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.

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.

In one more laughable act, the FDA recently sent a warning letter to popular cereal maker General Mills to discuss the drug they manufacture. You know, that donut-shaped drug you can pop by the handful:

Based on claims made on your product’s label, we have determined that your Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug.

Let’s see: the FDA failed consumers when it came to the peanut-Salmonella outbreak. It recently suggested lifting the fish consumption warnings for children and pregnant women, despite mercury worries (and not to mention the mercury in high fructose corn syrup!). When U.S. infant formula was found to have low levels of melamine–but still above international standards for the chemical–the FDA simply said, “Meh. We’ll just raise the amount allowable.”

The Food and Drug Administration is busy ignoring all of these potentially problematic issues, but has plenty of time to harass a cereal company about its claims about whole grains. Seriously?!

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.

If you’ve been waiting to add some hemp fiber to your life now has never been a better time to do so. Hemp for Knitting offers a wide variety of yarn in a multitude of weights and colors.

I know we’ve already sang the praises of hemp but it stands to be repeated. Hemp is a fast growing plant that is pest resistant reducing the need for both water and pesticides and herbicides. Hemp also helps nourish the soil right where it is planted, reducing the need for fertilizer.

Thirteen Mile Farm is located in big sky country in Belgrade, Montana. Here you’ll find about 100 sheep being raised on a farm that looks out for the environmental concerns of its livestock and the land.

Owned and operated by Becky Weed and Dave Tyler, this pair are still learning ways to green up their farm but currently practice crop and animal rotation, use plants instead of chemicals for fertilizers and never use antibiotics or hormones in their sheep. They are certified organic by the USDA
and have a Predatory Friendly certification as well. That means they do not use lethal methods to deter predators. This is especially crucial in areas such as Montana and other farming states where important predators are on the come back, such as wolves.

While these are great and wonderful points about the farm, we’re here for the yarn!

Studies have shown that many illnesses (including several types of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease) are largely influenced by chronic inflammation in the body.

Prolonged inflammation causes the immune system to become off balance, and can result in damage to healthy tissue.

Poor diet is a main contributor to chronic inflammation, but several lifestyle factors such as lack of exercise, and excessive stress can promote inflammation as well.

Many health and nutrition experts are now starting to emphasize the importance of following an anti-inflammatory diet.

Here are a few tips to get you started on your way to less inflammation and better health:

Located in the Pacific Northwest, Midnightsky Fibers is a great little yarn and fiber company that offers a variety of eco-friendly yarns and fibers.

From wool and wool blends to soysilk yarns, Midnightsky offers hand spun and hand dyed yarns and fibers. Special emphasis is placed on wool and wool blends with all natural and environmentally-friendly fibers used in the blends.

All of their yarns and fibers are available in their natural state, dyed, or hand painted, in addition to a number of fiber clubs and sock yarn clubs. They source their yarns and fibers from other small companies committed to supporting small artists and environmental issues.

I am a very textural person. I love it. The more bumps, knobs, twists and turns in fiber, fabric and paintings, the more interested I am in the piece.

In my knitting, I go back and forth between simple, smooth knits that I’ll work into intricate cables and patterns, then back to bumpy knits that get worked into simple, smooth stockinette stitch. That’s why I love this great raw yarn from Hubu.

We’ve talked about the awesome properties of hemp in both yarn and fabric form before but never as a raw material that can be knit with. The hemp bark yarn is just that, the bark of the hemp plant.

Still on a plant fiber kick, this week I’ve come back to cotton. It isn’t recycled this time but an honest to goodness 100% organic cotton. This lovely yarn from Estelle Yarns is certified organic and comes in wide range of sturdy colors.

Cloud Cotton is available in dyed and undyed. The dyed cotton ranges from bright spring greens to soothing blues. The undyed cotton is natural looking browns and neutrals.