Well that was embarrassing!
I woke up this morning and checked up on the blog. (Don’t judge me, everyone with a blog/podcast/publication of any sort does this, just ask Neil Gaiman.) Turns out at some point when I was uploading yesterday’s post I managed to tell Blogger to take EVERYTHING down from last month, save for my introduction...Doh!
I’ve managed to fix it, and luckily without having to rewrite anything or muck up the blog stats. ( I confess stats aren’t as fun as writing the blog, but I do love seeing where people visiting are from - hey Peru!) If you were here for yesterday’s post go check out the archives, they are entertaining and right now there are only about 10 posts to catch up on!
In other news, yesterday evening was a pretty nice time. Youngling managed to demonstrate much responsible-ness by phoning me at two different times, before I got to the point of panicking, that she was needing extra time to finish a school project with her group. The second time she even let me know that she had arranged herself a ride home so that she wasn’t walking back in the dark on a route she’d never taken before. (She’s a tween, this is still new territory for all of us, she can be rather forgetful still, and we live in the largest city in Australia. This is a big win and I’m so proud of her!)
I also managed to finish the side panel of the Rockefeller shawl! You remember this thing from a couple of weeks ago? Well I had to put it down for a few days because the ennui was really getting to me and, call me crazy, but string and sticks shouldn’t be able to cause such crankiness in the user. I left it out so it could see all the other wonderful things I was spending my knitting time on, in hopes that it would get the picture and start cooperating for me. Seems to have helped because last night I picked the thing up and banged out the last few inches and finished off the point. Boo-friggin’-yeah! (Don’t you dare say anything about how it’s still needs the second side knit. Today is about celebrating wins, not pointing out the obvious.)
Speaking of celebrating wins, how’s everyone going for #PlasticFreeJuly with their fibre? Yesterday I talked about the nasties of 100% synthetic fibre for yarn-y things and why it’s a real problem (TldR: BAD BAD BAD, it ends up in the water, then in our bodies) and included some links to natural fibres at a variety of prices so we don’t have to think that Plastic Free has to be a privileged thing when it comes to yarn. Certainly, some yarns can be considered luxury, and their price reflects this, but a little googling and asking around will get you something in your price range, I’m confident about this.
Let’s first reflect briefly on our goals when trying to kick the plastic habit.
- Any change we make has to be intuitive and easy, else we (because human nature) won’t maintain it.
- Biodegradable is KEY, we want to close that loop!
- Plastic Free doesn’t mean breaking the bank. It also doesn’t mean it must be from animals. There are plenty of choices for Fibre Fiends who choose to avoid animal-based fibres in their crafting.
Now on to today’s topic - Superwash yarn. Grab your coffee or tea of choice (package free/loose purchased gets you extra good karma points!) and settle in. Fibre Fiends who prefer to work with non-animal derived fibres feel free to cut out early for today, I PROMISE we will tackle socks tomorrow. (I know I said this yesterday, but I really do mean it this time. I had to split the post into two after I got to writing.)
After yesterday we all know my stance on 100% synthetic fibres. I came for your viscose and your tencel and yes, now I’m coming for your superwash. WHEN WILL THE MADNESS END? I hear you, it’s a sad sad truth. I was pretty darn angry myself when I learned about how superwash fibre was made. When I was a baby knitter and spinner the idea of yarn that wouldn’t felt on me was great - I didn’t have to worry so much about screwing up in one afternoon all the weeks of hard work I’d put into my project. After a little crankfest (as in I ranted inwardly for a while, there were certainly some herrumphs thrown around) I gave a thought to the properties of superwash wool and decided that maybe I wasn’t actually missing anything.
The main marketing point for superwash wool is that the fibre has been treated so that it won’t felt when washed, meaning it can be put into the washing machine, rather than being washed by hand. This sounds great if you’re a parent and know the mountains of washing children can produce, or someone who doesn’t feel they have the extra time to hand wash their knits. However, how is this supposed wonder-fibre achieved?
Animal fibres (including our own hair) have scales along the outer layer of the strand. These scales are all facing the same direction, like the tiles on a roof. Healthy wool is quite shiny and smooth (for the most part) just like healthy human hair. However, if it the strands are agitated, causing the strands to rub against each other and jumbled to go in all directions, the strands catch on one another and lock together - felting (properly referred to as fulling). Imagine a kid who refuses to let you brush their hair for a day or two and the ‘rats nests’ tangles that form. Same thing.
Superwash wool gets rid of the felting-factor (gawds I love alliteration) by removing the scales’ ability to lock into one another. There are two methods - scouring off the outer cuticle layer - where the scales are - through an acid bath, or coating the individual fibers with a polymer plastic to smooth down the scales and keep them for catching. Coating the fibers in plastic stops the fibre from felting, but it also stops the fibre from composting. Plastic doesn’t breathe and doesn’t allow water in, which means the biodegradable strand underneath the coating can’t do its thing and biodegrade. Also, that outer layer is going to flake off at some point, so we are back to the microplastics issue I mentioned yesterday.
