My Visit to Swans Island Yarn and Earth Day
My Visit to Swans Island Yarn in Maine, USA
April 22nd is Earth Day. It set me thinking about how we, in the yarn business, play our part in the big scheme.
The act of crafting in itself, re-using, ‘me-made’ all inspire us to consider what it is we use and how we use it to express ourselves through the things we choose to wear and make.
The effort that we put into hand-made clothing – and the way we wear it brings us closer to the producers. It is one of the things that makes me feel best about crafting and knitting. The smell of yarn from the studio and the indigo dye ‘crocking’ on to fingers as we knit, all bring the process right home.
I visited Swans Island in Maine and watched as they dyed their organic yarns with indigo. We carry their Natural Colours collection in fingering and worsted weights at Fig Tree Yarns – the only outlet that does this side of the Atlantic.
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- This building just off the Atlantic Highway in Northport, Maine, is the Swans Island HQ and production house
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- Me trying to capture the moment
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- Inside the despatch area.
Each new delivery takes me back to that day in their historic dye-house just off Atlantic Highway in Northport, Maine, 220 miles north of Boston.
Our latest box from Swan’s Island was full of Ikat hand-dyes. Each skein of organic merino wool certified organic by the Global Organic Textile Standard, is hand-tied and hand-dyed using one of the oldest techniques in textile decoration connecting us to generations of crafters who preceded us.
I think I will mark ‘Earth Day’ 2017 by creating with this fabulous organic yarn.
Check out what yarns we have in stock from Swan’s Island here!
