forgive me if this is an eco-moronic question, but what is wrong with sheep's wool? If I had to guess, perhaps I would think of it being resource intensive, needing to feed an animal, just to get its fiber?

Chris Brandow, you took the words out of my mouth. I like sheep. I live in sheep-rearing country - it's the most beautiful country in the world. Heck, I'd rather have a woollen jumper than one made of recycled plastic bottles. Where's the merit in irrigating land to grow bamboo to be shipped across the world to be knitted?

I believe strict vegans take issue with "abusing" the animal to get its coat. Just the way they don't eat honey. Frankly, I think wool is a renewable resource...but, I still think this book is pretty sweet.

http://www.ota.com/organic/woolfactsheet.html

There is organic wool.

These are good points. I don't think the book is wool-bashing per se, but rather offering alternatives. However, I do not imagine that mass produced and commericially cultivated wool is very good to the sheep or the planet. Just as conventional dairy and egg production is inhumane and ecologically unsound, I suspect that factory farmed wool is a similar case, though I may be mistaken. I'd be curious to see what an experts in the large-scale wool industry would say.

I don't get it either. The book isn't for vegans, who certainly wouldn't use silk, or wool (because of the non-voluntary way that the material is generally collected). So who is this book targeted at? People with allergies?

By the way, I bought some bamboo yarn and it is so nice! Really, really soft and shiny.

i think some people have problems with how sheep are treated, insecticides used on the animals, and the mulesing practice. also, some wool yarns are treated with chemicals which act as moth repellents. not to mention toxic dyes which are used on most commercially produced knitting yarns...

but i love wool!

Wool can be itchy.

The ethical concerns are numerous. See www.savethesheep.com/. Warning page includes a naked ad.

This site also has an environmental section that details several concerns:
Climate changing methane emissions due to belching and passing gas, soil erosion, fecal matter contaminating waterways in areas where sheep are farmed, and the wool industry inflicts "collateral damage" on wildlife they consider to be "pests."

i avoid wool for ethical and enviromental reasons, most people i know who don't use wool also don't use silk so i find the title of this book rather confusing, some people use "peace silk" but that is still questionable for most vegans

Repeat after me: veganism is not environmentalism.

The author is allergic to wool; many people have wool sensitivites or allergies. So this book explores knitting with non-animal fibers -- which do behave a little differently from wool.

Hi, everyone!

Thanks for writing about the book! A few notes just to clarify. First, the book is out in April 2007, not November. :-)

Second, as Kristi says, this isn't an anti-wool book; it's a book about all the other fibers there are to knit with that aren't wool. It's for those who are allergic or sensitive [like me] or those who just don't want to use wool.

Third, though the environmental impact of some fibers is mentioned in the book, I didn't focus on that aspect. So there's no coverage of recycled fibers.

As Kristi mentioned, the main reason to read this book is to learn about fibers like silk, cotton, bamboo, soy, seacell, tencel, rayon, hemp, linen - why they are the way they are and how to knit with them to take advantage of their best qualities. There's very little of this information easily available to knitters, so I'm hoping this will be a helpful resource!

Thanks again!
Amy

yes, poor abused sheep. It's much better to use bamboo which is harvested from a country with a record of human rights abuses not to mention ecological catastrophes.

just for the record i don't believe in abusing animals, but substituting a product from a country half way across the world with poor environmental and human rights records is hardly an improvement over wool.

--
editor note: But it doesn't have to be one or the other. Why not grow bamboo close to where it is used? There are more than two choices here.

Thanks for the reply Amy! I was confused about the book, but now I get it. As someone who is sensitive to wool, I was looking forward to reading it, but like others I made the mistake of thinking it was geared toward vegans. Will there be information about generally how to substitute in other fibers for wool?

Hi, Heidi --
Yup, there's a handy chart that helps with the fiber swapping. And a whole chapter about how to get to know what the yarn will or won't do, which helps make the swapping easier.

Hope it helps!
Amy

Why not grow bamboo close to where it is used?

Bamboo can't grow in every climate.

So glad to hear about this book. I am a green who doesn't wear wool out of concern for how sheep are treated and because it gives me a rash (I'd wear second-hand wool if I could). I hate using new acrylic fiber, so am glad to learn more about the attributes of other fibers and how to use them in knitting. Many many people are sensitive to wool, or live in climates where wool is just too heavy a fiber.

"Bamboo can't grow in every climate."

Before someone says, "But I've got some bamboo and it seems really hearty.", I want to say that the stuff that they sell all around as lucky bamboo (with the loops) is not actually bamboo! It is a plant that looks like bamboo but is actually more closely related to aloe.

I can't wait for this book to come out! Wool itches me and I want to knit some lovely garments in other fibers, and it sounds like this book is the best resource on substitution.

I am thrilled about the mission of this book. Cotton and linen yarns knit up radically different than wool yarn and if you are going to knit with them you are in for some surprises. I think the knitting community has needed this for a long time.

I'm very excited about adding this to my knit book library. And I love wool.

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