the lot (or so it seems), with urine and the other. Urgh!
Today, as I repacked our rubbish, again, totally pinged off with the rotten little buggers, a thought sprang to mind, making me laugh out loud. I'm still smiling :)
There I was up to my elbow's in yuck wearing the lovely, warm, possum fur/merino wool socks we produce. Ha! I'm gonna thumb my nose at those furry little possums from now on. I've known for along time what Possum's are good at, now I know what they're good for.
Keeping warm!
They say "Revenge is a dish best eaten cold" They're right.

Sharing it around.

As a small business with a web presence we regularly receive unsolicited requests for one charity/fundraiser or another. Of course it is simply impossible for us to support most of these a causes( as needy as some are), but every once in a while we'll get a request that we just can't refuse. Two of these came through this week.
The first was a request for funky socks as prizes for a high school fundraiser. What caught our attention is the fact that is the same high school my partner( and his siblings) attended 30 years ago. Mullumbimby High School, is located in Northern NSW, not far from Byron Bay. A beautiful part of the world. Mullum High educated not only my partners family it has also seen a handful of their children go through too( our niece's and nephew's). In fact, one is currently studying there now with another 2 enrolling in the near future.
At first we thought one of the family must have suggested us, but when I contacted the organiser she told me she'd been trawling the web, dreaming of a holiday in Tasmania, when she came across our site, remembering she'd brought our Pure Wool Mongrel Socks when she was last down in Tasmania. Loved them and as she was also looking for donations for the fundraiser though she'd give us a try. You can but ask.
We live in another state now and have done for the last 20 years. Mullumbimby High School happy days were a long time ago, in a place far away, but are still recalled with fondness, and as such we are happy to contribute.
The second request came through from a church group in country Victoria. They are holding a "Mongrel Dog Show" and are looking for a sponsor, while we haven't reached a decision on what we will contribute, we will be supporting this one. It has simply tickled our fancy.

A good honest living!

Working from home is great, I'd highly recommend it. When we first stumbled across possibility of making a home based living, we wanted not only to minimise the impact of work to our lifestyle, we wanted something that wouldn't impact badly on the world around us too. We were actively seeking our own small business so we could dictate our own work conditions, ethics, hours etc. Our reality is we need to earn a living, not to accumulate wealth but to live comfortably and honestly. With Mongrel Socks we found our niche! Ten years on, we haven't looked back. Starting our business from scratch was a challenge! But it was great to have ultimate control. Early on we made many mistakes, but learnt(sometimes painfully) from each one. One thing we did learn early was, that many decisions we make impact far wider than just us. Particularly our work practices. We have tried to always reduce waste in both materials and time, we recycle as much as we can. We re-use the majority of our packaging materials. We use natural lighting and drying processes. Minimise vehicle movements, and run LPG in our delivery van. As business owners we know we need to keep our costs down, and we have found that with care, we have been not only able to reduce the impact that our business has on our local environment but this has also kept our costs down. Yay! One thing we are very proud of is our tree planting program, we have planted upwards of 200 multi species endemic trees on our 9 acre property, and will continue until we can't fit any more. This is our small contribution to minimising the impact of our carbon footprint on our local environment. Our property is located on the outskirts of the city, backing on to bushland, the urban sprawl is ever encroaching. If in some small way we can foster an environment that is a safe haven to the many types of native animals we have here in Tasmania, when their natural habitat is not under threat from us or any thing we do in their backyard, we'll consider that an environmental job well done!