"Tailwind" with confetti explosion

 This is the second "Tailwind" shawl I knit because I was looking for a simple projece to use with my handdyed "confetti explosion" yarn from my previous post. I only had one skein of the speckled yarn so I combined it with some sock yarn from my stash.

It was a great little project and I loved how the yarn looks like when knit. I'm usually not a big fan of knitting garter stitch because it takes so long but after testing a few different options, I thought this one brought out the colours best. Actually I might knit more shawls because you can definitely see the progress quicker than when knitting cardigans!

I probably won't be able to wear it until the autumn but it was a great summer knit anyways.

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 Pattern: "Tailwind" shawl by Clara Falk
Yarn: My handdyed "confetti explosion" and stashed sock yarn of unkown origin (I think Regia)

Buying "ethical" yarn

When I started knitting and I lived in a small town in Germany, a long time ago before the internet even existed, the choice of yarn was much more limited. Basically there was only one knitting shop in my home town and they only stocked very few brands, mostly Lana Grossa yarns if I remember correctly. So I never really thought about having the choice. And I most certainly did not think about where the yarn was coming from, how it was processed, who made it, or how the sheep were treated to obtain the wool.

Fortunately things have changed and nowadays you can buy almost everything on the internet. This has helped to make smaller companies and "indie yarns" thrive and we have now a plethora of choice, from basic natural wool yarns to luxury cashemere anything is available. But I notice that it is still very, very difficult to find answer to the questions mentioned above.

Most companies, at least the ones that I did research on, don't disclose this information on their websites and even when I was specifically looking for it, this remained a mystery. So a few months ago I started researching the topic of sustainable, ecological, and animal-friendly (or "ethical") wool to find out where I could purchase yarn that would respect all of those criteria but still deliver a certain quality.

The short answer is: I couldn't find any.

The longer answer is: I found some that were partly satisfactory, but did not respect all the criteria that I had set. Also, they did not give me the same quality or choice in the variety of yarns that you can get from mainstream producers.

Where is our yarn actually from?

Anyways, I did find, however, several online articles and websites that spurred me on to deepen my research because only when I saw the information I realized that "ethical" wool is still a rare beast in the knitting world. I think this is quite surprising seeing as though many people also knit because it is more sustainable and the principle of hand-made is also in line with slow consumption etc.

So why don't we ask us more often where our yarn actually came from? Because one thing is for sure: the idyllic image of sheep grazing happily in meadows and being shorn once a year by a friendly, animal-loving farmer is unfortunately quite responding to reality. In fact, in a 2014 article of the Guardian, for example, it is stated that "99.9 % of UK sheep farmers' wool will always be a by-product of the meat industry."

I was quite shocked when I read this. And even though I don't object in general to slaughtering animals for food, it just seemed wrong to me that the yarn I was using was obtained in such an undignified way, probably causing the animal suffering. I'm not sure if the UK figures are representative for global wool production but even if the percentage is lower, that doesn't change much for me.

Does "ethical" wool exist?

You saw that I put the word "ethical" in quotation marks and that is because you might say: No yarn can every be really ethical. Even if you don't kill the sheep, they still suffer if they are being kept as wool-producing machines and subject to procedures such as "mulesing" and other inhumane treatments. I get that point but I still think it is fine to use the animal's fibres (actually, this is true for all fibre-producing animals and not just sheep) if they are obtained in the least stressful and harmful way for the animal. E.g. if you keep your own  little flock, treat it well, and have the sheep shorn as required and then process the yarn locally, I think this is perfectly fine.

Ok, so let's say you found those happy sheep and their wool has been harvested in an animal-friendly way, what about the processing of the yarn? How do I know that it has not been treated with chemicals that damage the environment, or spun by slave- or child labour or simply workers that have insufficient social protection and bad working conditions? And finally, how can I make sure that the yarn hasn't been shipped three times around the world, blowing horrendous amounts of CO2 emissions into our atmosphere?

Alpaca yarns, for example, are often produced in Perú, which totally makes sense because that's where alpacas came from. But this involves of course a lot of  transport so the CO2 balance of those yarns are probably not great. And you don't even have to think of exotic yarns; most of the sheep wool produced in the world comes from Australia so you can imagine, that is an even longer way to get to retail markets in Europe and the US!

