Crafting a Green World

My kids, ages three and five, are at excellent dress-up ages. They own everything from swords made of cardboard to thrifted silk dresses with loads of ribbons and lace (each with a “handmade by Grandma” tag, egads!) to complete costumes bought at at 90% discount from Wal-mart the week after Halloween.

When Willow asked for a clown wig, however, I was stymied.

Post-Halloween, I can’t thing of a single brick-and-mortar store within driving distance that would stock clown wigs. And even pre-Halloween, I sincerely doubt that I would have paid full price for a brand-new acryclic/polyester clown wig, anyway.

It took me AGES to think up how to make a clown wig from materials I already own, some of it trash. However, since then I’ve been called upon to make several more, each with some further distinguishing feature (make this one all pink, Momma! Give this one girl hair!), so much so that I am now an expert at making yarn wigs from trash.

Feel free to piggyback on top of my expertise below: Read the rest of this entry »

While banana fabric might be hard to find, banana yarn is not. In fact we’ve talked about All Eco Banana Silk, a yarn whose fibers are hand crushed to get the material to spin.

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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.

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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.

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Upon window gazing in San Francisco, this immense coral yarn sculpture reminded me of one of the most unique, and unusual TED Talks I’ve ever seen and it’s about coral yarn crochet. In this TED (Technology and Entertainment Design) talk, Margaret Wertheim shares the coral project she started with her twin sister that is all about crocheting the coral reef.

The idea of this yarn filled coral sculpture garden is inspired by endangered sea coral, the ancient art of domestic handicrafts, and the new discoveries in mathematics by Dr. Daina Taimina on the beautiful math of coral. Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s pick for an eco-friendly yarn is Ecolana by Aslan Trends. An animal fiber that is soft, warm and get’s me to thinking about the coming fall.

Ecolana is a 60% Alpaca 40% Merino Wool blend yarn that is produced with environmentally friendly production methods.

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Lorna’s Laces is a small yarn company located in Chicago, IL. They offer a great variety of hand-dyed yarns whose color palettes are carefully and lovingly created. Early in 2008, Lorna’s Laces jumped on the opportunity to expand their line and offer an organic yarn option.

And so the Green Line was born.

The yarn, offered in a DK and Worsted wieght, is spun from 100% organic merino wool and was hand-painted with all natural dyes. The wool is raised and certified as organic on a ranch in Argentina. Then is taken to an organically certified (IMO certification) mill in Europe for combing and carding. Then it goes on to the spinning mill where it’s conventionally processed.

So, it’s not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction and we thought it was important to start taking those steps as soon as we could.

says Lorna’s Laces.

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Here’s a great online store from down under that specializes in organic and eco friendly yarns, fibres and fabrics. Ecoyarns has a solid selection of both animal and plant fibers, perfect for any knitter.

They offer a wide selection of yarns, ranging from organic wool, EcoOrganic Cotton, to a yarn called Black Diamond Fiber.

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Been looking for an organic wool yarn warehouse? A one stop shop for all of your woolly yarn needs? Well, Garthenor Organic Pure Wool has got you covered. With over 80 eco-friendly organic yarns to choose from, this site has it all and more.

The fiber for these yarns are from traditional and rare breeds of Organic British sheep. It is eye opening to learn about all the different breeds of sheep and the different fibers that they produce. Just look at the sweet faces on the Bluefaced Leicesters and the Herdwicks!

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I’m always a bit reluctant to highlight a yarn blend here on Year Worthy Yarn. Not because blends are necessarily bad but because it is often difficult to figure out which fibers are environmentally friendly. Especially when a yarn contains five or more fibers.

But The Fibre Company’s Savannah yarn caught my eye. This blend contains merino, organic cotton, linen and soya and comes in both DK and Bulky.

Savannah is hand dyed and The Fibre Company is committed to using low-impact dyes and environmentally friendly processes and fibers where ever possible. Savannah also comes in a wide array of colors perfect for many projects.

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