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eliminating fleece blankets and socks
As much as I would love to live plastic-free (or mostly plastic free), I, like most people, don't have the time and money to devote to it (not to mention the environment is still full of microplastics and everything else you buy was still made with plastics anyway). This article, which I read last night, had me thinking a lot about consumer activism (ie boycotts and petitioning brands for changes to their policies) vs consumer choice activism (the notion that you can 'do something' to save X simply by paying slightly more for a more morally pure alternative to something you were going to buy), and how this encourages the false impression that consumer choices can make a difference on a global scale when they really can't because the vast majority of use is driven by industry, and only collective action (= structural and regulatory reform) can significantly change them.
But it also reminded me of the plastics that I probably can dispense with and am now trying to replace in my life, namely: polyester fleece.
We use a lot of throw blankets because 1. I'm always cold and 2. cats hog blankets and 3. bunnies need blankets in their homes (4 per bunny right now: either ½ blankets or ½ bath sheets), and the nice wool ones are in the closet because they can't be washed in the washing machine, but our cats are genetically predisposed to barf on everything.
For the same reason, we can't have any rugs that won't fit in the washing machine, and a lot of them are cheap nubbly fleece bathmats because the pets all love them.
Problem: the winter is long, the air is hella dry, and the bunnies, who are about 75% hair by volume, spend their time exposed to lots of fleece blankets and rugs, and this produces so much static. You'd think that wool would be bad, but actually wool is way less staticky for them than fleece.
We can, and should, replace the rugs with rag rugs and other woven cotton ones and the blankets with hand-knitted washable wool blankets (and cotton towels for the bunnies), but that's a long-term goal as cotton rugs are more expensive and blankets take time to knit. (I'm not willing to buy ones that are the wrong colors. And not all rag rugs are created equal - they have to be the tightly woven kind.) Knitted cotton blankets are the best in the summer, but they don't cut it for Finnish winter, even indoors. At least not for me.
The last problem are those fuzzy chenille socks, which I wear whenever I'm at home. These aren't easy to replace because standard wool socks are meant to be worn over other socks, but the cotton socks that you put underneath them aren't warm and soft enough for me: cotton just doesn't feel warm on the skin. Sock yarn needs to be hard-wearing, though, and that tends to work against being soft and squishy. Synthetic fiber inclusion helps the yarn to wear better, and many fiber blend yarns are able to increase the softness, but they won't be warm or breathable enough if the synthetic portion goes above 25% or so, in my experience. I will have to do some research into the sock-knitting field and hope there are some good yarns for the purpose.
But it also reminded me of the plastics that I probably can dispense with and am now trying to replace in my life, namely: polyester fleece.
We use a lot of throw blankets because 1. I'm always cold and 2. cats hog blankets and 3. bunnies need blankets in their homes (4 per bunny right now: either ½ blankets or ½ bath sheets), and the nice wool ones are in the closet because they can't be washed in the washing machine, but our cats are genetically predisposed to barf on everything.
For the same reason, we can't have any rugs that won't fit in the washing machine, and a lot of them are cheap nubbly fleece bathmats because the pets all love them.
Problem: the winter is long, the air is hella dry, and the bunnies, who are about 75% hair by volume, spend their time exposed to lots of fleece blankets and rugs, and this produces so much static. You'd think that wool would be bad, but actually wool is way less staticky for them than fleece.
We can, and should, replace the rugs with rag rugs and other woven cotton ones and the blankets with hand-knitted washable wool blankets (and cotton towels for the bunnies), but that's a long-term goal as cotton rugs are more expensive and blankets take time to knit. (I'm not willing to buy ones that are the wrong colors. And not all rag rugs are created equal - they have to be the tightly woven kind.) Knitted cotton blankets are the best in the summer, but they don't cut it for Finnish winter, even indoors. At least not for me.
The last problem are those fuzzy chenille socks, which I wear whenever I'm at home. These aren't easy to replace because standard wool socks are meant to be worn over other socks, but the cotton socks that you put underneath them aren't warm and soft enough for me: cotton just doesn't feel warm on the skin. Sock yarn needs to be hard-wearing, though, and that tends to work against being soft and squishy. Synthetic fiber inclusion helps the yarn to wear better, and many fiber blend yarns are able to increase the softness, but they won't be warm or breathable enough if the synthetic portion goes above 25% or so, in my experience. I will have to do some research into the sock-knitting field and hope there are some good yarns for the purpose.
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Good luck on your yarn hunt!
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But the standard Finnish (non-specialist) model is that you stick a pair of wool socks (or fleece socks if you're allergic, or extra-thick acrylic socks, or whatever) on over your ordinary all-season socks inside your rain shoes, transitional season boots as required, and winter boots. Public elementary school here has taught sock- and mitten-knitting to all the students who opt for knitting instead of woodworking for generations and sometimes has taught the basics to everybody, so it's a nearly-universal granny skill and making extras is a pretty common pastime, with Finland generating an outsize proportion of the winter accessories donated to the Red Cross's disaster relief clothing donations.