Call me picky but if you want to make conscious choices I believe you have to look at all stages of the production chain:

• animal welfare
• production processes
• shipping and distribution

The answer (for now): buying local

So far the only answer that I have found to ensure that the questions I asked above are answered in a satisfactory manner is to buy locally. There is a global organic textile standard (GOTS) but this is for all textiles and not specifically for wool. Also, I have never seen a yarn producer using this label and I only found out about the standard when I was researching this blog entry so I assume it is not that widely spread (yet).

For the "average Joe Knitter" to know whether the yarn you buy in the shop has been produced according to those criteria, a label would be the easiest way, even though that brings other complications with it (I'm referring to the discussion about the "fair trade" labelling). Still, I would say this is the best solution because I'm sure that many people would be happy to find out and also spend a couple of euros more on a yarn which corresponds to certain ethical standards. Until there is such an industry-wide label, I recommend buying as local as possible to be able to follow the production chain from up-close.

It's about having a choice

However, this is not an entirely satisfying solution for me personally either. While it solves many of the issues surrounding fair and ethical production and animal treatment, it does not really allow knitters the full choice of different qualities and varieties of yarns. Often if you check your local wool cooperatives' offer, it is limited to yarn of the scratchy, natural-coloured variety, often containing still twigs and dirt from the meadow.

For me this is not a problem per se, I also like knitting with this yarn, but what if you are allergic or you just don't like the scratchiness? For me it's mainly the lack of variety of different qualities, such as different fibre blends or just a more processed version of the same yarn which makes it softer and cleaner. This makes it clear to me that the wool industry still has a long way to go to bridge the gap.

Conclusion: look at your own stash and you might be surprised

In conclusion, I challenge everyone to look closer at the closest skein of yarn they purchased to see if they can find out where it came from and under what conditions it was produced. Even from small "indie" yarn producers I'm sure you'll be in for many surprises. And then, of course, ask the producer! If people start to care more and demand increases, supply will follow. I like to think that the sheep will thank us for it.

I'm on Instagram!

I now also have an account on Instagram where I post pictures about my knitting and travelling adventures. So come and follow me so I don't look so sad - currently I have exactly nine followers.

You might wonder: what took her so long? But since I'm not a Millennial I had to get used to the idea first. Also, I was convinced in the beginning that this would be one of those short-lived fads that would disappear soon so there's not point in investing time into it. Turns out that it's still going strong five years later and it has definitely outperformed Pinterest in many ways.

Of course I will still keep the blog running and I'll also keep my Pinterest account in case you are following that one. But I will post pictures more regularly and update on progress on my knitting, which I cannot do consistently in my blog. Since Instagram is based on a mobile app and the quality of my mobile camera is appalling to say the least I'm afraid the quality of the images will not be as good as on the blog. But I might invest in something more usable soon so please bear with me.

Ok, I'm not lying, there is not much "use" in having Instagram. It's just another platform to waste more time on the internet but it's so much fun!

Dyeing speckled yarn

Another yarn dyeing experiment and a very successful one indeed! As there has been somewhat of a recent hype (if you can call it like that in the micro universe of indie knitters, spinners, and dyers) about speckled, gradient, and marled yarn I have to admit I have also been affected. Pretty pictures on ravelry and instragram do not help, either, and so I suddenly felt the urge to try and dye some speckled yarn myself. For those who are not part of above-mentioned universe: "speckled" refers to small splashes and bits of colour in an otherwise naturally white or uniformely coloured yarn. Some nice examples that I like can be found here or here. 

As one nowadays does, the first step to starting my project was googling a good tutorial. I found this one by "Fiber Artsy" and it seemed pretty straight forward, so I followed it. I only adjusted a few steps, such as mordanting with alum and using textile dye instead of KoolAid (sadly not available in Belgium). To show what I did exactly I summarized it step-by-step below:

Preparation

I used a 100 % wool yarn which I think was treated to be "superwash" but really nothing special. It was already wound in skein so I had to unwind it to be able to dye it (see picture above). I used my swift but honestly, I think it would have been faster by hand. Except that I was missing a second pair of hands. Anyway, the swift did the job.

Mordanting

As in my previous dyeing experiments (with rhubarb root and with avocado)I used alum as a dye agent, which is potassium aluminium sulfate. You can buy it easily in a good arts supply shop or in a classic "droguerie" such as "Le Lion" in Rue de Laeken in Brussels. It's not dangerous to use but it is a chemical substance so it's better to take precautions and definitely do not use it in a normal cooking pot! Any old pot will do, provided it is big enough and preferably made of steel so that it doesn't leak anything into the dye bath. In the picture above you see I'm using en emaille pot which is actually not the best but the biggest I have. It's important that the yarn is floating freely, otherwise it felts very easily and your yarn is ruined.

