Green Options

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.

For those of you out there that want to knit with silk, but the tussah is still beyond your eco-reach, for whatever reason, have I got a silk for you. It is banana silk, made from banana palm fibers. How cool is that?

Australian company, All Eco, carries this fun and luxurious yarn. It is made by soaking the leaves in water and extracting the fibres. “These are hand crushed to make them soft and pliable, ready for weaving into fabrics, or spinning into ropes,” says All Eco. “Any fibres that are unsuitable for fabrics or ropes are pulped and regenerated for hand spinning into gleaming yarns ready for use in your own one-off creation.”

The yarn comes in a range of fun and flirty colors. They are all hand dyed and there are no pattern repeats because of this. Bubble gum Bliss and Lime Zest are the two that caught my eye.

Man, there is a lot of recycled cotton yarn out there! We’ve looked over 2nd Time Cotton and perused what Redheart had to offer. Well now, Lion Brand has gotten in on the recycled cotton act to muted fanfare.

No trumpets or bugles, just a lonely blogger trying to give her readers more earth friendly yarn options.

This recycled cotton is made from t-shirt clippings and sorted by like color. It is then blended with acrylic and “other fiber,” so the actual amount of recycled content is just shy of 75%.

Looking for a sweet organic cotton print for a large project? Chop Chop Timber’s got you covered. This lovable, little store has a small but ample collection of organic print fabrics for sale and in bulk. But hurry because they’re closing their doors!

If you’re looking for fabric but in smaller quantities, Chop Chop also has a selection of some of our favorites for sale by the yard - Harmony Art Organics and Plover Organics.

All of their fabrics are organic cotton in soothing colors and contemporary prints. I love the simple but bright colors found in the tulip print by Barn Organics, and for ten yards or organic-y goodness, their price is a steel.

A team of researchers at Baylor University, Texas, have figured out a way to make car parts from coconuts, opening the door to the replacement of environmentally damaging plastic with an abundant, renewable resource.

The team have also created biodiesel from coconut oil, and are confident the new fuel could be an economically viable substitute for gasoline, as well as a vital source of income for more than ten million coconut farmers worldwide struggling on tiny annual incomes, typically as little as $500.