Happy Earth Day!
Wool Interrupted is committed to eco-friendly practices in our dyeing of yarns and fibres, and Wool is an amazing, biodegradable resource that not only holds up the test of time (slow fashion anyone?) but once it does finally wear out, you can actually return our yarns to the ground by composting them in your garden!
Eco Friendly Dyes
Wool Interrupted only uses Greener Shades dyes for a few reasons.
- They’re super vibrant colours that are easy to create.
- We love to work with the dyes as using a formula with them, they create consistent colours that are vibrant as long as your water remains the same
- We are comfortable with the dyes
- Both Emma and Annie (our two yarn dyers) have kids, dogs, a cat, a bunny and husbands. We are confident having our entire family around while we’re working with these dyes as we know they aren’t harmful.
- They’re set with plain white vinegar
- We dye with Acid Dyes – meaning they are set with an acid to create long lasting, fade resistant colours. We set ours with plain white vinegar – making our dye water no more harmful that fish and chips. Emma uses her dye water to kill the weeds in her walkways and sidewalks around her house!
- Our dyes exhaust fully
- This means that all the dye we add to the pot is absorbed into the yarn, meaning that we pour no dye down the drain! Clear vinegar water is all that is disposed of at the end of our process.
- Our yarns don’t “Crock”
- Crocking is when a yarn bleeds once it’s been dyed. We hand wash every skein of yarn to ensure that the dyes are there to stay in the yarn – meaning that the acid dye won’t come off on your hands, clothes or kids!
Wool as a Biodegradable Resource.
Wool is a natural resource – meaning it naturally renews itself. As long as sheep have sunlight, water and grass, we have wool! Unlike synthetic fibres, which are often oil by-products, sheep are living around the world and in order to get good quality yarns from sheep, they have to be treated nicely and eat properly. Sheep under stress produce poor fleeces. We only source high quality, beautiful yarns and fibres, which have to come from happy, healthy sheep!
When wool is worn and washed, it produces no microfibres or microplastics, as anything your garment will “shed” will biodegrade quickly in marine environments. This means that when you wash your yarn and fibre, although there will be some shed, it doesn’t do damage to our aquatic wildlife.
Due to the long wearing and hearty nature of most wool products wool garments often last longer than synthetic clothing as they take less daily wear and tear. (except lace and single ply – treat those with the care and respect they demand or pay the consequences!).
Once a wool garment is finally disposed of, it slowly decomposes into its natural properties again, and ground up wool can be used as a fertilizer.
To learn more about the biodegradable properties of wool – check out this document from Learnaboutwool.com – https://www.learnaboutwool.com/globalassets/law/resources/factsheets/secondary/wool-facts–biodegradable.pdf
Also check out this fact sheet from WoolMark for even more info