The Wool Wire | October 30, 2024
Praiseworthy Pulitzer prizewinning mittens, certifying Canadian wool, venturing to the Faroe Islands, peeking at the blooming wool bloomer market, and celebrating circularity victories in the US
News snippets from the wool world
Hello, my wool friends!
How often do you have a chance to knit a pattern designed by a Pulitzer Prize-winning, Icelandic sheep-rearing author? Unless Barbara Kingsolver is involved, the answer is never.
This week, Kingsolver released her second knitting pattern. This one is a combination glove and mitten pattern called "Catch a Firefly."
As with her previous pattern, this one is available exclusively on the phone and tablet-based app Knitrino. I may finally have to install the app, because those mittens beg for a Maine winter.
Celebrating Canadian wool
Our friends at Canadian Wool have just created a new Canadian Wool Certification program to help promote transparency and traceability and elevate public awareness about wool grown in Canada. And this is their logo!
The Canadian Wool Certification program is an initiative to create a nationally recognized logo representing wool and value-added wool products that were grown and manufactured in Canada.
While Woolmark is funded by a tax levied on every bale of Merino sold in Australia, the Canadian Wool Certification is voluntary and, dare I say, quite affordable, at just $45 per year. In my opinion it's a no-brainer for anyone wishing to highlight the fact that they're using wool grown in Canada.
To the Faroes we go
Anyone grappling with a case of wooly wanderlust? I have an intriguing BBC story for you about the Faroe Islands—including plenty of talk about the legendary sheep who call the Faroes home.
We know that these sheep provide food and fiber but did you know they also serve as handy low-impact lawnmowers for houses with sod roofs?
Tim Ecott
The article left me eager to read Tim Ecott's 2020 book, The Land of Maybe: A Faroe Islands Year.
Bountiful Branwyn bloomers
I'm always intrigued to see how capitalism, entrepreneurship, and wool might be able to peacefully coexist. This story about the women's underwear brand Branwyn piqued my interest, not just because Branwyn uses wool but because I'm already a happy customer.
The piece profiles Jeff Bauer, a "serial entrepreneur" in the textiles space who became disillusioned by all the greenwashing he saw—from toxic dyeing to falsely labeling conventional cotton as organic and marketing clothes made from recycled polyester as "sustainable."
Then he stumbled upon a young mother selling 100% Merino underwear at a craft fair. She invited him to purchase the business, and Branwyn is on track to make $10 million in revenue this year. It's a compelling story.
...a first-of-its-kind merino wool performance wear brand solely focused on women's bras and underwear for athletic women like hikers and climbers.
I should note that Branwyn's fabric contains 81% ZQ-, OEKO TEX-, and Responsible Wool Standard-certified Merino along with 12% nylon and 7% spandex. They're pricey, but I've had mine for several years and they're wearing quite well.
Two victories for circularity in the US
The EU has long been ahead of us in terms of implementing legislation and policies that prioritize extending the life of textiles through reuse, repair, and recycling. But recently the United States has made moves to catch up.
Our first circularity victory comes thanks to millions of dollars that the Walmart Foundation has pledged to Goodwill Industries, which wants to become the go-to service for the textile-to-textile recycling market. The funds are for ongoing programs to "develop skills, systems, and infrastructure for aggregating, sorting, and preparing textiles for reuse and recycling across the Goodwill network."
Isatou Ndure
Considering the staggering quantities of clothes that American consumers drop off at Goodwill every single week, it makes absolute sense for them to be our recycling starting point as well.
Meanwhile, California just ratified the first Extended Producer Responsibility recycling program aimed to address textile waste in the United States. You can read the full contents of SB-707 Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024 here. Kudos to Fibershed for diligently working to help bring this bill to life!
And on that note, I'll let you go.
Thanks, as always, for your readership and your support.
Until next time,
Clara
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