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| Photo by Rebecca Hall |
Hello and welcome back to A
Thoughtful Thread; we hope you enjoyed last week's post on mindful material selection!
Today we follow up on our
promise to share some of the sustainably and ethically-minded fibre businesses
we've discovered so far on our personal weaving journeys. We've listed
a few businesses below that we feel hit the mark with our own values, which are split these into Australian and International sections. Brief
overviews of the store's products and attributes are provided, plus links to their sites for
you to follow up further if you wish. This list is not exhaustive, and we would love to add to it, so please let us know about any sites you know of! After the list, we also suggest some additional
strategies you might like to use to find and research fibre businesses that
meet your needs and values.
Australian/NZ-based suppliers
- Belinda Evans' shop where she sells her plant-dyed yarns and fibres and handmade eco weaving kits (read our interview with Belinda here!)
- NZ company with many Australian stockists
- Stocking alpaca, corriedale, merino and silk fibres
- Manufacture spinning wheels and looms
- Ashford has their own mill, and they only accept wool from ethically-produced, grass-fed sheep, free from mulesing
- Dyes used comply with the strict EU regulations and garments made from the slivers can be certified under the Oeko-Tex Standard 100.
- Organic merino yarns (4 ply and 8 ply) and 21 micron natural organic merino wool tops/roving
- Yarns and fibre are processed in compliance with organic standards and dyed with ecologically low-impact metal-free dyes
- Animals are mulesed as ethically as possible with pain relief before and after, and modified for each animal to make the area affected as small as possible. They are also carrying out selective breeding on their flock and hope to eliminate the need for mulesing within the next three years
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Great Corriedale tops and yarn (unmulesed animals)
- Importers of TRAP-ART fabric yarn and cotton rope (high quality fabric yarns made with recycled textiles)
- Online store of organic and eco friendly yarns and fibres
- Stock includes Naturetex, EcoOrganic, Ashford, Habu
- Fleece and handspun yarns
- Fleece produced from rescue animals
- Felters with an alpaca farm
- Wide range of fibres and yarns for spinners, felters, weavers and knitters, including plant fibres, various sheep breed fibres, non-sheep animal fibres, and sustainable yarns
- Also offer a carding service
- Handspun, hand-dyed yarn and fibre
- Supply specialty fibres including angora, cashmere, mohair, alpaca, camel, yak and rare sheep breeds
- Email: Ixchel@rabbit.com.au to purchase
- Team of Natalie Miller, weaver and macrame artist extraordinare, and Harriet Goodall, basket weaving magician
- Suppliers of all sorts of weaving goodies, including Ashford wools, yarns and tools, basket weaving supplies, and their own hand-dyed woollen yarns
- Specialists in Australian-grown natural fibres in their natural colours
- Supply cashmere, alpaca, mohair and wool fibre and yarn
- Variety of natural fibres
- Brands stocked include Nutscene and Habu
- Products include coconut fibre, reclaimed wild fibres, raffia, linen blends, upcycled yarns, jutes and hemp
- If you haven't already, make sure you check out our fabulous April interview with Cass and Megs of String Harvest here!
- Polwarth sheep fibre and yarn (unmulesed animals)
- Original family/property that developed the Polwarth (the first Australian sheep breed, which was specially bred for Australian conditions)
- Cormo yarn and tops - Cormo is a rare sheep breed founded in 1959 by the Downie Family in Bothwell, Tasmania. Cormo is the result of cross-breeding Corriedale and Merino sheep, resulting in a incredibly soft, yet strong luxurious yarn. Unmulesed animals
- Super fine merino fibre and yarn
- Revolutionary sheep-rearing practices
- Non-mulesed animals with superfine wool (17 microns!)
- Naturally coloured Corriedale fleece, yarn, tops, batts and skins
- Specialty yarns, including organic wool and cotton yarns
- Brands include BC Garn, Noro, Koigu, Tilli Tomas, and The House of Alpaca.
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| Photo by Holly Marlin |
International suppliers
- Sari silk, silk ribbon, help and nettle yarn and more
- Handmade yarns supporting women in Nepal and India.
- Organic fibre production with sustainable processing for over 125 different eco-textile products, including both carded and combed yarns, fabrics and apparel
- No dyes, chemicals or other synthetic processes are used to grow, soften, or colour the fibres
- Organic and fair trade
- All products made in Peru in socially responsible and inspected facilities
- Creators of the amazing Pakucho!
- Organic and sustainable yarns
- Merino wool sourced from certified organic farms in South America or Australia (non-mulesed)
- Cotton sourced from certified organic farms in the USA
- Alpaca sourced from a local family farm.
- Handspun and hand-dyed artisan yarns
- All yarns sold are limited edition, made in small batches, and often one of a line of yarns spun in USA family-owned mills.
- Hand-dyed and handspun vegan yarns
- Many (but not all) organic products and plant-based dyes
- Some fair trade products
- Also sell knitting supplies
- Organic cotton and wool fibres, yarns, fabrics and socks made from naturally-coloured fibre.
- Yarn, knitting supplies, kits, and premade garments
- Sell Peruvian wool and yarns made from fashion waste
- Supports Peruvian communities
- HUGE range of fibre from different breeds of sheep and other animals, both dyed and undyed. Also sell yarn and supplies
- Can do custom blending
Other strategies!
In addition to the above
list of businesses we've discovered so far, we can also recommend these other
methods for finding and supporting sustainable yarn suppliers:
· Textile Exchange
- Find a Producer is a site where you can search for producers by
location and type of product (e.g. organic, fair trade, coloured cotton etc.)
· Research your
local area - is there a weaving / spinners guild in your hometown, are there
local fibre suppliers, or events which showcase fibres from your region? For
example, in Claire's hometown of Adelaide there is the South Australian Handspinners and
Weavers Guild, which organises a monthly calendar of fleece
sales in addition to selling handspun fibres and wools at
the Guild Gallery, which present a great opportunity to liaise with
and support local suppliers and artisans.
· Check
out creative crowdfunding initiatives such as Kickstarter and Pozzible to support the establishment of small
scale ethical enterprises - Kylie Gusset's Ton of Wool
was the outcome of a highly
successful Pozzible campaign; and both of us here at A
Thoughtful Thread were backers of the recently successful campaign by
Brittney Elbertson to establish Spun Fibre
Company: Ethical, Sustainable and Local Yarn.
· Instagram
is a wonderful place to meet fellow fibre folk and support small-scale
enterprises - for example, you can purchase naturally-dyed or handspun yarns,
and see the creative processes of many talented artists and makers.
· Etsy is
another good place to search for sustainable materials, with many shops selling
upcycled yarns from sources such as vintage sweaters, recycled jersey
t-shirts and saris.
· There
are also a bunch of Facebook groups that can help you connect to local
suppliers (for example, Australian Fibre
Fanatics). Facebook will also suggest further groups that may be of
interest to you.
We hope the information
featured in this post provides some useful links and ideas for you to follow up
and research further. We're sure there are plenty of other small enterprises
doing fabulous things - please hit us up below if there's any you love that are
not on the list!
Happy sustainable
fibre-finding!
Holly and Claire
This post is gold! Thanks so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI've come across a few of these through various social media or endless hours of googling, but you've given me many, many new options to explore.
That's great to hear, Stitch and Yarn! If you have any suggestions for additions, please do let us know.
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