As I said last week in part 1 of my mini-series on wool and animal welfare, today is time for part 2 on the topic of fair wool.
In the last post you can get a little deeper into the matter and learn more about what some animals have to suffer so that we can use their wool.
Admittedly, that was a bit depressing ... Nevertheless, I think it is a very important topic to which you should at least have an awareness.
Last week I also promised to show you in this post what we can do to be more selective and animal welfare friendly in buying our wool. It's completely understandable that not everyone wants to give up the positive aspects that animal wool naturally brings. If you want to know more about these points, you can read my blog post about different types of wool here.
If you'd like to avoid animal products altogether and just want to knit vegan, you can read more about it in this post and look for possible alternatives.
So back to our animal-friendly topic. Let's just start again with our sheep family.
What to look for when buying sheep wool?
Generally speaking, you should make sure that the wool, especially merino wool, is free of mulesing during production. In addition to that, it's always worth checking out where the wool actually comes from by doing a quick Google search. If you want to keep it as ecological as possible, you should of course inform yourself about locally produced wool, which does not have to travel half way around the world to reach us.
Mulesing is no longer allowed or practiced everywhere. The main producers of merino wool are Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina. Germany also has some merino sheep, although only a small portion is used for the wool market.
In the countries of New Zealand, South Africa and Germany, mulesing is prohibited and in Argentina the procedure is uncommon and therefore not used.
The majority of merino wool comes from Australia, where unfortunately mulesing is also most common. Only 10% of Australian merino wool comes from mulesing-free farms.
So when buying, make sure you know exactly which country your selection comes from or ask at your local yarn store. If you choose Australian merino wool, be sure to find out if it comes from a farm that uses the practice. If you can't find any information about it, it's very likely that the wool is not mulesing-free and I would shy away from it.
I've picked out a few examples of animal-friendly merino wool for you. In the list you will also find some local German suppliers.
Grosswolle from Germany
Finkhof organic wool from Germany
Rosy Green Wool organically produced in Portugal and England
Knitting For Olive Wolle aus Patagonien, hergestellt in Italien
Malabrigo biologische Wolle aus Uruguay
What to look for when buying angora wool?
The wool of angora rabbits is a rather rarely used quality. However, those who would like to use the extremely fluffy and warm yarn should also pay attention to the country of origin.
About 95% of the angora wool that is available on the market comes from China. This poses a problem in the case that China unfortunately has no legislation that decrees sufficient animal welfare in the country. Thus, the rabbits - and for that matter all other animals in a Chinese production chain - are not protected from the tortures and hardships I told you about last week.
So if you decide to use angora wool, make sure it's not made in China.
Again I have found an alternative from happy and properly kept angora rabbits from Germany. If you want, you can buy skeins there with a clear conscience:
Seidenhase from Germany
What to look for when buying alpaca | cashmere | mohair wool?
For all these types of wool, it is difficult to give a generally valid advice, except to inform yourself in advance about the brand. Many countries that produce the wool sadly have inadequate animal welfare legislation, which encourages poor animal housing conditions.
The majority of alpaca wool comes from Peru, where there are no standards focused on animal handling. This does not mean that every alpaca wool coming from Peru also has inadequate conditions for the animal. Nevertheless, careful research should be done to prevent the purchase of such wool.
Click here for fair alpaca wool:
Hansa Farm in Peru
Alpaca Wool from the Silberberg in Germany
The situation is similar for cashmere goats. Much of the wool comes from Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan traders. Smaller quantities also come from Afghanistan, Iran, and to some extent Australia and New Zealand. Here again, the problem of poor animal welfare conditions in China directly gets in the way.
But unfortunately it is not possible to say anything generally valid for the other countries of origin either. Only rarely is the wool of the goats really obtained in a manner appropriate to the species. This is due to the fact that the natural process of obtaining cashmere from the undercoat involves a lot of waiting. This is because the process involves waiting for the sought-after fur to fall out on its own in order to collect it. Mostly, however, this step is bypassed and the animals are brushed with metal combs to get at it.
Pascuali has taken up a cashmere series, which excludes exactly this procedure and produces fair wool:
Pascual Organic Cashmere Wool from Mongolia
And lastly, the mohair wool from Angora goats. The country of origin with the most mohair distribution is South Africa, with about half of global sales. These are joined by the USA, Australia and Turkey.
Here I can only repeat what has already been said: it should be checked individually where the wool comes from. Orientate yourself by whether it is specifically emphasized that it is wool from animal-friendly farming. If it is not mentioned or not addressed, you should rather move away from it.
Because let's be honest: who wouldn't want to advertise an animal-friendly and species-appropriate production, if it really is so?
I also found a few examples for fair mohair wool:
Knitting for Olive Soft Silk Mohair from South Africa
Pret a faire Mohair from South Africa and Spain
That concludes today's blog post. I hope I was able to get you thinking a bit about whether you might want to reach for an alternative or fair yarn next time.
Of course, my examples are only snippets and by no means the only animal welfare oriented distributors on the market. If you know other great distributors that you think should be on the lists, please let me know! In my opinion, you can never know too many :)
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