Happy Tuesday everyone! When I started searching for ethical yarns I had no idea I would find so many amazing yarns. Literally no idea. And I just do not have enough time to knit with all of them - but rest assure that I do try! And today I am bringing to you a brand I have a massive crush on - Fyberspates. I had seen the name a few times, on IG mostly, but never realised that it was a UK brand (I thought it was Australian, not sure why but here we are). I found it through this shop when I was looking for a DK yarn for knitting Nessa. And I was just amazed by it and the colourway I found (Tweed Imps).
Fast forward a month, a bit of research about Fyberspates under my belt, I actually met Jeni at the Craft Hobby + Stitch International Show . I was slightly starstruck (sorry Jeni) but managed not to totally lose it, and showed her Nessa in progress. I got in touch with her - to discuss a bit more about her yarn. I knew she was really keen on offering an ethical yarn - I just had no idea to which extent this was.
'All my commercial yarns are made in Peru, and dyed there as well. In terms of dyeing, I visited the dyeing place, and basically its an enlarged version of what I had at home, its a lovely set up, and the girls who dye the yarn work in a nice environment, with the hand paints they sit around a table and dye yarn and chat, its a really nice ethos. Peru have very strict regulations about dyeing and processing, which means the dyes have to be highly regulated, currently the dyes they use come from Germany, as they are very high quality and non toxic.
In addition we use Peruvian merino, which is sourced from small scale producers whose lively hood is the sheep, and so they tend to look after them very well, the mill also provide a lot of education to the farmers and offer education programmes for the children, we are also working with them on a new handspun yarn which supports women in rural communities, this provides work and income for them (this yarn is available through Chester Wool co which Fyberspates trades through). We never source yarns from Australia because they use Museling on the sheep, we are guaranteed that this practice does not happen in Peru because of the small scale farming methods.
And finally… we have switched over to Oxybiodegradeable packaging, and whilst it is an improvement on the previous plastic, its not the absolute perfect packaging, however, I always think of it as a process, it took me a good 3 years of asking for better packaging. If we say yes to what the mill is offering, when they are in talks with their packaging sources, they know that we will pay extra for something eco, its our vote as it were, they know then that if something better comes along, we will most likely switch to it, if we don’t show our vote, then if the mill get offered better and better products, they will just say to the packaging manufacture, 'no one was interested, we offered it to our customers, no one took it up', so for me its a process to improvement if that makes sense.
Amazing, right! Jeni has really taken a holistic view. And of course the yarn knits like a dream, and has a great lustrous sheen to it. I cannot wait to finish Nessa to try another yarn, I have my eye on some Vivacious DK in Pebble Beach or try the Cumulus yarn.
And, as she is super nice, Jeni has kindly agreed to give one of my readers a chance to try her yarn. Here is your chance to bag yourself a skein of your choice! So which one will it be?
Here is how to enter the giveaway (1 entry per person)
1. The giveaway is open only to my followers - old and new (follow me on IG, FB, Bloglovin' ...).
2.And you need to follow Fyberspates on FB or IG - (you may actually want to follow Jeni as she holds monthly giveaway - in case you don't win this time)
And let me know in the comment box when you have done so with the name of your skein of choice.
The giveaway ends Tuesday 15 March (5pm UK time). Please, please, please leave me a way to contact you if you are a no-reply blogger. Good luck!