 I used a solution based on 10 % alum based on the dry weight of the yarn, in this case it was 10 g of alum to ca. 2 l of water. However, I think less would also work so next time I'll reduce the amount. In my workshop on dyeing with natural ingredients, we used citric acid as a mordant which can be bought in the supermarket. Vinegar solutions can also work but usually bring out less vibrant colours than chemical mordants like alum (saying that, technically all mordants are "chemicals", even if they occur naturally because they all start a chemical reaction. But I leave it up to the experts to make a proper distinction between the natural vs. chemical discussion).

Preparing the yarn for the dye

I used our kitchen for the dyeing procedure but I made sure everything was wrapped safely with cling film to avoid splashing the dye everywhere (not healthy). I also wore plastic gloves, which is the reasons why most of the pictures look very dodgy! In order to get the yarn ready, I removed it from the mordant bath after ca. 15 minutes, let the yarn cool down and removed access liquid by letting it drip off over the sink and gently pressing the yarn. Again, don't be too rough and don't hold it under cold water because that will cause it to felt.

Let the fun begin!

After spreading out the still humid yarn on the tray, finally I could start the fun. I used the textile dye pictured above which is pretty standard dye that you can use also for bigger dyeing projects, including in the washing machine. It's the first time I used this kind of powder dye so I had no idea what to expect. I basically did it the same way as the KoolAid was used in the tutorial: I sprinkled some of the dry powder onto the yarn but the effect was not visible at once. Then I became a bit more adventurous and dissolved small quantities of the powder in water and started splashing the dye over the yarn with a paint brush. In the end I even just "painted" the yarn with the brush directly to cover bigger surface areas. I used red, yellow, green, and blue dye.

I turned the yarn around several times to makes sure most areas were covered. For that, the skein has to be bound together very loosely, otherwise you have white stripes where it is gathered too tightly. Mine was maybe a little too loose, which resulted in my skein almost disintegrating in the end. So something in between those two situations would be ideal. 

Fixating the colours

Sorry, no pictures of this stage. Again I followed the tutorial on the website and it worked like a charm. I wrapped the skein into cling film and put it into an oven dish. I put it in the microwave, first 1 minute at a time to test, three times, and then 5 minutes. So 8 minutes in total. The dish did get hot and so did the yarn inside the film so I think it's better to check regularly because I don't know how easily the yarn can catch fire. When I thought it was done, I removed the yarn from the cling film and let it cool down. I then rinsed it in the sink to see if there was any excess dye coming out but it was almost nothing. 

The result

The result was way better than I had expected. Beautiful colours, gradients of all kinds, and more or less evenly distributed! I was surprised that the dye which were only the primary colours, merged so nicely and created this whole spectrum of different shades, as you can see above. 

Of course, some sections are better than others and in some places there is a bit too much dye. I didn't distribute the colours very evenly, which results in some very intense colour-blotches. Next time I would probably use less dye in general and fewer colours, leaving the natural white as the dominant colour. I like the yarns that only have a few highlights, but I'm always so tempted when I start the process. Less is definitely more in this kind of dyeing process, though.

Spring in Brussels

Crazy spring - first it's freezing and you feel like winter never ends, the next minute it's 30 degrees and you've been catapulted straight into the middle of summer! Of course, the latter never lasts long but was quite a shock to the system I have to say.

After travelling so much in the last couple of months I was happy to also have few quiet days to relax at home and especially to take care of our plants on the balcony. Every time when I returned from a trip, there were some new green sprouts somewhere to be seen. Some were planted by me, some (not to say most) where brought in by Thomas who loves to go plant-shopping.

Now we live in a mini-jungle and I love all the greenness of it! We try to have a good mix of different plants and many wildflowers to feed the bees, who really seem to appreciate the effort. Lately we also have added some lettuce, strawberries, and onions to have something edible in the mix, too. I actually prefer flowers but why not give it a try.

In terms of projects I have not advanced much, I have to admit. My turquoise Minetta pictured above is still a WIP (can't decide whether I should rip it or not) and my second project, the grey alpaca cardigan, has simply been too warm to hold in my sweaty hands over the past days! The back piece is finished though, and I'm halfway through the right front. I did do some spinning though. It may have been a bit of cheating because I used some pre-assembled roving (I don't know the correct term but it's more like unspun yarn similar to Plötulopi) so I hardly had to do anything except pushing the pedal. Well, it WAS relaxing for sure.

More pictures of the balcony jungle coming soon!