And since I grew up in a place where wool socks aren't a thing because it was too warm, I have simply adopted the local system.
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A tightly spun hardwearing fiber like Blue Faced Leicester will wear quite well even without the nylon content as long as it's superwash treated (which, I suppose, raises a whole other question, but nevermind)
I imagine native Finnsheep wool, which has a very long staple length would make excellent sock yarn, even without the nylon. But it needs to be tightly spun for durability and to keep it from felting, at least in my experience.
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But of course most of the things we buy and wear are composed of parts that have already been needlessly shipped around the world in ways that are out of our control (at least without spending way more money on them). Even many of the native Finnish brands that are still around here now have materials and products imported. And the reverse isn't always an improvement: we have a big problem in Finland with domestically-grown produce done in greenhouses year-round which actually has a greater carbon footprint than the imported alternatives in winter thanks to the energy consumption the small growers used to produce it: we're no Norway so clean energy isn't cheaply and readily available even though it's not impossible, and these suppliers typically aren't scaled big enough to afford being actually green. (They often cost more too, but they still sell very well. The demand for domestic-labeled goods is very high here.) And aside from Finland's domestic supply there is plenty of wool produced in Europe, but we still have boutique LYSs stocking Brooklyn Tweed and US small-batch hand-dyers whose base yarns are spun in Italy🙄.
It is, yes, extremely frustrating.
But there's some pretty good yarns made in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark available, and the big Spanish brand Katia, as well as a pretty good variety of English-made-and-spun varieties such as Blue-Faced Leicester to check out.
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I always find it fascinating that yarns produced and spun right around here in US are often more expensive than stuff shipped around the world.
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The local-est yarn around here is more expensive simply because it comes from small individual producers and not factories or even companies in most cases, but Novita is Finland's big yarn company and you can typically find a selection of their ubiquitous sock yarn, 7 Veljestä, in every corner store. That one's basic and serviceable, not wonderful quality, but they make lots of other yarns.
We've used Vuorelma and Pirtin Kehräämö yarns and I've heard a lot about Tukuwool, which was recently bought by a big Jyväskyla yarn store called Titityy that we order from occasionally.
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I think the reason US-made stuff is more expensive is probably the higher cost of production, mostly from wages. In general, I don't mind paying the little extra for something locally-produced, using traditional methods like Briggs & Little (which is actually made in Canada) https://www.briggsandlittle.com/
If you're ever looking for something you can't find there - needles, yarn, etc, I'll be glad to send it to you if I can lay hands on it.
ETA: I like the looks of the Tukuwool fingering a lot. I may have to place an order. So much for reducing my carbon footprint.
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The apple of my eye right now is this sweater my wife recently made me with a bunch of fat worsted yarn that we bought at the local sheep & goat fair. It's made from raw undyed wool of a rare heritage Finnish sheep breed called the Kainuunharmas that all have the same color - born black and gradually get whiter, with the coat being variegated as well. They get the different shades of grey yarn just by mixing the different parts of the coat differently... I had a hard time picking which shade I wanted too, haha.
Tukuwool is on my list too, but we've pledged not to buy any yarn without choosing the project for it first while we destash.
Oh and PS. thanks for the offer, will keep in mind!
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I think that about 70% of my socks are wool, or wool/silk blend (with some polyester too make them last), and that's pretty common her in Norway. On the other hand - Norwegians worship wool.
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It's possible there are high-priced luxury brands of fluffy woolen socks though that I wouldn't have seen due to not shopping in pricey stores enough? But the machine-knitted woolen socks I've bought in the open-air market square in the past are still a bit on the itchy side I would say.
What do your fluffy woolen socks look like - like are they brushed to make them fluffy or is the yarn itself fluffy? Or can you give me a brand name or a website or something? I speak Swedish, so I could navigate a Norwegian website...
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There is a slightly thicker type which is made from - I'm not quite sure what to call it - terry cloth? Like these. These are not very much wool in, but I have some pairs that hare more wool, and less plastic.
And probably more. I can have a look around a sock shop for you, and take some pictures if you want?
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And thank you for the search terms! I always forget how fun and stimulating reading Norwegian is. 'tjukkelabber' gave me a bunch of beautiful pictures and I definitely have sock envy now.
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These are the only all-bamboo socks they have where I usually go for socks. I know I've bought a bunch of plain crew socks, though. (All their other bamboo socks have about 20% synthetic.) Sock Dreams rotates its stock, so it varies. I'm sure you have a EU vendor that has something decent.
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