Written by Kelly Rand
Published on February 26th, 2009
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Kelly Rand
Published on February 19th, 2009
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:
chile,
chiloé,
color,
crochet,
dye,
knitting,
natural,
sheep,
spin,
travel,
wool,
Yarn
Written by Kelly Rand
Published on February 11th, 2009
Still on a plant fiber kick, this week I’ve come back to cotton. It isn’t recycled this time but an honest to goodness 100% organic cotton. This lovely yarn from Estelle Yarns is certified organic and comes in wide range of sturdy colors.
Cloud Cotton is available in dyed and undyed. The dyed cotton ranges from bright spring greens to soothing blues. The undyed cotton is natural looking browns and neutrals.
Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Kelly Rand
Published on February 5th, 2009
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Kelly Rand
Published on January 29th, 2009
Man, there is a lot of recycled cotton yarn out there! We’ve looked over 2nd Time Cotton and perused what Redheart had to offer. Well now, Lion Brand has gotten in on the recycled cotton act to muted fanfare.
No trumpets or bugles, just a lonely blogger trying to give her readers more earth friendly yarn options.
This recycled cotton is made from t-shirt clippings and sorted by like color. It is then blended with acrylic and “other fiber,” so the actual amount of recycled content is just shy of 75%.
Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Kelly Rand
Published on January 22nd, 2009
Even though I live an a large metropolitan area, getting yarn can be tricky. You would think that more people found in an urban environment would equal more LYS, but no that is not the case. So every so often I find myself begging friends with cars, or jumping in a Zipcar myself, to whisk away to the ‘burbs in search of yarn at the big box stores.
I recently needed to make such a journey and found myself staring down the yarn isle at A.C. Moore. In amongst all the horrid, scratchy, acrylic yarns, I found a new addition to what big box stores have to offer in ways of eco-friendly yarn.
Redheart yarn has joined the ranks and now have an Eco-Cotton yarn. This yarn is about 75% recycled cotton and 25% acrylic. It isn’t the most environmentally friendly yarn, but it is encouraging to see reuse in a big brand name like Redhart.
Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Kelly Rand
Published on January 15th, 2009
I’ve been hanging onto a lot of cassette tapes from way back when. I can’t seem to get rid of them. But perhaps I could turn them into something new and different. I know we’ve been over what to do with the physical, plastic case, and there is a fiber made from the tape itself (it makes sound!). But what about knitting?
Yup, knitting.
You can take the inside of the cassette tape and easily knit with it. I mean, it usually got caught in the cassette player anyways. Remember how it got eaten and tangled? Ugh. Well, just be careful when you unwind the tape and treat it like any yarn that could get tangled.
What can you make with your tape? Well, just about anything that you can dream up. How about an ipod cover (oh the irony.) Or what about an evening bag, doll clothes, granny square? The possibilities are endless.
Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Kelly Rand
Published on January 8th, 2009
No matter the project you’re working on there are always scraps. Scraps of paper, scraps of fabric, scraps of yarn; you name the craft and you got yourself scraps. Where do most of your scraps end up?
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Kelly Rand
Published on January 2nd, 2009
I realize that we are now two whole days into the new year, but forgive me while I take a moment and look back on 2008 in yarn. Just like all the fabulous fabric that we’ve found over the past year, our yearning for eco-friendly yarns has taken us far and wide with much much more to come. So, check this space for more earth conscious yarns in ‘09.
We’ve found some true gems in fiber form in 2008. We learned about frogging, that big box stores do carry organic yarns, and that you can make yarn out of old grocery bags.
We also took a hard look at stash busting, consumerism and found the first yarn co-op. But the biggest thing we’ve found in 2008 is the seemingly endless supply of eco-yarns perfect for anyone’s taste, budget and earth conscious level.
Read the rest of this entry »
Written by Kelly Rand
Published on December 18th, 2008
I came across Ethical Twist quite randomly while flipping through a knitting magazine. After that, the rest was history. I became charmed by their yarn and easy way of explaining their eco-practices; right down to the farmers that raise the sheep and right back up to their packaging.
They offer a 70/30 blend of organic wool and alpaca that comes in a natural range of colors. No dye is used and the fleece is what dictates the color outcome. While there is no color modification, that doesn’t mean the colors suffer. Natural, Oatmeal, Camel, Slate and Mink are quite lovely and rich.
They also offer a line perfect for knitting up baby wear. It is 85% organic wool and 15% baby alpaca. It only comes in cream, but the baby alpaca helps make it all the more hugable.
Read the rest of this entry »
