Baa baa black sheep, have you any environmentally friendly wool?

April 4, 2006 6:49 PM

I'm looking for a custom textile manufacturer, either in the United States or Canada.

But, I'm having an incredibly difficult time finding a company who can manufacture wool fabric using environmentally responsible dyes and finishing. Google hasn't turned up anything and all my leads have been dead ends.

Mefites know everything, so I'm really hoping there's someone here with some knowledge who can point me in the right direction, or recommend some specific companies to me.

Thank you!

posted by discokitty to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (3 answers total)

Sorry I can't be of more help, but are you talking about knitted fabric, or woven? If you want knitted fabric you might be able to find a dye house that meets your needs, then find (machine) knitters to produce the fabric or garment pieces. If you look around for machine knitting guilds you can probably find some leads.

Woven fabrics - no experience there, but maybe the same sort of approach would work? Find a dye house, then look for weavers instead of trying to find one place that can do it all.

Totally random thought: Sally Fox developed naturally-colored cotton yarns despite considerable obstacles - maybe you could contact her and see if she has any suggestions for wool. Here's the contact info from her website.
posted by Quietgal at 8:43 PM on April 4, 2006

Look for ads in magazines for people who keep sheep. A friend of mine recently died who kept sheep, and processed the wool. Some she dyed using natural sources (or koolaid, I kid not). There was a community of people into natural wool and sheep raising. She also wove and knitted. She made cool patterns by using only the undyed wool from different sheep, apart from her dying efforts.
posted by Goofyy at 4:21 AM on April 5, 2006

Don't know if you've already checked them out, but if you want a bigger commercial manufacturer, Jasco Fabrics now has a certified organic wool line of fabrics with "eco-friendly" knitting and finishing. The line is called "Jasco Eco" according to their site. I've linked to an information listing rather than directly there because the company has an terribly annoying website without a great deal of content to compensate.

If small family-style mills or hand-woven fabric manufacturers work for your purposes, there are several other possibilities located in the US and Canada. Just as one example, Tierra Wools, sells naturally dyed, certified organic woolen yarns which they also knit or weave into finished apparel, tapestries, blankets and rugs. They don't explicitly say they do custom work, but doesn't seem like it would be too much of a stretch for them.
posted by mdevore at 11:13 PM on April 5, 2006