Think Globally, Knit Locally

Take a quick walk through a grocery store and you’ll immediately be hit with choices: organic, non-GMO, locally raised, free-range. . . . We’ve come a long way in thinking about what we eat and where it comes from. Rebecca Burgess, founder of the nonprofit organization Fibershed, is surely delighted that we have options when choosing what we put into our bodies. Her organization’s mission is a bit different: to get people talking about what they put onto their bodies.

You’re probably familiar with the idea of a watershed or even a food web—a regional network in which different segments of the environment interact to form a self-sustaining system. What if we applied that construct to clothing? Burgess calls this kind of system a fibershed.

In her book Fibershed, Burgess boils down the organization’s focus to three ideas: “the source of the raw material, the transparency with which it is converted into clothing, and the connectivity among all parts, from soil to skin and back to soil.” Big issues, to be sure, raising questions like where fiber is grown and processed; what pesticides, herbicides or other substances were used; who makes the fiber into cloth and the cloth into clothing; and what happens to clothing once it’s past its useful life.

It can sound overwhelming.

Take heart: knitters and crocheters are ahead of the game when it comes to thinking about clothing. We know about types of fiber, and we have more information than ever about how manufacturers create their yarns. We’re committed to making clothing by hand rather than purchasing it (at least some of the time!). We pass along or mend our heirloom creations rather than sending them off to a landfill. We may even be thinking about a yarn’s carbon footprint and its makers’ recycling practices. As Fibershed’s Heather Podoll observes, knitters have already placed themselves “directly into the ecosystem of transformational processes that bring textiles from their origin in the soil, in the healthy growing of fiber plants and animals, into usable products in our communities.”

A Knitter’s Sustainability Options

[PAYWALL] How can we deepen our connection to nature through knitting? One meaningful place to start is with yarn and fiber selection. Whether you prefer your yarn from animal, vegetable, or mineral fibers, you can support the health of your environment by making deliberate choices.
• Synthetic fibers such as nylon, acrylic, and polyester are non-biodegradable and derived from fossil fuels, so they damage the fibersheds where they are created and disposed of. Rachel Higgins, of Pennsylvania’s Fibershed affiliate, points out that synthetic fibers may even release microplastics into the soil when laundered.
• Plant fibers such as cotton are often grown using pesticides and herbicides, and over 80% of the cotton grown in the U.S. uses GMOs, says Rebecca Burgess. Seeking out organically grown fiber is one step in choosing yarns that don’t do more harm than good.
• Many knitters are already thinking about the ethical treatment of fiber animals. Many yarn companies include information on their websites discussing their practices—particularly smaller companies with their own flocks or herds.
• Seeking out yarns made with dyes derived from plants may also benefit an ecosystem, if the dyer practices careful water management. Rachel Higgins notes that apart from their unique hues, botanical dyes don’t contain plastisols that can lead to microplastics in waterways. Global Organic Textile Standard-certified dyes minimize the use of toxic chemicals where they’re formulated, used, and worn. Many artisans are aware of the potential environmental impact of their dyes and will happily explain how they minimize it.
• Choosing yarns produced in your fibershed can help farmers maintain climate-beneficial agriculture and local mills continue operation. Yarns that are grown and produced near minimize the pollution caused by transportation.

Plant dyes and natural wool are just two of the options for sustainable knitting. Photo by Paige Green, courtesy of Pennsylvania Fibershed

Improving the Planet, Stitch by Stitch

All of this sounds great, but what about cost? Synthetic yarns are substantially cheaper than natural fibers, and large yarn companies often source fibers from overseas to cut costs. Podoll acknowledges there can be a significant price difference between synthetic and natural fibers but notes that synthetic fibers carry “extra environmental and health costs that aren’t reflected on their price tag.” She also points out that the increased cost for natural fiber yarns can pay off in terms of its durability and longevity. Rachel Higgins agrees that availability and higher cost are very real challenges to many knitters who’d like to knit sustainably. She suggests getting to know farmers and other sources within your fibershed where you can pick up locally made yarns (and avoid shipping costs). But when cost is prohibitive, Higgins suggests using natural-fiber yarns as much as you can, mixing natural with synthetic to reduce the total amount of synthetic fibers used. Purchasing sweaters from thrift stores and unraveling the yarn for re-use is also an option.

Above all, explains Heather Podoll, focus on the local by finding out what kinds of fiber are produced where you live:

Local yarn processing infrastructure is extremely vulnerable in most regions of the U.S., with mills going out of business every year. Seeking out and supporting local yarn producers helps to support regional and domestic milling operations so that we can keep these industries alive and healthy in our communities. Sourcing yarn from local producers is an opportunity to learn more about your local ecology and healthy land stewardship, and to learn from the wealth of knowledge that fiber producers have about their land, plants, animals, and products.

Ecosystems applying these principles have seen big benefits. Take the California company Chico Flax, founded when professional weaver Sandy Fisher and her husband sought to create a locally grown and produced line of linen yarn. They started by growing an experimental crop of flax, the plant from which linen is derived, in a community garden. They supplemented their own experiences by working with area universities and local growers, adopting fibershed-friendly practices such as abandoning tilling, using fungal-dominant compost, and discontinuing chemical usage. They saw marked improvement in soil quality and have expanded their farming to include a large hedgerow with plants that Sandy harvests to make botanical dyes. Although finding a mill to process their flax was difficult—there are no linen mills in the United States—they successfully produce linen and linen-blend yarns, sell woven clothing and housewares, and offer classes in weaving and dyeing.

Fibershed has also developed a Climate-Beneficial Agriculture certification program, which supports farmers in capturing carbon in the soil, and a Regional Fiber Manufacturing Initiative, which supports the mills and other infrastructure that make local fiber possible.

The Fibershed website includes links to regional affiliates in the United States and around the world. Fiber festivals and sheep shows are another good way to find local producers.

Read about more success stores on Fibershed’s website or in Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists and Makers for a New Textile Economy (R. Burgess & C. White, Chelsea Green Publishing 2019).

For more on the Chico Flax Project, see “The Quest for Local Linen: Chico Flax” by Jacqueline Harp.

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Carol J. Sulcoski is a knitting author, designer, and teacher. She’s published seven knitting books, including Knitting Ephemera, which is full of knitting facts, history, and trivia. Her articles have appeared in publications such as Vogue Knitting, Modern Daily Knitting, Noro Magazine, the Craft Industry Alliance website, and others. She lives outside Philadelphia and teaches at knitting events, knitting shops, and guilds. Her website is blackbunnyfibers.com.