Green Options

In amongst the hand bound books made from mostly recycled materials, you will find some wonderful yarn by Miss Hawklet, made with what she calls “animal friendly” fibers.

All of the yarn found in Miss Hawklet’s shop is hand spun and hand dyed by the proprietor herself, Holly Klump. She offers a wide variety of fibers, perfect for those who like to knit with animal fibers and vegans alike.

Animal fibers that make up the hand spun yarns are obtained from a wide variety of sources that you can feel good about. Wool and mohair, come from a small rescue farm in Wisconsin, sans chemicals or bleach, or from rescued “mill ends,” the waste fiber that factories throw out. Miss Hawklet also sources wool from a farm in the Falkland Islands, which she has a good relationship with and feels comfortable with how they treat their animals and how the fiber is processed.

For those of you who have been following Yearn Worthy Yarn, you know that yarn is made from many different fibers and it’s not just sheep that get sheared (see: alpaca and musk ox, yup musk ox.) But did you know that yak are good for their fleece as well? Me neither!

I happened upon Bijou Basin Ranch at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and couldn’t believe my eyes. Here was yarn made from yak fiber!

Yak fiber is combed from the yak once spring rolls around and they start to shed their warm winter coats. The fiber is downy and super soft and a yak can produce between 1 and 2 pounds of down per year. The fiber is then cleaned, washed and carded so it is ready for the spinning wheel. The result is very similar to that of qiviut, in that it is soft like cashmere and warm like wool.