Knitting sustainably

So, you are out yarn shopping and you've found a lovely new-to-you skein of goodness. You spot the little green t-shirt symbol that tells you that is GOT's certified. We all know it means something good, right? But what does it actually mean? And what does it take for yarn to be GOT's certified?

Last week, we were exploring one of our favourite fibres; Wool. We looked at its characteristics, how they differ fleece to fleece, and how that influences the outcome of our yarn. This week, we are going one step further by looking at breed-specific yarns.

Last week, we took a look at superwash yarns and explored why they're not sustainable. TL;DR of that article was that the most common superwash process - the Chlorine-Hercosett process - uses highly toxic chemicals, additional resources compared to non-superwash production processes, and results in a yarn that is not biodegradable and sheds microplastic particles when washed.

Last week, Claire dove into the world of single-flock yarn - beautiful, small batch fibres. Today, I'll be looking at something that is a lot more easily found: superwash yarn. More specifically, why exactly is it that superwash yarn is not sustainable?

To answer that, let's take a little step back and revisit what 'superwash' actually is: Superwash yarn and fibre (yes, there's also superwash fibre for the spinners out there!) has undergone an additional processing step after it's been spun to make it shrink-resistant and therefore machine-washable.

Single-flock yarns have been a particular passion of mine from the moment I held a skein of yarn that was gifted to me by my sister;

'It's from this little goat farm near to where we were staying, it originally started as a rescue farm, and now they've grown their flock. The wool comes from each of the goats, and this skein is from one called Minnie!'

Up until then, I'd only bought yarn based on what colour I liked, but all I know was with that story and the feel of Minnie's curly locks between my fingers, I was sold. I'd been transported, and it felt as if I were holding a little piece of the life they shared there on that goat farm.