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.