In Elizabeth Zimmerman’s 1971 knitting manual, Knitting Without Tears, she humorously declares her preference for natural fibers: “For those allergic to wool, my heart simply aches. While synthetics serve as a fantastic alternative, they remain mere substitutes.” Fast forward fifty years, and locating a piece of clothing or home textile that’s free from synthetic fibers poses a significant challenge.
Simultaneously, the increasing recognition of the environmental consequences associated with synthetic materials—predominantly derived from petroleum—has cooled many consumers’ ardor for synthetics and rekindled an enduring affinity for wool and other natural animal fibers.
The marvels of wool
The practice of transforming wool into a weavable fiber dates back to ancient civilizations and has persisted throughout history. This is hardly surprising, given wool’s remarkable qualities: it insulates, breathes, wicks away moisture, provides fire resistance, and maintains its shape. Additionally, wool is durable, dyeable, biodegradable, and available in a variety of textures and natural hues.
Wool with a splash
Maddy Purves-Smith, who co-manages Custom Woolen Mills (CWM, customwoolenmills.com) located near Carstairs, Alberta, fervently supports natural fibers and the principles of “slow fashion.” Her family-operated business employs equipment from the 19th century to convert fiber into various products, such as raw wool, yarns, bedding, and knitted items.
While their production volume is significantly less than that of contemporary industrial mills, CWM takes pride in the environmental sustainability of their smaller-scale operation, as well as their capability to tailor orders. Additionally, CWM values the diverse natural tones of sheep, alpaca, and other animal fibers when purchasing fleece from farmers; many large-scale mills regard non-white fleece as inferior quality.
In contrast, the white fibers favored by these mills often undergo dyeing processes that use chemicals harmful to both ecosystems and public health. Conversely, CWM’s limited selection of dyed yarns is hand-dyed using vibrant colors derived from local plants.
The environmentally conscious alpaca
While sheep’s wool predominates in many yarn shops, Edward Pickering and Shauna Seabrook at Chetwyn Farms (chetwynfarms.com) in Hillier, Ontario, have committed themselves to alpaca farming.
Alpaca yarn boasts appealing qualities—being softer and warmer, by weight, than sheep’s wool—along with the animals’ social nature and their eco-friendly grazing habits that attracted Pickering and Seabrook to delve into farming and small-scale yarn creation.
Being naturally adapted to mountainous terrains means alpacas thrive on less lush grasslands, content to graze in smaller, less fertile pastures. Notably, their lack of upper teeth enables them to graze more gently on the land compared to other grazing animals.
“They don’t uproot grass; they just gum it!” Pickering jokes. Adding to their eco-friendliness, alpacas tend to relieve themselves at a central location, producing droppings that can be directly used to enrich the soil.
Weaving complexities
Like all activities that manipulate the natural environment for human benefit, the process of textile production is intricate and multi-layered. Among the many facets deserving of further exploration are the global demand for more regenerative farming methods and the impact of newer synthetic materials made from recycled resources or utilizing closed-loop manufacturing systems.
Just as with the food we consume, making choices about our textiles can be challenging. Whenever feasible, we should remember Purves-Smith’s advice to “delve into the sourcing of our textiles” and acknowledge the welfare of the individuals, animals, and ecosystems involved in those decisions.
This article first appeared in the December 2024 edition of up7op magazine.
