eliminating fleece blankets and socks

[cimorene]

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.

Comments

[tripleransom]

There are some excellent commercial yarns for sock knitting that have 10% or so nylon content, which is enough to make them durable without making them feel synthetic. However, watch out for the source. You're not helping the environment much if you're knitting socks in Finland from wool produced in Peru and spun in Turkey, because of the staggering impact of transportation.
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.

[cimorene]

We have a lot of native wool, and it can make good socks although most of it isn't as predictable in thickness as a bigger, more commercial brand. But almost all of it is too itchy to wear against the skin, unfortunately, except the untreated raw stuff that's still full of lanolin. We have less of that just now.

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.

[tripleransom]

I was thinking specifically Of Knit Picks/Knitter's Pride/Knit Pro which has a lovely 90% Merino/10% nylon sock yarn, but there are lots of others. Katia I know, but I'd be interested in hearing more about your local brands. BFL certainly is a good sock yarn.

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.

[cimorene]

I suppose some of the infrastructure for the processing of wool is lacking in the US? Or maybe the issue is a lower quantity of domestic producers or something like that? ... Or I guess it could be brand markup, to an extent.

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.

[tripleransom]

Someone sent me some Novita 7 Veljesta last fall, but I haven't tried it yet. It looks like typical hard-wearing boot sock type stuff. The others I'm not familiar with. I'll look up the store; it's always interesting to see what's produced in different countries.

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.

[cimorene]

7V is quite hardy and we've got socks that have seen a LOT of wear made from it, plus it's fine for gloves and the like as well. I wouldn't make a garment or even a hat out of it because it's a bit itchy, has a tendency to stretch out over time, and pills a bit too much. I've used a couple of similar yarns that were slightly better quality over the years, but they were also notably more expensive, so... it's still a good deal. Especially if you're making basic boot socks.

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!