Handwoven January/February 2018: Eco Yarns

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle – Rejoice in Eco-Yarns and Handwoven January/February 2018!

We chose the theme of eco-yarns for the January/February 2018 issue of Handwoven because the yarns we choose to weave with can make a difference in our world in the same way our choices about what we wear, eat, and drive can.

Among the choices presented in this issue are projects that were woven with organically grown and responsibly dyed cotton such as the Angela K. Schneider’s Winter’s End Huck Towels, Tracy Kaestner’s Meditative Rep Runners, and Kate Lange-McKibben’s Sweet Dreams of Weaving pillow cases. Katie Forrest chose sustainably grown, naturally colored cotton for her American Maid Baby Wrap and Linda Gettmann did for her Berta Frey Crackle Towels as well.

The cover project by Elisabeth Hill is the Double Down Eco-Friendly Doubleweave blanket in undyed eco-wool. Elisabeth says it is earth-friendly not only because of the yarns she used but also because if you are wrapped in her beautiful cozy blanket, you can keep your thermostat set to low.

In the recycled category:

• Pattie Graver used yarn made from trash and repurposed a lot of bobbins to weave her Airy Scarf from Trashy Yarn. (Hint: if you didn’t know its provenance, you’d never know it was made from trash.)
• Linda Williams wove her Blue Haze Cashmere scarves using yarns made from repurposed sweaters.
• Deborah Jarchow wove a Clasped-Weft pillow cover using yarn made from other yarns.
• Liz Moncrief wove her Bubbles on Your Loom scarf using yarn made from milk by-products.
• Julie Kornblum used “plarn” for weft, made from used plastic bags among other things.
  
  

The articles in the issue match the theme and include Deb Essen examining naturally colored cottons, Pam James outlining her process for upcycling yarn from thrift store sweaters, Tom Knisely talking about using your library, and Chitra Balasubramaniam discussing Ahimsa silk, also called peace silk. I think you will be interested in Anne Laure Camilleri’s Spotlight on Marian Quanbeck Dahlberg, and finally, The Draft by Madelyn van der Hoogt is all about gamps and how to use them in design. We thought the 8-shaft twill gamp was pretty special so we added it to the WIF library.

Not everyone will agree with all of the fiber choices made by the project authors in this issue. That would be impossible. What matters is that there is a choice, and we as weavers can choose to weave with yarns we personally feel good about using. I will leave it up to each of you to make your own choices about the size of your own weaving footprint, and I encourage you all to start with the January/February 2018 issue of Handwoven.

Weave well,
Susan

Published December 29, 2017 Updated April 12, 2021