KIM COOK
Associated Press<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you see a nice handmade sweater, you know it took a while to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The knitting or crocheting is just part of it. (A fun online calculator<\/a> at www.lovecrafts.com estimates how long anything from a basic scarf to a blanket, baby booties or patterned garment would take you; figure on 20 to 80 hours.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before that, however, there are those who make the yarns. Indie craftspeople are doing new things with wool and other fibers, including recycled plastic, as well as with dyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Samantha Myrhe, owner of RavensWood Fibre Co.<\/a> in Nova Scotia, Canada, began a dozen years ago with a few sheep, and her third generation of lambs was shorn this fall. She sells her yarns online and at local markets, and gives her original dyes original names, like Sea Glass, a blend of dreamy water hues; Fireflies, with starry, night sky colors; and Autumn Drive, evoking a ride through a fall forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDyeing is chemistry,\u201d she says. \u201cAlthough the process we use is a simple, heat-and-acid-vinegar process to set the colors, the chemistry behind it involves the binding of a color molecule to a wool molecule. More or less molecules, more or less intense color.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She found that using water from the local municipal system created unpredictable colors, so she turned to well water instead. Still, there\u2019s an element of chance: more rain means more minerals in the water. \u201cMore minerals mean my reds may be more orange, my blacks break and go to gold. It\u2019s crazy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Myrhe has a good group of reliable, \u201cstable\u201d colors, but also what the indie dye world refers to as OOAKs: One of a Kinds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe magic of what the dye gods give me that day,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Different fibers take dye in different ways. Alpaca hues tends toward pastel, as it doesn\u2019t absorb as much color. Nylon and silk soak up dye, and when blended with merino wool, give beautiful color depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some dyers are exploring other types of wool, including yak, cashmere, and Australian Polwarth sheep, which has a strong, silky character good for many woven projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wool gets high marks for sustainability; as the International Wool Textile Organization notes, it\u2019s renewable, biodegradable and recyclable. Around the world, many farms, studios and workshops are producing yarns and other textile products using techniques with a gentle environmental impact, including recycling water and using few if any additives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Britt-Marie Alm, who runs Love Fest Fibers <\/a>in San Francisco, offers small-batch yarns sourced from sustainably operated workshops on the West Coast, Nepal and Tibet. Alm has had a decades-long love for Tibetan culture since joining a high school community service project in the region. She has learned spinning and weaving techniques from Tibetan artisans, and now supports several women-run collectives there and in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her soft, chunky yarns include Color Core, in which she spins ethically sourced merino wool around a colorful organic cotton fiber; the result looks like a woolly Twizzler. Alm came up with the idea during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was spending more time inside, as we all were, and I became captivated by the incredible weavings made by customers who were exploring the inside of our yarn,\u201d she says. \u201cTheir techniques centered around cutting yarns to show the inner cross-section, and it was fascinating \u2014 the textures and color gradations were just stunning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\nThe generic anti-impotency medicine is taken an hour before sexual activity and the effect prolongs up to tadalafil super active<\/a> 24 hours. They endeavored to bring a great opportunity cheap super cialis<\/a> for the ED treatment. To better cialis online australia<\/a> possibility of receiving erection naturally, consult doctor to know the resultant cause of the condition, and changes required in diet, lifestyle, sleeping patterns, supplements needed. These systems generally contain two tanks that work together cialis no prescription secretworldchronicle.com<\/a> to pull problematic ions out of the water before it enters the home’s main plumbing network. <\/span>\n With her Washington State mill partners \u2014 a mother-daughter team who also raise a few alpacas \u2014 she developed seven Color Core colorways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Love Fest also has a naturally shed, downy yak yarn called kullu, which feels like cashmere, without the sheep shearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRecent years have seen a reimagining of what yarn can make,\u201d Alm says. She cites a range of knitted and crocheted home goods, from baskets and rugs to pillows and poufs. The chunky yarn and huge stitches that makes these projects possible, she says, is more than visually striking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s also very gratifying to be able to make a project so quickly. This has captured the imagination of a new generation of fiber artists who learn the skills to knit a chunky basket and then continue on to explore macrame and weaving,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sustainable options for yarn now also include upcycled linen and plastic fiber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI grew up crocheting and knitting so much polyester and acrylic yarn; it seemed such a shame that more recycled materials weren\u2019t being utilized,\u201d says Alm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She worked with her mill to create ReLove, a fiber that blends plastic water bottles with merino to make a soft, chunky yarn available in colors like denim, curry, fog and leche. Sets contain 40 yards of yarn, which rescues about 10 plastic bottles from landfills, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other notable independent operations include farm\/mill combos like Red Hill Fiber Mill<\/a> in Taswell, Indiana, which raises alpacas, gives educational tours, and spins and sells yarns and wool products gleaned from their herd. Lydia Christiansen\u2019s Abundant Earth Fiber,<\/a> on Whidbey Island north of Seattle, includes wool spun from East Friesian sheep that graze just down the road from her mill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yarn enthusiast Michelle Thymmons has compiled a list of popular Instagram yarn dyers across North America and Europe on her website www.vamicreations.com<\/a>. They include a multi-generational family at Bumblebee Farm in Davis, Illinois, who raise sheep and rabbits, dye and make their own knitting fibers, and host yarn clubs themed around Harry Potter, \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d and \u201cGame of Thrones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knit and pattern designer Norman Schwarze in Munich, Germany, has a globe-spanning compilation at www.nimble-needles.com<\/a> that includes Vivid Wool<\/a> outside Reykjavik, Iceland; Wishbone<\/a> yarns in South Africa, and The Blue Brick<\/a> in Ontario, Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n