By Kelly Rand •
February 19, 2009
I had the good fortune to recently visit the Southern hemisphere and explore a good portion of the country of Chile. And in whichever city or town I was in, handmade goods and local artisans and craftsmen were in abundance.
While on the island of Chiloé, the second largest island of Chile, the majority of the artisans sold hand knitted items and hand spun wool. I couldn’t have been more delighted!
Chiloé was a magical place for me, the views of the ocean and rolling farmland with happy and healthy looking cows and sheep and chickens, were such a pleasure to behold. The island holds much lore and is seeped in tradition, with hand spun wool being one of these traditions.
In exploring the markets filled with handmade goods, many of the women would sit and knit, creating their wares as people browsed. Or they would spin. Several had spinning wheels and would spin their wool into yarn, right then and there.
By Andrew Williams •
October 19, 2008
Scientists have created a new material that could dramatically increase the efficiency of solar cells, by literally capturing every color of the rainbow.
Whereas other materials only catch a small range of light frequencies, and therefore only a small fraction of the potential energy, the new invention is capable of absorbing all the energy contained in sunlight. According to team leader, Prof. Malcolm Chisolm, “There are other such hybrids out there, but the advantage of our material is that we can cover the entire range of the solar spectrum.”
By Kelly Rand •
October 2, 2008
Sally Fox started growing colored cotton in the 1980’s. Concerned about the mass quantities of pesticides used in cotton growing, Fox researched different cotton breeds that were naturally resistant to pests and developed those breeds that were easily spun into yarn.
Over the years she has developed these plants and now produces green, brown, buffalo brown and white organic cotton. While it takes about 10 years to develop a color, Fox continues to experiment and tries to find new hues for her organic cotton. She says that by working at it year after year, eventually you come up with a plant that has a good color that is also suitable for spinning.
All of Fox Fiber yarns are certified organic and the cotton is available in cones or skeins and available in a variety of textures including boucle, chenille, bulky and crepe. As previously noted here on Yearn Worthy Yarn, I am a sucker for bulky yarns and Fox Fiber’s bulky comes in wonderful blends of the green, brown, and white cotton.
By Andrew Williams •
October 1, 2008
A team of researchers have developed a color-coded bacteria that will make it much easier to detect oil-spills and other forms of environmental pollution.
During a recent sea expedition the team successfully used the bacteria, which contains a protein that glows blue when viewed though a simple light-detecting device, to detect oil.
