Green Options

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Similar to Hope Spinnery in Maine that I featured a few weeks ago, Green Mountain Spinnery in Vermont creates their own yarn from United States-grown fibers (specifically alpaca, mohair, wool and organic cotton).

“Our mission is to produce and sell high quality yarns from natural fibers and design classic Vermont patterns. Transforming the many types of raw fibers into luxurious and long lasting yarn. The Green Mountain Spinnery helps to sustain regional sheep farming, and to develop environmentally sound ways to process natural fibers,” says their website.

Using vintage equipment, Green Mountain Spinnery creates yarns that take any project from plain to prodigious. Also similar to Hope Spinnery, GMS will spin yarns from fibers that you provide as well. The company has also released its own book of patterns, called The Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book, featuring “30 of their best loved contemporary and classic patterns.”

Bright colors and unnaturally stretchy fibers are nice, but there are times when you just want to go back to the “classics.” Sourced from Wiltshire, Devon, Somerset and surrounding counties in Britain, Farm Yarns spins some of the most exceptional alpaca and organic wool yarn available anywhere.

“The yarn was developed with the idea to offer a yarn that comes in colours as you find it on the animal on the farm,” says the Farm Yarn website.

What’s so great about alpaca? If you’ve ever used it, you wouldn’t be asking that question. Unspeakably comfortable and versatile, Farm Yarns uses baby alpaca wool - “it is warmer than wool, but has a soft feel like silk,” they say. Naturally available in over 20 shades, baby alpaca wool is not actually from baby alpacas. “It is not a description of the age of the alpaca itself, rather a term that describes the finess of the alpaca wool.”

Nestled in the peaceful beach bordering countryside of southern Maine, you’ll find one of the most sustainable yarn companies on the planet. Unexpected, no?

Hope Spinnery has prided itself on being as eco-friendly as possible: the fiber processing mill is run completely on wind power captured on-site; all fibers are purchased locally from sustainably-dedicated Maine farms; only Earth-friendly soaps and natural dyes are used on the yarns; by-products from the spinning process are reused elsewhere at the mini-factory.

The company’s yarn, made from mostly wool and alpaca, are available by skein and in 6 different patterns kits (5 hats and 1 mitten pattern to choose from). Hope Spinnery recently launched their online store, so you can see the stock they have right away and choose the color and fiber that would be perfect for your next project.

Internationally known for their knitting books, seasonal pattern magazines and luxurious wool yarns, England’s Rowan Yarns has finally ventured into the world of sustainable fibers. Available in DK/light worsted weight, Rowan’s 100% organic cotton PureLife yarn is already winning over crafters.

“Our organically grown naturally dyed yarn is colored with plant dyes and due to their organic nature some shade variation will simply add to the yarn’s unique inherent beauty,” says the Rowan website.

Along with the release of the eight-shade color palate, Rowan has released a pattern brochure with 18 designs just for their PureLife yarn (10 for women, 4 for men, 4 for girls).

Organic yarns have been the majority of the fibers featured in our Yearn-Worthy Yarns series thus far. For this week’s installment, we are covering another vital element of green living and sustainable production - fair trade.

Wikipedia explains fair trade quite clearly as “an organized social movement and market-based approach to alleviating global poverty and promoting sustainability. The movement promotes the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production.” Based in Oneonta, New York, the Da’vida Fair Trade Store sells its own line of hand painted and hand spun yarns made from alpaca, wool and yak fibers.

Painted by Lisa Meriam, a sheep farmer who lives in upstate New York, Da’vida’s collection of yarns come uncolored from Uruguay, Bolivia and Peru.

Remember how bummed you were when your favorite sweater got a hole in it? Even with similar structural blemishes, I find it hard to part with my favorite garments — ones that have been worn during so many memorable moments. With a few snips, unravelled rows, and sections of knitting, you can easily turn these old, damaged favorites into fashionably new creations with Knitty.com’s Frankenknits column. Knitty was started back

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As the sweaty days and humid nights of Summer wane away, the changing leaves and cooler breezes of Autumn will soon be upon us. It’s time to bring out the jeans, blankets, sweaters, and all our other favorite layers as the temperatures become more unpredictable than ever. To add a little variety to your seasonal accoutrements, a few stitches can make all the difference. By adding a bit of knitting or

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There is no doubt that the creative community has begun playing a pivotal roll in expressing the concerns of our changing environment, as well as inspiring change. Jennifer Marsh, a visual artist studying at Syracuse University, took her concern for the world’s dependence on foreign oil to the next level by starting the International Fiber Collaborative in May of 2007.

The goal of the International Fiber Collaborative is to provide an opportunity

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Give old a new purpose - that's the crux of today's tip, given to us by readers Debbie & Sandra from back when we gave our knitting tip. Use old wool sweaters to create something new!

Debbie told us:

There's nothing better than a warm fuzzy handmade scarf wrapped around your neck. But how does knitting affect the environment in a positive manner? Yesterday we talked about slowing down and how it can connect you to the earth (and where things come from) a bit more. But that's not the only way that knitting is green.

By doing it yourself, you can control the quality of the ingredients that go into that

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