Conscientious Ethical Fashion E-zine

Eco Yarn is working with Fair Trade suppliers who are hand making and using 100% natural dyes.

AUSTRALIA

Andean alpaca has dominated the wild pastures of South American Mountains for 8000. They provide some of the finest, warmest, and most luxurious textile fibres.

Alpaca is lighter, 20% warmer than other wools, silkier and has no pilling compared to wool or cashmere. Organic Baby Alpaca is perhaps the finest wool available. Organic Baby Alpaca has a fibre diameter of approx 20 microns, and is only produced from the animal's first fleece with no cruelty to animals necessary.

Denner Cashmere, and cashmere silk blends are hand made in the UK.

UNITED KINGDOM

Cashmere is an expensive to produce fibre combed from the fleece of the Kashmere goats originally farmed in the Middle East, Turkey and Mongolia.

It is made into luxury, collectable items such as sweaters and when mixed with other fibre makes excellent winter coats.

Be careful buying Cashmere and cheap Cashmere from China or other developing markets with out certification. Cutting corners to sell on price can lead to compromise in the treatment of animals and workers. By the best and read country of origin information carefully. Use both common sense as well as label information.

Wool is natural, renewable and biodegradable. Merino sheep are breed for fleece and not meat. Fleece can be removed without harm to the animal.

A lot of the lighter blends and finer blends are woven in Italy (the process requires a lot of water which partially justifies why Australia has limited wool processing).

Currently the Australian Wool Corporation is phasing out Mulsing and about 50% of Australia Wool is mulsed. The non-mulsed Wool will usually be identified by certification tags. New Zealand is a good source of non-Mulsed Merino Wool.

If you're vegan, you should only seek high quality organic Merino wool where the sheep are never eaten and they live a pretty cushy stress free life to maintain their wools quality.

Forget what you think you know about Nettle- nettle is not necessary the harsh, hippy fibre you think.

Nettle can be traced back to over 2000 years ago and was in a rival to cotton. It’s feel is somewhere between linen and cotton. The plant doesn’t need much water, pesticide, is sturdy and able to grow in poor polluted soils. It can also be good for wildlife and birds. Unlike other fibres being rediscovered, nettle suits colder climates of Europe and Russia.

Nettle fell out of favour because it was so hard to harvest. To extract the fibres the nettles are cut down and left in bundles in the field to be rotted by rain and the wind. Sometimes the process was sped up by soaking the nettle stems in water.

Recently scientists have developed a more efficient way of retting nettle fibres, for more information on this go to:

Italian brand Corpo Nove has made a jacket and even jeans from Nettle produced in Cornwall in the UK.

Linen is woven from the fibres of the flax plant. Flax is the common name for a herb of the Linaceae family and dates back to ancient Egypt.

Flax was grown successful in most states of Australia last century but to our knowledge there is none currently grown. (It’s re-emerging as an important crop in North America and is also grown in Europe and Asia). Flax oil (linseed) is also high in omega-3 so it has useful biproducts.

Hemp is a cousin to marijuana and has suffered through association. In addition tough bags and drawstring pants have disencouraged the fashion industry from taking an innovative look at the fibre?

As well as being an adaptable crop, hemp produces seed for animal feed or medicinal purposes and hemps seed oil for fuel. It is an excellent alternative to logging trees for paper pulp.

Silk is obtained from cocoons of the larvae of the Bombyx mori silkworm, commonly raised in captivity so the silk may be used in textiles. Bombyx mori is a natural protein fibre. "Wild silks" are produced by caterpillars (other than the mulberry silkworm) and cannot be artificially cultivated.

Silk gets its shine from the triangular prism that allows the silk cloth to refract light at different angles.

Please take care to ensure the labour that produces your silk and silk blends is fairly paid. Silk from India can be slave-made.

Satin is a mixture of silk and synthetics.

Jute is most common as a Hessian weave. It is a natural plant from the foot of the Himalayans.

Stalks are placed in shallow pools of stagnant water to loosen the fibres from the woody tissue. Then the fibres are separated and hung on lines to dry. These fibres are then sent to mills for spinning it into final products.

Jute is a character fabric and probably not the best fabric for high-end sleek fashion basics but might be good for funky holiday wear. It is most commonly used in eco shopping bags.

Here some suppliers:

As well as woven in can be made as a tensile (pulped with chemicals) or blended with silk. The website below is a great showcase of it’s potential.

Jute is already a hit among interior designers.