Cascade Yarns Eco Alpaca Review | Ethical Craft Supplies {Knitting}

You may remember that back in May I was totally set on finishing Nord until I ran out of yarn. Actually I had not ran out of yarn, but the last skein I had came in bits of thread rather than one continuous thread. At the time I had tried to contact the shop I bought the yarn from and I never got anything back (still haven't if you are wondering). However Cascade Yarns had read my blog post and contacted me - and sent me more skeins of Eco alpaca and more! 

Picture found on Ravelry

I had not written the post to get free yarn, and never thought I would ever get anything for free thanks to the blog. However it is very clever of Cascade Yarns to have contacted me, because I am definitely willing to buy more of their yarn - just not through that specific shop. And also I realised that the yarn I am using for Nord actually fits with my new ethical craft supplies endeavour as I am using the undyed Eco Alpaca yarn.  

The lovely skeins  I received from Cascade Yarns

I contacted Cascade yarns to get a bit more information about the Eco Alpaca yarn, and here is what I found out. The ecological yarns are undyed, which makes them eco friendly. As a distributor Cascade Yarns primarily visit the mills, and use the ones they find to have acceptable working conditions, but do not visit the farms themselves. The farms are located up in the mountains in Peru, where the sheep and alpaca are cared for by families.  

With respect to dyes (if you are not using undyed yarn), all of them meet European safety standards for dye safety, which sounds like they are more strict than American standards.Their Eco+ wool is the same wool base as the Ecological Wool, but it is dyed with Oeko-Tex certified dyes, which have an even higher safety standard. 

Pictures from Ravelry 

I asked about natural dyes as I am quite interested in finding major distributors that may consider using natural dyes. Unfortunately - but not unexpectedly - they do not foresee using natural dyes as the process is difficult to control for consistency at their scale of production. However, all of the wools are available in an undyed natural colour that can be purchased to hand dye. 

Here you are a few good options to stash on ethical supplies at a reasonable price. I am currently using Eco Alpaca for Nord, and it is so unbelievable soft, and knowing that Cascade Yarns have been looking at ethical issues makes the yarn I use (and the jumper) that much more special. Maybe it may even mean that I will actually finish it.  

A question of Quantities {knitting}

Last week I did not get a chance to show you the middle twist of Nord, but here it is:twists and the start of the v-neck shaping. Isn't it amazing?

I have never knitted v-neck shaping before so that's interesting and fun - and hopefully will make me knit this up a bit faster. 

My real problem now is that I may be running out of yarn. I have found my spare skein BUT that skein was awful and split in zillions of places (I complained to the Knitting shop - no response and now they don't sell it!), and I had left out that skein on purpose... But it will be handy (and very annoying) in the end. 

This is the actual colour - the previous picture was edited on IG

Running out of yarn is not something that usually happens - because I am usually generous with the number of skein I buy - usually one more than I think I will need, in case all the UK (and French) retailers run out of the specific yarn (yes this is happening right now with Cascade eco Alpaca!). How much yarn do you buy for a project? The exact amount or more? 

Linking up to Ginny's today and interested in your thoughts. 

The point of knitting your own jumper... {Knitting}

There are so many reasons why I love knitting my own garment. I know it takes forever (in my case; many knitters are much faster than I am), and that in fact it is probably not cheaper. But I can choose the colour I want, the type of yarn I want, adapt the shape and the length especially - and not compromise (too much).

My current WIP made me realise that in addition I can make garment that you cannot find in the shops! There are so many patterns out there that have delicate lace work embedded in them, or the right amount of quirkiness that will make it my favourite garment.

I have talked about Nord before, and yes I had to start it there and then. In a very wise move, I finished the back first - on the basis that this would really be boring but that I knew that the thought of knitting of the front panel would keep me going.

And it has not disappoint. For the first few rows I was really wondering whether the diagonal would show, but now 66 rows in I can see where we are going with this.

I just wished I could have shown you the cross-over but I am not there yet, but soon. Cannot wait! So why do you knit your own jumpers?

Linking up my WIP to Small Things today. 

Previously discarded {knitting}

The are several reasons why I'd rather read blogs than magazines - besides the price of course! But one that stands out is the fact that bloggers are able to widen my horizon and capture where the problem might be with a pattern and how it could work. This is what happened with Nord. Of course, I am a Brooklyn Tweed aficionado and it was hard for me to even think that I could change a pattern, but Nord was not working for me - and I had even discarded it in my review of BT Winter Vol.14. 

Of course I was attracted by the cable work. And I cannot tell you exactly why, but it did not appeal to me whatsoever... Until I saw this version...

The oversized version by une poule a petits pas. Of course it was obvious, the v-neck sits better, the shape and the length are better. This is a jumper I want to own!

EDIT: if you are interested in knitting this version, here are the main changes:

- It is knitted in Cascade Eco Alpaga in Ecru (5 skeins)

- Knitted one size bigger than your usual size

- The armholes were changed as well: knitted straight, and the stitches are picked up and sleeves knitted in the round (so much easier!).

And this is why, although in theory I am not supposed to buy more yarn if I have not finished a project, there is yarn on its way... And I cannot wait to cast on. I just hope my version will be as wearable. I stopped at making a cream version as well, but the colour will not be that far from that... Such a copycat. As long as I get a jumper that I will wear! who cares!