As a newbie crocheter, I have been a little bit clueless about the string I pick out to use for my projects.

As a vegan, I do not use animal fibers... no wools from sheeps or alpacas or llamas or bunnies or whoever.

And as an environmentalist, I know that 25% of pesticides are sprayed on cotton fields. I also know that "acrylic" yarn is plastic, and plastic is evil.

My first few yarn purchases have included the pesticide cotton and a roll of acrylic. But I'm learning! And as I go exploring, I will discover more string that will satisfy my ethical cravings.

The place where I get my groceries, sells an Eco-Cotton blend. But only in two colours that I really like. It's pre-consumer recycling, which is not as good as post-consumer. And also, the "blend" part is evil acrylic. (Which also means I won't be able to give the worms my string scraps. I don't want to poison my wonderful worms with plastic!)

But online I have happened across organic cotton yarns and bamboo/cotton blends and cotton yarns that have been coloured naturally. Yep, even some Hemp Yarn! ;)

So, now I know a little bit more of what I'm looking for, when I visit the local yarn sections. This is good.

Anyway. The thing that got me thinking about all this was an item in one of the yarn newsletters that I've recently subscribed to. It included "4 free dog sweater patterns", which I thought was brilliant.

I downloaded the two crochet patterns that I was interested in. And then I looked at the yarn that they recommend for the projects.

a wool blend.

Wool? Are you kidding me? It's okay to cloth your tiny, freezing dog with the "fur" of an animal who has been tortured and murdered?

*shakes head* nope. Ban the wool, people! Go Vegan!

Static8 > Journal > Archive > 22 mar 2009 Entry