My current work at college is a knitted interior project and is based on my own photographs and found images of Orkney. Orkney captured my imagination earlier this year during a work experience trip to the island during the summer. In this project I am interested in the juxtaposition of man made objects and natural materials and the colours and patterns found within a Orcadian seaside setting. I was inspired by the natural colours found in sea weather beaten wood and particallary curriosive rust colours caused by the natural deterioration of a man made metal objects in contrast with the indigo blues and scarlet red of plastic binsand buckets used by fishermen.
I attended a Spinner's Guild meeting I was saddened to learn that many british sheep farmers were burning their fleeces due to lack of demand from the British textile industry. Further research told me that approximately 80% of wool imported into the UK travels from Austrailia and New Zealand. This led me to think about the 'carbon footprint' of a product and decide that in this project I would only use yarn produced in the UK. This would not only reduce my carbon footprint but also (if this was to be manufactured) would support the local wool trade.
During a trip to the 'knitting and Stitching Show' in October I was able to source yarn from a company in Yorkshirewho specialise in Wensleydale Longwool sheep. From them I bought beautiful natural black combed tops which I hand spun into yarn and natural white non carded ringlets of fleece. Also in October I visited a lady in Oxfordshire (see previous blog) who breeds alpacas and from her I was able to obtain natural alpaca yarn. In this project I am also using yarn from Shetland.
It is difficult in the textile industry to produce 100% green/eco friendly products. I felt a compromise was required in order to produce a visually appealing item with a strong optimistic message of celebrating locally 'home spun' knits for interiors.
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