Going Green and going Banana's

While in NY, I bought the "green" issue of Knit1 - and read up about eco-friendly yarns. Most natural yarns with the exception of cotton are "green", and the closer to home the yarn is made the better. It also touched on recycled yarns (sari yarn) , and frogging old sweaters to use the yarn for something better .

There are a few organic cotton yarns on the market just now - Angel yarns sells one, and the Annie Sherburne site sells several - and there are probably plenty American sites that sell it too. Ordinary cotton is a bit of a no no - the pesticides and chemicals required to grow it, as well as dye the finish product are a bit of an environmental disaster area. Also, many growers are not offered fair trade prices, and end up living a hand to mouth existence. One article I read in the newspaper quoted a cotton farmer explaining how his cousin, another farmer, died after spraying his fields with the chemical pesticides - very distressing .

So going forward, I will be trying to use eco/grower friendly yarns - I still have some local Wensleydale yarn in my stash produced in the Isle of Arran (the scottish island, where Jack McConnell is from!). And its Organic, or the sheep are anyway.

I will try and list some good sites (note to self - get blog site updated for this!) at the end of this post, for anyone who may be interested. I am sure some other bloggers will have some other great sites too.

The K1 yarns newsletter had some excellent news - they will be stocking banana yarn - Yes, thats yarn made from banana fibres! (which is another "green" type yarn). I think a little visit to K1yarns will be made soon .

On the knitting front here - still progressing with the Parisienne shawl, and have started the cotton 4-ply (must be mad) - have a look below .

Yes, thats all 8 rows of the 4-ply cotton - the shawl is still more of a kerchief just now too - maybe have a few nights without TV/Mac access to knuckle down!

The colours in the Parisienne are gorgeous tho' - I do like this colour .

Well off to do some more knitting - sites to visit are listed below - also if interested have organic/fairtrade fabric sites too.

Annie Sherburne (does recycled material yarn!)

Angel Yarns - organic cotton

Email Penny Hamilton for some Arran Wensleydale - good for sturdy sweaters/blankets etc. 50g ball casts about £4, good value. knockankelly@fwi.co.uk

K1yarns in Queen Margaret Drive Glasgow, stocks Sari yarn, SWT Bamboo and now Banana Yarn .

Stitching Time in Hamilton also stocks a good selection of Jamiesons Shetland Yarn and addi turbos (I'm digressing!)

Organic Cotton Fabric here

And some Hemp material here

Happy Knitting!