Tips for More Sustainable Crochet/Knitting

We have all been watching the world change over the last few years. We are facing a climate crisis with a huge amount of pollution and waste damaging our home.

We all want to try and reduce our individual impacts and here are a few tips to think about when crocheting/knitting.

 Disclaimer: This climate crisis is bigger than one person. These are suggestions but it can be expensive and unavailable to a lot of people to be able to buy natural fibres and more expensive equipment, so this is a zero judgement zone. Take what can apply to you and keep making amazing things you beautiful human.

• Look for natural when buying new tools – You can buy great quality bamboo or metal hooks/needle and metal stitch markers etc. There are some great smaller brands that produce fantastic accessories for crafting that are more sustainable. That being said if you find plastic handles more comfortable that is also fine as we have to buy what we will actually use.

• Try to buy natural yarns - Natural yarns include pure wool, alpaca, linen, bamboo, and cotton. This can be down to budget as a lot of options are prohibitively expensive in large quantities, but cotton yarns can be reasonably priced and great for lighter projects.

• Try to avoid buying yarn in bulk with no projects in mind - this can be tough but getting carried away with discounts can mean that you spend too much and may never actually use the yarn you buy.

• You can buy/make recycled yarn – You can make yarn made from recycled bedsheets/old cotton t-shirts, or plastic bags. There are websites that sell recycled fibre yarn whether it be wool, cotton, or even beautiful Sari silk.

• Check out your local charity shops/thrift stores – These can be great for finding old sewing boxes and supplies that are cheap and good quality. You can also get yarn by unravelling old jumpers from the back of the wardrobe or a charity shop/thrift store.

• Save your scraps – this is a great strategy for keeping your waste low. If there is a bit of yarn left over from a project that may not be enough to finish anything you can save them. You can make yourself a scraps jar that you can put all your tiny ends you snip off of projects when sewing in. If you separate out the fibres once the jar is full you have the perfect toy stuffing.

• Try to buy from small businesses/producers – There are some incredible small businesses that hand dye and spin their own yarn that can really have unique colours that you will not find in more mainstream shops. A lot of smaller businesses use natural dyes and local producers, so their products are often kinder to the environment with fewer pollutants and help support an entire community.