Why can’t I place an order for delivery to the EU?

We probably get asked this question more frequently than any other. The answer, regrettably is Brexit, which has introduced some very cumbersome bureaucracy, but we can offer you a work-around. Although you can’t order for the EU from our website at chunkichilli.com, you can order from us via our Etsy shop here.

Etsy automatically collects the import taxes when you order and passes this on to the EU customs, so that when we ship your package it generally goes straight through without any additional charges. France may be an exception to this because they occasionally collect further charges on entry, and we are never quite sure why this happens.

We do not offer all of our stock via our Etsy shop, but if you can’t see the item you wanted, you are very welcome to message us and get us to swap in the item that you need.

Do you make customised orders?

The answer to this is both Yes and No. 

We personalise our stockings by cutting your name into a leather tag and stitching it on at the top hem. And we do, very occasionally undertake to swap colours on some items. If, for example, you would like to swap some of the colours on one of our Christmas stockings, so that it makes a set with some of our other stockings, we can do that as long as we are not too busy. This would usually take us about a month.

But, we do not make one-off designs to order. We would love to do this, but takes a surprisingly long time to design something from scratch, even when presented with a photograph of something similar, and we just don’t have the time. Sorry.

Is this product suitable for a newborn?

Our puppets and toys are CE and UKCA certified, and almost all of them are certified suitable for age zero plus. The only items that are certified suitable for age 3 years plus are the ones that are small or have small parts that could possibly be swallowed. These items include:

• Our ‘baby’ soft toys and ‘baby’ finger puppets. These are the smallest size of each.
• Our ‘changeable’ outfits for soft toys. These outfits include socks, underpants, gloves and scarves, all of which could possibly be swallowed by an under-three.

How do I wash my ChunkiChilli?

ChunkiChillis are hand-made using either pure wool (the Feathers McGraw Hats and some Christmas stockings) or organic cotton. Items like hats, stockings and golf club covers made without stuffing can be machine washed on a delicate cycle at a temperature of 30-40 degrees. Do not tumble dry, but lay the item out flat to dry without stretching. 

Our cream yarn is natural and undyed, and can discolour slightly on exposure to bright sunlight, so it is best not to dry items in direct sun unless they have no cream yarn in. 

Items with stuffing in can be washed and dried in the same way as above, but we recommend hand-washing wherever possible to keep the stuffing in place.

Where are ChunkiChillis made?

This question brings us around to the story of how and why ChunkiChilli started. We have written about this here. The short answer is that Misty and Tim at ChunkiChilli set up a knitting community in Southwest China more than 20 years ago, and everything is hand-knitted there by our wonderful and talented knitters, who knit at home, in our knitting centre, in the teahouse and in various places all around town. The business has been on an amazing journey through many ups and downs, and many of the knitters have been with us throughout.

Why didn’t you tell me this was made in China?

We occasionally receive this question or variations of it. We do try very hard to make this information noticeable on the website and on the product pages. But kudos to anyone who asks this question, because we do all need to be thinking about the moral and environmental consequences of how and where we shop.

All of our knits are hand-made (mostly at home) by extremely skilled artisans, and each knitted item is a work of art in itself. We know China as a friendly and outward-looking place, and our knitters are conscientious, committed, and extremely humorous ladies (now mostly grannies) with the most incredible knitting skills. We know that some shoppers try not to buy from China, and we respect that as a decision, but it is not something that we feel is appropriate in this case.

How was this made without seams?

This is a technical question that we get this question quite often from knitting enthusiasts who look at our puppets and toys and can’t figure out how they were knitted in the round. The simple answer is that our knitters have been doing this for a long time now and they really are very skilled. We couldn’t possibly tell you how they do it.

There is a loose end in the knitting. Can I return this item?

Firstly: Yes, indeed. You can return any item to us with 30 days of receipt, in its original condition, for a swap or a refund. 

Secondly: We just need to add that a loose tuft of yarn showing through on the outer side of the item is not necessarily a sign that the product is faulty. Because our toys and stockings are so colourful, there are inevitably many yarn ends from the many changes of colour in the knitting. The knitters are really careful to work the ends securely into the fabric, so that the yarn won’t unravel, but there is always and inevitably an end left after the yarn has been worked in. If this end is showing on the outer side of the fabric, it just needs to be pushed through to the inner side where it can’t be seen. The fabric itself is most probably fine and should remain intact for many years or decades to come.

Do you knit/embroider names directly onto your stockings?

This is quite possibly the most frequent of frequently asked questions. We cut names into leather tags and personalise the stockings by stitching these on, but we don’t embroider names directly onto the fabric of the stockings. On the other hand, we are very happy to send out some free yarn with your stockings, so that you can hand-embroider your names on yourselves. Just send us a note with your order requesting some free yarn for the embroidery.

We know that lots of people would really love it if we could embroider on names but we decided a really long time ago that it was more important to us to make a very special product than to compromise on the stockings in order to have the ability to machine-embroider onto them. It is not possible to use an embroidery machine on our beautifully hand-knitted stockings and we just don’t have the time to do the embroidery by hand. But we would be very happy to help you the job by sending the extra yarn.

Can I order ChunkiChillis wholesale?

You can indeed. Just drop us a line here.

Where can I buy a ChunkiChilli near me?

We do not publish lists of our retailers but if you contact us and let us know where you are, we should be able to point you to the nearest shop.

We have lost my child’s most beloved ChunkiChilli toy and I can’t find it on your website. What can I do?

You’d be surprised how often we receive messages like this. Even if the item is not showing on our website, we almost certainly either have stock or can make a new one for you. Just get in touch with us here and we’ll do our very best to come up with a replacement toy.