Organic Yarn, a real revolution, in progress.

Who among us is not painfully aware of the tremendous impact we have on our world, or earth, our environment. Climate change is discussed in kindergarten, and school buses emit their nasty petrol fumes in a world where increasingly, we know that we need to do something about how we live on this planet, if we want to continue to do so.You can view a decent selection of our organic yarns on the fab at fabulous yarn Organic Yarn Page

As Anne Budd says in her wonderful book, Knitting Green, there is no right or wrong. Or rather, that is not the discussion. The discussion is how we can become more aware of what even the smallest of activities can do to the world we live in.

On the face of it, Knitting may not seem problematic, and once, it wasn’t. But as knitting has evolved into a force to be reckoned with, both with or hands and our pocketbooks, it becomes increasingly obvious that what and how we do and make with our hands matters.

In other times, people knit with yarn they harvested, from their own sheep. We spun our yarn, and dyed it with locally available dyestuffs - berries, grasses, blood. And knitting was done at home, long after the light was gone and the candles were lit. The industrial revolution and our ability to manufacture almost anything has changed that. And it’s changed the yarn we buy, and knit with. Huge commercial plants in far away countries employ thousands to spin and dye many of the commercially available yarns many know and love. The sheep never meet the carders, the carders don’t know the dyers, and so on. And the yarn you knit with may be as far from it’s origins as half a world.

Making Choices, Making Compromises, and knitting with Organic Yarns

There are so many types of organic yarns that to list the types would take us ages. From bamboo to wool, a yarn can be defined as organic if it simply doesn’t use petro-chemical dyes, or it can be uber-organic, and show the hand of someone nearby who made it. Not all of us have access to both kinds, nor the pocketbook to choose only one (yes, true organic, handmade yarns are usually more expensive - the sad but real fact of manual vs. machine labor, mostly). But simply being aware of the different levels of organic yarns can help us understand the contribution we all make to promoting a better way of being in the world.

The Basics, the standards, the deal on organic yarn standards.

Fiber in the US that is sold as organic must be grown according to USDA Organic Standars. Farmland is certified organic, and it must be accredited by a an organic third-party certifier. Organic cotton, in particular, is mostly grown abroad - but when it enters the US, it must meet USDA standards.

Organic wool is particulary tricky. Organic wool comes in a variety of flavors - but the basics are that it must come from livestock and land that has been grown and raised according to USDA organic standards and certified, again, by third party organic certifying agencies. Federal organic standards DO NOT cover processing, but the industry has developed a set of voluntry standards, and yarns labeled organic adhere to these. The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is the gold standard for voluntary standards, and are followed by most fiber producers. You can tell a lot about how really organic a yarn is, sometimes, but how it feels? Organic yarn can be processed - does that make it less organic? That is a decision that you may have to make, and you may have to research the yarn you are interested in. Organically harvested yarn that is then chemically dyed with damaging dyestuffs - is that truly organic? The label may be on it, but it may not represent what you are truly interested when you say organic yarn - you may mean a low-impact, organic, low-process yarn. Does it have specks of hay, is it lanolin-y (the oil from the sheep?). Is the cotton overprocessed, mercerized? What does that mean in terms of how organic it really is? You’ll have to decide what level of organic you are comfortable with, and whether or not you believe the label and the company making the organic yarns.

What does Organic Yarn mean for you?

You’ll need to decide what level of organic, or impact, you need to support, or not support, in the world. Compared to the Gulf Of Mexico Spill by BP, the small amount of energy that it took to make one 1/2 organically harvest skein of yarn. But multiply that by, how many knitters are on ravelry, and it becomes a little more clear how much we can impact our environment if even 1 in 10 of us decide to go TOTALLY organic, 2 out of 5 go for low impact organics, and the others simply stay local. Every single thought about it, and every effort, helps, so make your choices, and feel good about them.v

We adore mohair - why? Because this yarn is soft, luxurious, has a lovely, wonderful halo and just gives a biitt o’glamour to any project. We have a bunch of different mohairs - first and foremost, we have Artyarns Silk Mohair Yarn. Why do we feature Artyarns silk mohair, as opposed to rowan kidsilk haze, for instance? One, because the Artyarns is just a better quality mohair. What this translates into is softness. If you don’t want scratchy or itchy, you have to have a mohair with no additives - no nylon, no polyester at all. Better yet, you get a mohair that is processed as a luxury yarn, with very high quality mohair fibers that are longer than others so there are less ends to scratch you. Then you’ll understand why we feature Artyarns for our regular mohair.

Second on our list is the Be Sweet family of mohairs - we carry two of their mohair yarns - one, we carry Be Sweet regular Mohair boucle yarn, which is a larger loop mohair, but is still incredibly soft. Second, we carry their Extra fine mohair boucle yarn, which is a small loop boucle and is extra delicate - great for making light shawls and wraps. Almost ethereal!

We’ve been adding so many yarns over the past year - from the fabulous blue sky royal alpaca yarn to the incredible ozark handspun yarn, there’s almost too much to keep up with. Knitting Yarn is one of those things you just cannot, cannot get enough of, and especially when the yarn in question is a spectacular and incredible luxury yarn, especially when its’ been lovingly hand dyed, or hand made, there is just no telling what can happen. Even if you don’t have time to knit with it, it still HAS to be around, so you can at least touch it!

What we like about artyarns silk mohair is the incredible luster, smoothness, and lack of scratch. You can check out all the wonderful colors here at fab - they are astounding, and its a pretty good deal - 312 yards for 20 dollars (less after your discounts!) Very comparable to a yarn like kidsilk haze - but this is much softer and more beautiful - check it out at http://www.fabulousyarn.com

Judy