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.

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Well not these scraps.

2nd Time Cotton is a yarn that is made from cotton scraps from the garment industry. Composed of 75% reclaimed cotton and 25% acrylic, the cotton is bright, fun and most importantly it gets the scraps off the cutting room floor and into your crafty hands. Just think, with each skein of this yarn, you are helping divert the destined for landfill cotton, into a new life as hat, mitten, scarf or sweater.

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For the curious amongst you, Churro sheep were introduced to the New World because of their hardiness and adaptability to the new climate. They are an old breed dating back to the 1500’s. They were adopted by the Navajo and Pueblo Indian Tribes, soon after their journey.

Their fiber is similar to that of merino, but was eventually found to be secondary to other breeds and their stock was rapidly diminished. Today, it is rare to find pure bred Churros because they had been pushed to the brink of extinction, for many reasons. Largely found in the Southwestern part of the U.S. their fiber carries a luster not found in other wools. It has less lanolin then other wools as well and popular among spinners because of this.

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This yarn starts with a simple grooming. Just brush your dog and save up the softer hair. The hairs best for spinning are those found along your dog’s flank, sides and shoulders. Depending on the project you might have in mind for your dog yarn, you’ll need to collect between 4 to 48 ounces of fiber.

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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.

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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.

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Has reality set in yet? Kids, job, partner, just doesn’t equal farm bliss. Well listen up and take heed. You can now, partially, live out your dream of running away to tend sheep with a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share from Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm.

With a share in the Farm you buy into the Farm and have a stake in its success. The goal is to have yarn or bats for spinning at the end of the process, but you get so much more. You have access to Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm’s blog, where there are updates on the farm’s goings on. A weekly email update, invites to shearing parties and a chance to visit the farm and help out. This is after all, part your farm!

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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.

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The diversity of fiber that is available to use for spinning, knitting, crochet and a myriad of other purposes is quite heartening. The fact that so many eco-friendly yarns exist is simply amazing.

Many yarns come from animal fibers, while others are made from unusual materials that can be spun. I’ve found companies spinning yarn with big hearts and big companies finding it profitable to “go green.”

It seems almost impossible now a days to not have access to an eco-friendly yarn. So, after the jump, please enjoy this round up of Yearn Worthy Yarn.

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It’s not often that you come across a different type of fiber found in your yarn. There are only so many animal (alpaca, bison, musk ox, etc.) and plant (linen, cotton, etc.) based yarns. So I was pleasantly surprised when I happened upon tencel.

Tencel is made from wood pulp that is spun down to make the fiber. The process boasts environmental claims as the pulp that is harvested comes from tree farms that are continuously replanted and the spinning process uses non-toxic solvents.

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To become the silk that we know and love, this fiber has a very interesting story.

Silk comes from the cocoon of the Bombyx moth. Before turning into a moth the Bombyx caterpillar spins itself a cocoon of 1000 yards of silky fiber to house itself during the transformation. The caterpillar secretes a substance that is a thin but strong strand of fiber, which is what we know as silk.

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Most of Crafty Yarn’s bulky weight yarns are hand spun recycled yarn made from mill ends and scrap fiber. The other available skeins are made from reclaimed sweaters that have been frogged for their yarn. An avid knitter and recycler, Molly Bachelor, owner of Crafty Yarn, was interested in material reuse and doing something that was about the hand made process. She had always loved fiber and working with it so she learned how to spin and started to sell her recycled yarn a little over a year a go.

Finding good quality sweaters is key for Bachelor. Sourcing much of her material from large clearance centers and thrift stores, she is mostly drawn to natural fibers; especially wool. If a synthetic fiber is of particular interest she will buy it and “if it’s cashmere, I’ll grab it,” she said. She searches for fiber by sorting by type then looks to the sweater’s construction since she deconstructs it for reuse. She ends up with only about 5 to 10 percent of what she originally picks out.

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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.

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With closer examination, they see a tiny woman with a Betty Page haircut manhandling what looks like a large fluff of purple cotton candy. She tears a chunk off and lets the kids pass it around. ” This is what sweaters are made of…most of the time!”, proclaims the woman as she twirls a small drop spindle and continues to draft the fibers into yarn.

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