A Thoughtful Thread Yarns with: Kylie Gusset of Ton of Wool

Hello, and thanks for joining us again here at A Thoughtful Thread! Today, we share a really eye-opening interview with Kylie Gusset with you. Kylie started her own yarn business with a crowdfunding grant, and is an absolute font of knowledge about the Australian wool industry - read on to learn about her journey, and to discover some astounding facts!

Photo provided by Kylie Gusset

Tell us a little about you and your fibre journey so far.
My grandma taught me to knit, crochet and cook while she was babysitting me as a kid. I grew up on a farm, with my mother’s family farming merinos for around three generations. I'd go to boarding school during the week, then work as a rouseabout in the shearing shed on the odd weekend. It wasn't until I came back from overseas in 2002 that I got back into knitting, where after travelling London, Paris, and Sydney, the comedown staying at my parents’ property in rural NSW had me at a loose end. I started knitting again, and haven't stopped since. After a short stint working in a yarn store and writing for Yarn Magazine, it became obvious that we don't have much in the way of hand dyed yarn in Australia - so I started dyeing. It then became obvious that Australian yarn that hadn't left the country was also in short supply - so that's why Ton Of Wool started. Around ninety percent of Australia's wool is processed in China, using Australian coal as an energy source, which is sheer madness. 

You started Ton of Wool with crowdfunding through Pozible. What was this experience like, and would you recommend crowdfunding as a good way for other fibre folk to get their projects off the ground?
What was it like? It was nuts. [Pozible founder] Rick Chen learnt from me not to judge, after I called him to let him know I needed to raise over $33,000. He thought I was crazy. Of course he's right, he just didn't understand how a weird niche of wool for knitters could be successful.
 What crowdfunding taught me: You really need to have your skin in the game before you crowdfund. People knew who I was, had bought yarn from me, seen me at shows, online. One of the hardest things is when people contact me after they've launched their project, and want advice as to how to be successful. It's a good 4 - 6 months too late.
I'd absolutely recommend crowdfunding for projects from people who have their social media down pat with a strong plan. My recommendation is for crowdfunders to have a thorough breakdown of the costs involves, a comprehensive list of people in the media to contact, their plan of how to reach a person for every dollar that they need organised, a press release, great photos or a video, and a distribution plan in place if their project involves mailing out goods. It's not a simple case of putting a project on a crowdfunding platform and raking in the dollars. 

Photo provided by Kylie Gusset

How did you first come across the Downie family, which supplies all of your Cormo wool for Ton of Wool?
I found the Downies through participating in Clara Parkes' Woolalong, which was a ravelry group for those who wanted to get really hardcore about Clara's ‘Knitter's Book Of Wool’. Each month, members of the group were assigned one of the wools from the book, and our mission was to go out into the world, find the wool breed, knit something out of it, and report back on the results. I was determined to find everything in Australia, even if it was just from a local knitter's stash. 
Cormo was an early breed in the Woolalong. I got in touch with Peter Downie for my first order of one kilo of fleece. Meeting the family, in particular Peter's father, Ian Downie, who founded the Cormo Breed of sheep - that's what had me sold on the concept of seeing if there was a way of making local Cormo wool happen. My next order with Peter was for one ton.

What does sustainability mean to you, and what do you think are the key sustainability issues to consider with fibre-based practices? 

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Particularly in textiles, and if you're just starting out with a hobby - don't buy. Use what you have, buy secondhand wherever possible, and if you have to buy new, really question your purchases. One of the reasons why Ton Of Wool is in those big three hundred gram hanks is that I wanted people to stop and consider whether they needed to purchase.

I think the term sustainability has been bandied about a lot, and it's a misnomer. For example, Ton Of Wool as a finished product is in no way sustainable - it's simply the best I can do with a series of supply chain tradeoffs, which is a massive improvement in comparison to what else is on offer. I never wanted to go overseas for processing, and I'm already in that position.

Exporting wool to be processed isn't sustainable. Energy use throughout the supply chain isn't sustainable.

If you're interested in textiles, my take is that where, how, and under what conditions your wool is processed is the issue - you need to start viewing standard Chinese-processed Australian merino in the same way as sugar. You're using way too much, there are alternatives that are far better for you and the environment, and it's time to become aware of the impact and cut right back or take it out of your fibre consumption completely.

As a consumer, working out the supply chain simply by looking at a label or viewing a company website often isn't enough. All three mills in Australia (Australian Country Spinners, Bendigo Woollen Mills & Nundle Woollen Mills) use Chinese-processed wool, with Australian country Spinners also spinning in China. It's frustrating how a wool that is labelled 'made in Australia' has been scoured, processed and spun in China, with zero indication on the label. 

Are there steps Australia could take? Absolutely. Australia needs some major visionaries who are up for a challenge. We funded a climate council. We can fund and support wool that doesn't leave our shores too, but there needs to be changes such as labelling laws so consumers can make choices in line with their ethics.

What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered in your sustainability journey, and how have you overcome them?

The biggest priority was keeping Ton Of Wool locally processed. There was a major breakdown in the supply chain, and after months of trying, I just had to face the facts that overseas processing in New Zealand was the only way to continue. The thing I'm excited about is that by working with the Downies, Ton Of Wool can buy carbon credits and offset carbon usage directly with them - that's a world first 360 degree offset for handknitting yarn directly with a farmer.

Photo provided by Kylie Gusset

Are there any sustainability resources you'd like to share?

One that I'm loving and looking forward to learning more about is Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything. What's the point of your three minute shower when your chain store sweater needed thousands of litres of now undrinkable water to be made?
 Incredibly inspiring, beautiful books, great workshops and a wonderful source of recent, relevant local information about sustainability, textiles and dyeing: India Flint.

What’s next for Kylie Gusset and Ton of Wool? 


In terms of sustainability, it’s very much on a more personal level - of financial, mental and physical health. I'm looking forward to working on those more, and of taking Ton Of Wool to the next level - more choices, more output.

We hope you learned a lot from this interview with Kylie - we sure did! If you're interested in learning more about the Australian wool industry, check out these links:

• Information about Australian Wool Innovation (our peak body for research, marketing and promotion) 
• Local, small scale, single farm yarns: Tarndie, White Gum Wool and Ton of Wool.
• Inspirational small mill in the US - Ashley Yousling (Woolful)
• Article on the closure of the CSIRO scour.