Green Options

Quilting for Peace is the latest in craft books by Katherine Bell. In the pages you’ll find stories and inspiration of organizations as well as people using sewing and quilting to help make the world a better place.

The book covers giving to deserving charities as well as using quilts as an activist tool. There are patterns and projects to replicate those the organizations make as well as where to donate your creation if you so choose.

From veterans to kids, Quilting for Peace covers a wide range of issues in which sewing has brought people together for a cause. We asked Katherine to stop by talk a bit about her book and quilting from an environmental perspective.

The following is written by Katherine:

Quilts can change people’s minds and alter the course of history. That was the idea behind 19th century quilts promoting prohibition and abolition, the 1,293,300-square-foot, 54-ton AIDS Memorial Quilt, and The Ribbon, a project that wrapped the Pentagon and Hiroshima’s Atomic Bomb Dome in miles of quilts to protest the nuclear arms race. Now a new generation is using patchwork to call attention to an existential threat – this time it’s climate change. Here are three ways you can join them.

Do you like crafts? Do you like learning and making greener crafts? Do you constantly refresh Crafting a Green World, eagerly awaiting our next post?

Well, why not join the team and be a part of the green crafting blogosphere?

Crafting a Green World is on the hunt for a couple of super awesome crafters that want to share their green crafting knowledge with the world. That’s right, we are on [...]

While banana fabric might be hard to find, banana yarn is not. In fact we’ve talked about All Eco Banana Silk, a yarn whose fibers are hand crushed to get the material to spin.

This week’s Yearn Worthy Yarn comes from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. Spiritual Trail Fibers specializes in rare, endangered, and unusual breed spinning fibers.

This spinnery offers many types of fibers, which are all hand spun and then hand dyed or painted in small batches.

Who knew such a thing existed, but this weekend is National Alpaca Farm Days!

Sponsored by the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association (AOBA), Saturday and Sunday you can visit a local Alpaca farm and learn more about these animals. Why would one want to learn more about them?

Well, if you haven’t been paying attention, Alpacas produce a super soft fiber that is perfect for spinning up into so, much, amazing yarn. And the AOBA wants you to know just how green these animals are.

We are a bit pineapple obsessed this week here at Crafting a Green World. But when we find out about an interesting plant fiber that can be used as a fabric and a yarn, color us impressed.

I first heard about pineapple yarn via Craftzine, and thanks to their ambitious interns have learned much about this cute little yarn.

This week’s pick for an eco-friendly yarn is Ecolana by Aslan Trends. An animal fiber that is soft, warm and get’s me to thinking about the coming fall.

Ecolana is a 60% Alpaca 40% Merino Wool blend yarn that is produced with environmentally friendly production methods.

Abe’s Market, a new online natural marketplace, is about to launch and is looking for the latest and greatest natural products to create the best array of products for the site.

Abe’s will offer a comprehensive selection of all natural products, with the best and latest in health, beauty, food, home and consumer goods with the ease and convenience of the most modern e-commerce services. The site aims to be a place for customers to find their favorite natural brands as well as a place to discover some of the newest and unique undiscovered lines, as well as “meet” the creators of the brands and gain knowledge about the ingredients, processes and stories behind these products.

In addition to being the source for purchasing all-natural goods, Abe’s Market will be the place and opportunity for up and coming producers of natural products to feature, market, and grow their brands. Abe’s will continually seek out new brands and welcome new sellers to the site. Additionally, the Abe’s Market management team led by co-founders Richard Demb and Jon Polin, who have their professional experience in both natural businesses and the retail environment, will help these newer brands gain exposure with natural retailers to establish distribution.

Lorna’s Laces is a small yarn company located in Chicago, IL. They offer a great variety of hand-dyed yarns whose color palettes are carefully and lovingly created. Early in 2008, Lorna’s Laces jumped on the opportunity to expand their line and offer an organic yarn option.

And so the Green Line was born.

The yarn, offered in a DK and Worsted wieght, is spun from 100% organic merino wool and was hand-painted with all natural dyes. The wool is raised and certified as organic on a ranch in Argentina. Then is taken to an organically certified (IMO certification) mill in Europe for combing and carding. Then it goes on to the spinning mill where it’s conventionally processed.

So, it’s not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction and we thought it was important to start taking those steps as soon as we could.

says Lorna’s Laces.

Here’s a great online store from down under that specializes in organic and eco friendly yarns, fibres and fabrics. Ecoyarns has a solid selection of both animal and plant fibers, perfect for any knitter.

They offer a wide selection of yarns, ranging from organic wool, EcoOrganic Cotton, to a yarn called Black Diamond Fiber.