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We're here to help you stitch sustainability into every aspect of your making.
With our carefully curated selection of non-superwash, plastic-free yarns and notions, we have everything you need to get started on your next project - and the one after that.
Here's to a wardrobe of knits we love and want to wear for years to come!
We're here to help you stitch sustainability into every aspect of your making.
With our carefully curated selection of non-superwash, plastic-free yarns and notions, we have everything you need to get started on your next project - and the one after that.
Here's to a wardrobe of knits we love and want to wear for years to come!
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May 05, 2020 3 min read
'Mulesing-free' - a few months ago, when I asked on Instagram what you, our lovely readers, look for in a sustainable yarn, that was by far the number one answer. So today we're taking a look at what mulesing-free yarn is, and to do that, we're going to dive headfirst into the world of sheep farming!
'Mulesing' is the term for a procedure developed by JHW Mules in the 1920s. During this procedure, strips of skin are removed around a lamb's butt, usually when the lamb is between 6 and 10 weeks old.
Why? Mulesing is one of the ways you can prevent flystrike in sheep - a fatal (if untreated) parasitic infection where fly larvae grow inside a sheep's body and feed of its skin and flesh. As the skin that will eventually cover the wound on the lamb's buttocks will grow significantly less wool than before, feces and urine - both things that attract the blowflies causing flystrike - are a lot less likely to accumulate there. Therefore, mulesed sheep are less susceptible to flystrike.
Mulesing has come under a lot of scrutiny as it's often done without anesthetics or painkillers, and observations suggest that in addition to the immediate pain and discomfort, lambs have trouble gaining weight after the procedure.
The problem of flystrike, however, is still a very real one with fatal consequences for the sheep.
Breeding programs that work on increasing the number of sheep with less wrinkles - especially in the buttocks area - have shown that so-called 'plain-bodied' (i.e. less wrinkly) sheep are significantly less likely to get flystrike. This obviously takes a long time, though, so while it seems to be the most promising avenue forward, it's not a quick fix!
A shorter-term alternative is spraying the sheep once per season with dicyclanil, a chemical that prevents blowfly growth on the sheep. This, coupled with more frequent flock inspections, has been shown to keep flystrike rates at the level of mulesed sheep (1). It requires more resources, however, both for the more frequent treating of the sheep as well as for the inspections.
'Steining'is a third alternative - this describes a procedure during which liquid nitrogen is applied to the buttock's folds of the sheep. The tissue in those wrinkles freezes, effectively killing off all nerve cells, and eventually the wrinkles will fall off, leading to similar result to mulesing: The area around the sheep's butt is covered with less fleece and therefore less susceptible to flystrike. As this method is relatively new - it's been developed towards the end of the 2010s - studies on its effects are not yet available. Observations seem to suggest that lambs recover more quickly from steining than from mulesing and that there's no weight gain issue after this procedure.
Short answer: No: Longer and more practical answer: No, and you can take a look at the source of the fleeces to rule out mulesing.
Why is that so? Today, mulesing is - to our knowledge - only practiced in Australia. New Zealand - the only other country that's practiced mulesing in the near past - has banned it as of October 2018. So if the raw fleeces that have been used in your yarn do not come from Australia, chances are that the sheep have not been mulesed.
If they do come from Australia, though, they might well have been: According to government estimates from 2019 (2), approximately 70% of Merino wool-producing sheep in Australia are mulesed. This also has to do with an interesting development in Australian sheep farming: Historically, Australian Merino sheep - the predominant sheep breed present on the continent - have been bred to have a lot of wrinkles. Why? More wrinkles = more fleece = higher profit per sheep. Unfortunately, though, the more wrinkles a sheep has, the more susceptible it is to flystrike as well.
I highly encourage you to contact the yarn company and ask them about it! Before you do that, you can also spend a bit of time on their website - most yarn companies that are working with mulesing-free wool from Australia will have information about that publicly available. If that's not the case, write them and ask!
I'd be curious to hear: What are your favorite mulesing-free yarns? Do leave them in the comments down below, I love discovering new-to-me yarns!
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17359305
(2) https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/livestock-parasites/managing-non-mulesed-sheep
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September 30, 2023 2 min read
Happy Socktober, lovelies!! If you've been following us even for a little while, you've probably noticed that I absolutely love knitting socks.
They're the perfect portable project, great for trying out new techniques or stitch patterns, and just so, so rewarding. There's just nothing like the feeling of opening your sock drawer on a cold fall morning, picking out the pair of hand-knit socks that calls to you, and walking around with cozy, warm toes all day long.
I couldn't resist putting together a short, sweet list of 3 sock patterns I'm loving right now to kickstart this month – one makes for excellent TV-knitting, the second one is a bit more complex, and the last one is one that I've been wanting to knit for years!
September 07, 2023 4 min read
Hello lovelies,
One of my all-time favorite tasks when we get a new yarn in is to put together pattern and color combinations. And with Bérénice, De Rerum Natura's sustainably produced Mohair / Merino / Silk yarn (fluffy like a cloud!), the possibilities for patterns and colors are close to endless!
I narrowed it down to my five favorite patterns (well, of right now) in color combinations that showcase the full rainbow of Bérénice colors. I've put a ton more patterns over on our Pinterest Board for pattern inspo for fluffy yarns if you're looking for more!
Now, though, let's take a look at my top 5!
September 07, 2023 3 min read
Hi lovelies!
I'm thrilled to be back in this space, and with something really, really exciting at that! For the past year, I've been on the hunt for a sustainably-produced fluffy yarn - we used to carry Knitting for Olive's Soft Silk Mohair which is delightful, but also... everyone has it now? So I was looking for something that was a little out of the ordinary, but also responsibly sourced, and as it goes with anything that involves mohair and silk, that was really hard.
Cue De Rerum Natura, who secretly have been working behind the scenes at exactly that yarn I'd been looking for: An "as sustainably as it can get" fluff yarn that works perfectly for a broad range of projects, from whispers of lace shawls to holding it together with more substantial yarns.
We're a delightfully tiny team dedicated to all things sustainability in knitting. With our online shop filled with responsibly produced yarns, notions and patterns we're here to help you create a wardrobe filled with knits you'll love and wear for years to come.
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