La'al herdy is the latest and possibly cutest addition to the herdy family. La'al is Cumbrian dialect for little and we thought, since his origins are here in Cumbria and he is quite small, it would be a perfect name for him! Here at herdy HQ we've wanted to add a soft toy to the range for some time now but somehow a mass produced item didn't seem to cut the mustard. When we found out about a great toy company in Vietnam who was trying to improve the lives of rural families, we thought we'd found the right people to work with.

crochet in Vietnam

Their aim was to build a business that helped to keep families in rural communities together as, typically in rural Vietnam, older members of the family are forced to leave home to seek work in the towns and cities. They started an initiative two years ago to teach women in the rural DaLat region of Vietnam to crochet and, once trained, pay them fair trade rates for their work. This enables women to remain at home with their families whilst at the same time having the ability to earn a living wage. Each toy is crocheted and assembled entirely by hand making each one truly unique.

Which one will you love?