But Babs, the first method doesn’t use plastic! I’m home free, get your rustic mitts off my superwash!
You are right, the first method does not use plastic to create a superwash fibre. However, the chemical used in this process is Chlorine-Hercosett 125, which leaves chlorinated compounds in the wastewater. These compounds are known to be deadly to humans (not to say anything about other living creatures). This wastewater is not accepted by water treatment facilities in the United States, Australia, or the United Kingdom, so the wool is often shipped to countries with poorer working condition regulations for this process. So this process has its own serious side effects to be contended with.
Being able to put a wool item in the washing machine is kinda cool, but let’s not forget what I said yesterday about the properties of wool. Animal fibres have a natural oil coating on them which is antimicrobial, helping to prevent mold and odour from bacterial buildup. By contrast, polymers are actually oliophillic, which means they absorb oil (and with it, fat soluble odours!). By choosing plastic free fibres for your projects you can actually wash your handknits less often than you might be washinging the rest of your wardrobe. Since most people wash their clothing way more often than it actually needs to be washed, full on laundry duty could be reduced SIGNIFICANTLY just by rethinking our wearing habits and our fibre choices.
For a great run down of the superwash process and yarn fibres in general, check out The Knitter’s Book of Wool by Clara Parkes (also known as the Yarn Whisperer). The link here is to Amazon, but do check and see if your LYS can hook you up first.
How often do I need to wash my clothes?
Hand washing your knits doesn’t have to be a labour-intensive task.
More retail therapy (don’t forget your canvas bag! Hookers, today’s suggestion is for you!)
Morris and Sons in Australia have a wide range of 100% wool (both wool blends and breed specifics). Prices range from ~$5/skein to more lux pricing (~$40/skein). Their in house brand Empire 4ply is a fingering weight 100% merino that is great for hats and cowls.
Holst Garn (Denmark) is an excellent alternative to superwash wool, and it’s got a special quirk to it, too. The yarn is very wiry/twiney when you knit it up, but once you give it a wash the spinning oil left on the yarn is removed and the yarn blooms. It’s pretty much the Mia Thermopolous of the yarn world right now. Pricing is pretty good too. If you’re worried about shipping see if someone else in your knitting circle is interested in buying some, too.
For a very rustic yarn choice why not Jamieson's Shetland?
They are stocked all over the planet, so I bet a local brick and mortar would have some for you, or be able to help you get ahold of some to try.
Enjoying the blog?
It takes a lot of caffeine and yarn to make this happen! ;)
That was enlightening :)
ReplyDeleteI use primarily pure wool for garments, but I do use some wool and acrylic combos for blankets :( Otherwise we at home are almost plastic free and recycle any tiny amount that appears by accident. :)
It can be hard, initially, to find yarn that does what you want in a project that also doesn't include plastic - for sure! I sometimes have to remind myself that going plastic free is a journey, and it's ok if I don't quite manage it sometimes. The point is to be aware, to try, and to keep trying!
DeleteGood on you guys for being plastic free in the home! We are still working at that, this year our family goals are non-plastic fabrics and food storage containers (especially when getting a takeaway meal).
Keep it up! *double high five*
Ooh, thanks for this! I'm really starting to try and steer away from superwash wool (I haven't been completely successful, but I'm leaning that way, where possible).
ReplyDeleteOne note on Tencel -- some tencel fabrics are, in fact, a biodegradable polymer produced using a closed-loop system, where everything is recycled. So not all tencel is bad (just most!)
But it's really hard to find out if the tencel is closed-loop unless the company is advertising that fact. I know a couple of garment makers that use closed-loop tencel fabric, but I don't know any yarn makers. :(
Also does home-brewed cold-brew fair-trade coffee count for Karma points? Because in this heat, I'm drinking a lot of it! (and wow, that's a lot of hyphens! :D)
Tencel, Lyocel and Rayon/Viscose are all made from wood-pulp, but the chemical processes they go though change their nature to the point of changing their biodegradation.
DeleteTencel is, in theory, meant to biodegrade, but we dont' have any examples of this yet as it is projected to take up to 200 years to do so (some soft plastics take this long, if not longer). So it's 'biodegradable', but it also off-gases when it degrades, like a plastic. :o/ Blarg.
In researching I also learned that, in Australia, to be considered eco-friendly, a fibre has to be capable of completely decomposing within 180 days in a commercial composting facility (so a hot composting system). This knocks all those manufactured cellulose fibres out of the running.
Om nom nom cold brew coffee!!! I think hyper-hyphenated coffee totally gets karma points. ;-)
Oh! I didn't realize that about the biodegrading! Thanks for enlightening me!
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