This week’s Yearn Worthy Yarn comes from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. Spiritual Trail Fibers specializes in rare, endangered, and unusual breed spinning fibers.
This spinnery offers many types of fibers, which are all hand spun and then hand dyed or painted in small batches.
Move over Nature…the famed strength of a spider’s web silk now has some competition. Bio-mimicry and bio-materials–both emerging new sciences that seek to utilize and/or reproduce or modify natural biological materials and properties for commercial usage–has been seeing an explosion of research and experimentation of late. Recent bio-materials experiments with spider dragline silk (taken from the Araneus spider’s silk glands) have resulted in a bio-mimicked new material that is stronger than its natural version.
The investigation by The Cornucopia Institute included a survey, in person visits to farm and processing facilities, and a review of import data from over 60 soy product companies. The report included a scorecard of each company as well as a comprehensive 54 page report outlining their findings of the overall industry.
Some of their more disturbing findings include:
Did you know that 2009 has been declared the International Year of Natural Fibers by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization?
Why is natural fiber so important?
The natural fiber organizations help the income and the food security of poor farmers such as those working with jute in Bangladesh, cotton in some West African countries and sisal (shown above) making a comeback in Tanzania.
“The main goal of the International Year of Natural Fibers is to raise the profile of these fibers and to emphasize their value to consumers while helping to sustain the incomes of the farmers. ” states the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
30 million tons or more are produced each year and natural fibers form an important component of clothing, upholstery and many textiles. Some also have industrial applications such as “packaging, papermaking and in composite materials with many uses, including as parts in automobiles.”
Some features for 2009 will include:
I’m totally smitten with these gorgeous vintage kimono fabrics from Shibori! She stocks all sorts of weights, from delicate silk to cotton and wool.
Owner Juliet and her husband Richard are ordained Zen Buddhist priests. She says she’s struck by, “the sense of history and culture when you handle Japanese kimono silk.” I have to say, I can totally see where she’s coming from. On top of being absolutely beautiful, the patterns on her kimono fabrics make you think of a different place and time. Since they’re all vintage, that means they’re eco-friendly to boot!
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.
According to legend, 5,000 years ago Chinese Empress Xi Ling-Shi discovered silk when a silkworm cocoon fell into her hot cup of tea. She unraveled the strange cocoon and, wrapping the thread around her finger, soon realized what an exquisite cloth it would make. Thus the history of one of the world’s most coveted fabrics began.
If this is true, the silkworm that haplessly fell into the empress’ cup on that fateful day met a fate very similar to that of modern day silkworms. When they exit the cocoon after metamorphosis, silkmoths must bore a hole through the cocoon wall, which ruins the precious thread. Therefore, silk factories drop the cocoons in hot water before the moth can leave. This unravels the thread well, but it boils down to bad news for the silkworms.
Still, it’s the fate of almost every silkworm in the world today. Due to thousands of years of selective breeding, the silkworms we know today are no longer suited to survive in the wild. The entire species’ population exists only in silk factories and in the cardboard boxes of school children. So, except for the fortunate few 3rd-grade bookworms, virtually every silkworm will meet the cooking pot. That raises the question: what do you do with so many boiled silkworms?
While this years wedding season is just winding down, it’s not too early to be thinking of next year’s, especially if you are going to make your own dress or one for a friend. Many wedding dresses are made from luxury materials such as silk.
Denise Bird Woven Textiles offers hand loom woven wild and peace silk fabrics. If you recall, peace silk is a silk sourced from the cocoon of silk worms that emerge from their cocoons naturally. It is animal friendly and cruelty free silk.
Denise Bird uses a specific breed of silk worm only found in the state of Assam in India. The cocoons are collected from the forest floor by local communities who wind the fiber by hand and then weave it into cloth.
If you’re a frequent reader of Crafting a Green World, you know that there are several different levels of eco-friendly awareness out in the world. There are companies and individuals that are uber green and then there are those who are just starting to make changes with the environment in mind.
That’s why we like Ceallach Dyes. Committed to reducing their carbon footprint they dye all of their yarns and fibers using solar energy. They use no consumable fuel sources to set the dyes and only dye their yarns at the most sunniest times of the year.
They offer a wide variety of yarn weights from lace to worsted and a range of fiber from wool, cotton and superwash merino. They also solar dye fiber for you spinners out there, from wool to superwash merino, too.
The Elena Garcia Eco-Couture studio produces creative clothes for women using exquisite fabrics and eco-friendly processes. Designer Elena’s style is feminine, comfortable and elegant. Her garments are made with special care and with materials that change for each collection. Primarily find pesticide-free silks, organic linen and eco bamboo.
Last season I interviewed Leslie Richard and found out all about the Öko Box,
and she shared her love of Enamore lingerie. Now they’re a main feature for fall in the intimate section of the Öko Box!
She explains:
“Enamore sets out to bring classic and vintage styles to her designs, like the classic pin-up, which is a sustainable approach to the usual throw away fashion world.”
Enamore was founded by Jenny Ambrose, after discovering
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