Green Options

We are a bit pineapple obsessed this week here at Crafting a Green World. But when we find out about an interesting plant fiber that can be used as a fabric and a yarn, color us impressed.

I first heard about pineapple yarn via Craftzine, and thanks to their ambitious interns have learned much about this cute little yarn.

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.

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.

This is a guest post by Laura Bucci, who knits and sews bags. You can find her at her arts & crafts blog.

I must admit that I prefer to buy foreign craft items when I’m actually visiting the country of origin as opposed to buying them in my home country. There’s something missing when these items are sold out of context. Right now, I’m thinking specifically about Latin American crafts since that’s where I’ve traveled to in the last few years. I feel there’s a lot that I’m not getting by not having seen the people, the landscape, the country, the culture where the piece is made.

In one of my the trips to Guatemala, I bought two small embroidery wall hangings. Although I did not meet the women who made these pieces, throughout Guatemala it is easy to spot Mayan  women working on the streets or craft markets (as seen in top picture). By being exposed to the culture, and through dialogues with shop owners,  my appreciation of my newly purchased embroideries was greatly increased.  And now when I look at my Mayan embroideries at home, images of the place, the women, and the culture flood back.

Looking for an eco-friendly end to your life?  Forget a pine coffin, weave your own final resting place from willows.  UK based Musgrove Willows is offering a course where you weave your own coffin, which doubles as a “blanket box” while you wait to die.  Except for the fact I want to be cremated, I would love to weave my own coffin.  Not sure I want [...]

Don’t forget! The next Carnival of Green Crafts will be August 9th at BlogHer. Send in your submissions now.

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.