amaizing bamboo cornucopia

[piranha]

a new vegan alternative to animal-based fibres:  a couple of companies, kollage yarns and south west trading company now offer yarn from corn.  SWTC also has a 100% bamboo yarn.  don't know how either of those measure up in green terms, though.

Comments

[firecat]

*squee*!

I had a ball of another kind of bamboo yarn and I gave it to annaoj. I'll have to find out whether she knit anything with it.

[annaoj.livejournal.com]

I knit it together with some novelty yarn to make a scarf, which I gave to Isabel...and didn't photograph, oops. I should ask her to take a picture of it!

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Bamboo's nice; it knits up with a drapey but slightly "crisp" finish. I've also worked with soy "silk," which is softer and just as drapey, and am currently knitting a long wrap in a wonderful rayon-flax blend from Blue Moon Fiber Arts (http://www.bluemoonfiberarts.com/home) (the "Socks that Rock" people) that's just wonderful to touch. All share the same knitted-in-a-tube construction as the corn and bamboo yarn; they're a little splitty if you work with very pointy needles, but not too hard to control.

IANA vegan, but as much as I love knitting with wool, I have a hard time wearing it next to my skin (except as socks), and it's too warm for the climate here most of the year, so I've been playing with all the plant-fiber yarns I can lay hands on.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i have some soysilk for spinning, and yes, it's luxuriously soft. have you tried tencel/lyocell? it's made from cellulose (in a process that's apparently relatively green), and i've finally found a local source that resells the fibre. it's not as soft, but softer than hemp.

something else i'd like to try is ecospun/fortrel, which is made from recycled pop (PET) bottles -- not natural, but hey, at least 100% recycled -- but i haven't found it yet locally.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Breaking existing fibers all the way down to sugar and repolymerizing them doesn't sound very efficient. Maybe the explanation got a little mangled. I'll have to research sometime after I finish my paper; maybe there's primary literature!

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Bamboo I've run across before (and have 3 skeins of herb-dyed stuff waiting to made into something fabulous), but CORN!!!??!?? Wow. The world is ever so weird and wonderful.

[prairierabbit.livejournal.com]

The soy silk is fabulous, and it's made from tofu waste byproducts which I think is great. It's a bit spendy, though.

[1ginko.livejournal.com]

The bamboo yarn is sinfully textured. I nearly bought some just to touch. What is the durability of the corn and bamboo? Can you wash the fiber like you can say, cotton or other yarns?

[prairierabbit.livejournal.com]

The bamboo yarn is sinfully textured. I nearly bought some just to touch.

Be vewy careful! That how the yarn addiction starts!

As for durability, the corn yarn review was favorable for washing, so if I find some, I may have to try it.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

wash it like, wash it at all? oh yes, sure can. wash it like, boil the shit out of it? i have no idea. but then one can't do that with most yarns other than cotton either.

i don't know how long-lasting it is either, and i suspect nobody does because it's so new. but since it's expensive i doubt people will make things from it that undergo the sort of stress cotton and everyday synthetics have to put up with.

i'm gonna buy some and make long swatches to wash, to see how it affects the drape (certain yarns like flax, hemp, and natural cottons really improve with multiple washings).