Green Options

Here’s another entry into the eco-friendly yarn field, again from Sirdar. I’ve already covered Sirdar’s Eco Wool, but this yarn is plant based. Just Soya is a lovely little yarn made from 100% soybean fibers.

Generally softer than cotton, Just Soya is another great summer yarn. It is silky, smooth and comes in DK weight. Perhaps a summer shawl or tank would be perfect to whip up in this yarn.

In 2007, Rowan brand yarns introduced PureLife a wonderful selection of 100% organic cotton. In the following years Rowan has expanded their PureLife line to address other areas of sustainability.

Rowan still offers their organic cotton yarn in DK weight that is naturally dyed using plants. New this season is their 4 ply organic cotton yarn, also dyed with natural plant dyes. The shades of this yarn are soft, subtle and sweet, perfect for summer knitting.

Folktail Fibers is one of those shops that I have simply fallen head over heels for. The skeins are both whimsical but perfectly easy to knit up.

Offering both vegan and animal friendly fibers, Folktail hand spins amazing fiber and color combinations to create lovely yarns.

With a name like Darn Good Yarn, it’s hard not to like this yarn and their principals. This U.S. based company offers a small variety of yarn but specializes in recycled silk sari.

The yarn is spun from the remnants of the production of silk saris in Nepal. Darn Good Yarn only works with co-ops in Nepal that offer fair trade pricing for the spinning of the yarn.

The weather has finally started to take a turn towards the hot and muggy here in Washington, D.C. and that means I need to take a hard look at my knitting projects. Because let me tell you, knitting with wool or another heavy fiber when it get’s hot and humid, is not fun.

Thank goodness I’ve recently found Hope USA Cotton Organic. This organic cotton looks sturdy yet breathable, perfect for the season.

We’re a little slow sometimes around this blog, as news of this yarn and clothing hit the internet in early January, but it is still worth a mention here as a yearn worthy yarn.

Alexandra Guerrero, a Chilean designer discovered that by using found cigarette butts, she could clean them and then spin them with wool to produce a yarn to knit and crochet into clothing.

In remembrance and in honor of all that are and have served in the U.S. military on this Memorial Day, it only seemed fitting to recall knitting efforts that have taken place during war times past.

During WWI and again in WWII, women and families picked up knitting needles to help in the war effort. The American Red Cross organized many volunteer groups that knit various items for soldiers serving overseas. Socks, sweaters, helmet liners, scarfs, caps and blankets were just a few of the items that were knit up and shipped to those serving.

During WWII, the knitting effort was further encouraged and women were told to “knit for defense” and “knit for victory.” Patterns and tutorials were readily made available to those who wanted to feel like they were contributing during this trying time, even First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was seen supporting the war effort in this way.

Listen up Debbie Bliss fans, this yarn brand now carries a cute little eco yarn - exactly what we’ve all been waiting for.

Debbie Bliss Eco is an organic cotton that is the perfect aran/worsted weight yarn that comes in eighteen bright colors great for the turn of the season. The yarn is dyed using non-toxic dyes and the water is reclaimed and recycled during the dying process.

So I’m going to put this up there with spinning yarn from your dog’s hair; interesting that it can be done, but not quite yearn worthy (stray strands of hair sometimes really freak me out.)

But using your hair, human hair, as fiber to create clothing can be done, as this woman from Romania has shown us. (Hat tip to CraftStylish for the story.)

Bistrita Nasaud, grew her hair from the age of 16 until it was 40 inches long so she could weave it and created nine items of clothing out of her hair.

There’s been some interesting thoughts floating around the internet about rural, tacit and generational knowledge that we as a species are losing.

It seems strange to think that we could lose knowledge, especially in today’s world of information on demand, but if you think about it, certain skills and know how are hard to come by.

At the end of 2008, over one half of the world’s population lived in urban areas. Urban lifestyles come with their own characteristics and culture and so do rural lifestyles. Urban populations don’t have ready access to many of the experiences as rural populations do. General knowledge of where our food comes from for example, the simple act of gardening, knowing the planting seasons, identifying plants and knowing when to harvest; having the understanding of why bees are important, is not something that city dwellers grow up experiencing and knowing.

Based on this, I consider myself very luck to have grown up in a semi-rural area. I was close enough to a city but within easy distance to farms, lakes and rural towns. I learned many things because of this, both craft related and non-craft related and continue to acquire various tactile knowledge (err tacit, but I like tactile better) and I hope to never stop.