Having lived in Brooklyn for part of my life I can appreciate the creativity that grows there. Bodkin is a good example of a budding environmentally friendly clothing company in New York that specializes in:
I have Spring fever. Bad. I can’t wait for the warmth and the sun of the season. I think that’s why I am quite currently fawning over Sublime’s organic yarns.
Sublime offers soft and soothing colors that seem perfect for this time of year. They come in organic cotton as well as organic merino wool. Organic options enough for everyone.
Thirteen Mile Farm is located in big sky country in Belgrade, Montana. Here you’ll find about 100 sheep being raised on a farm that looks out for the environmental concerns of its livestock and the land.
Owned and operated by Becky Weed and Dave Tyler, this pair are still learning ways to green up their farm but currently practice crop and animal rotation, use plants instead of chemicals for fertilizers and never use antibiotics or hormones in their sheep. They are certified organic by the USDA
and have a Predatory Friendly certification as well. That means they do not use lethal methods to deter predators. This is especially crucial in areas such as Montana and other farming states where important predators are on the come back, such as wolves.
While these are great and wonderful points about the farm, we’re here for the yarn!
Located in the Pacific Northwest, Midnightsky Fibers is a great little yarn and fiber company that offers a variety of eco-friendly yarns and fibers.
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.
Meaning “a place of trees,” Treliske is a 3000 acre organic farm, certified by the New Zealand Biological Producers and Consumers Council since 1986. Farmed by the Aitchison family for 3 generations, Treliske grazes Merino, Crossbred and coloured sheep flocks and principally produces high quality certified organic wool, on the South Island of New Zealand.
The Treliske merino wool range includes organic babywear, baby blankets, knitwear and knitting wool yarns which free from harmful chemicals. It is natural, undyed and unbleached and is grown and manufactured without the 8,000 chemicals found in the textile industry.
Can great yarn come from pampered sheep? If those sheep are loved, cared for, and are able to graze safely. If they are never separated from their friends and families. If they are never sold, given away or eaten, then for Homestead Wool the answer is yes.
Located in Monroe, Wisconsin, Homestead boasts a healthy and happy flock of 92 sheep and a couple of alpacas and great pyrenees that help protect the sheep. Homestead takes great pride in the care of their flock. Their happiness and good care is their utmost concern.
All of the fiber from the sheep is washed and dyed on the farm. Most of it ends up for sale after being carded. All of their yarn is handspun on the farm and comes in a variety of weights including single-ply and double-ply.
Um, you’ve probably gotten the idea by now that I like to craft with felted wool sweaters, right? The twenty-pound cardboard box on my study floor full of cut-up wool sweaters tells me that this is true. And you’ve probably also figured out that I prefer to use acrylic felt made from recycled plastic over conventional wool felt (and you don’t agree–I swear, that Wool Comes from Sheep post is the only one I have ever seen on all of Green Options in which a commentor calls a blogger a Bad Name. A Bad Name! Really? Because of crafting? I sort of left the world of academics in favor of crafting to avoid crazy politics, but anyway…).
Ahem. My point, now that I’ve gotten around to it, is that I actually do craft with new wool, but I need to know where that wool has come from so that I can assure myself that the sheep were humanely raised as the happy, frolicsome beasts they’re meant to be (I assume–never having raised sheep myself, they could be fierce and blood-thirsty predators, for all I really know).
And one of the awesomest kinds of wool to craft with, especially if you’re not a spinner or a knitter, is wool roving (just don’t use superwash!). You can felt wet-felt wool roving to make your own felt, or you can welt-felt it around a form. A good project for a newbie is this one, in which we’re going to wet-felt some roving around a river rock. It will be hefty but soft, good for anything from a paperweight to a plaything:
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:
Writing for three green business blogs, I come across and write about my fair share of ideas. My greenwash filter is quick, swift, and merciless. And then you come across something like Wild Wool, and everything gets confused.
The front page has pleasing images of piles of soft, fuzzy fabric and clothing, made from what it describes as, “…a 100% natural fiber product made from 60% merino wool and 40% paihamu spun together to make a premium cashmere-like fabric that is softer, warmer, and lighter than plain wool.” Sounds good so far, right?
My eyebrow started to cock when I read a seemingly throwaway sentence, without a connecting justification for it: “Eco-friendly and practical - talk about a great way to reduce, reuse and recycle.”
Going to the Ecological Profile page to learn more, I was surprised to read what I can say is the most unique claim to being sustainable I’ve seen in a while - Basically, by killing them for their fur, they are helping restore ecological balance on New Zealand.
I had the good fortune to recently visit the Southern hemisphere and explore a good portion of the country of Chile. And in whichever city or town I was in, handmade goods and local artisans and craftsmen were in abundance.
While on the island of Chiloé, the second largest island of Chile, the majority of the artisans sold hand knitted items and hand spun wool. I couldn’t have been more delighted!
Chiloé was a magical place for me, the views of the ocean and rolling farmland with happy and healthy looking cows and sheep and chickens, were such a pleasure to behold. The island holds much lore and is seeped in tradition, with hand spun wool being one of these traditions.
In exploring the markets filled with handmade goods, many of the women would sit and knit, creating their wares as people browsed. Or they would spin. Several had spinning wheels and would spin their wool into yarn, right then and there.
With all the talk of green clothing these days, one thing seems to be missing from the conversations: Sustainability. The old fashioned kind. As in how long it lasts. Yes, you can make clothing last by repurposing it into something else, but what if you’re just not that crafty, or don’t want to spend the time doing it?
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