From time to time this issue is raised on blogs, Knitters Review forums and in-person knitting groups. Most knitters seem to agree with the farmers on the sad necessity of mulesing. Others have decided upon learning about this practice to no longer knit with wool. I can understand their feelings, but - that won’t work for me. Cotton hurts my wrists. Most synthetics are gross, IMO. (And they use a lot of petrochemicals in their production, but I digress.) Knitting with wool makes me feel connected to the planet and to generations before me who have done the same. But, as the VK article also notes, merino wool is a luxury -- one that I do not want to enjoy if it means supporting animal cruelty.
So, I did some research. I found that although a number of countries (South Africa, New Zealand, Uruguay and the U.S.) produce merino wool, the mulesing practice is limited to Australia. So I decided to write to yarn companies and ask if they knew the country of origin of their merino wool, figuring that if it was from anywhere other than Australia, I could be fairly certain that the wool harvesting process was cruelty-free.
You can find the results of my research here. My findings are less than scientific and somewhat incomplete, but the information may still be useful to you. I also welcome any additions or updates you may have if you’ve done your own research. Feel free to read, copy, and distribute as you please. (I’d love to know about it if you do - email link is in the sidebar.)
And since we’re on the subject, how about a progress shot of my Uruguayan merino wool sweater:
Happy knitting, all!
4 comments:
This is interesting, thanks for the links. Poor little sheep.
Wow, thank you so much for this information. In trying to be a conscious consumer, I've oftened wondered about the treatment of the fiber animals. I hope you don't mind if I spread this info around! Oh, and you're going to look so lovely in that sweater when it's done.
this is the first time that I have read about mulesing and I am totally appalled that anyone can do this to an animal. I'm going to have to do a lot more work to know where my yarn is coming from.
Thanks for thinking about this and doing this investigation. You've made me think about where my yarn comes from and how to be a more cautious stasher!
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