Dudes of Craft is a weekly series from Keli Anaya exploring the mysterious world of men who craft.

I failed to mention something in the past couple of posts. Now, there is something that you might not know about me; I LOVE being environmentally friendly. I loathe throwing things away. Recycling is second nature to me and I will recycle anything that I think might be recyclable. I know the names of the plastics that fall into the numbered triangles on the bottom of plastic products.  At work, I will go so far as to pick things out of the trash to put them in the recycling bin (not usually in the kitchen, so not as gross — I did say usually).

Plastics biodegrade depending on the hardness of the plastic and we don’t know how long it will take for them to breakdown because they haven’t been around for very long.  Some estimates range from 500 to 1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose.

Something has been pushing my ‘this is not environmentally friendly’ button for the past couple of weeks. This is the culprit:

Wah! Poly-Cotton Blend

The yarn I used for the past couple of videos is part cotton part synthetic. Oooops! Polyester/Cotton, Wool/Acrylic, and 100% acrylic yarns are common in craft stores. The natural elements of those blends will biodegrade, but the plastic fibers will not for at least 500 years. Whoa! I’m pretty sure that the inhabitants of Earth 2510 will not want that acrylic granny square blanket you might be making.

The good news is that several choices of natural fibers exist that will biodegrade. Two types come to mind: plant based fibers and animal based fibers.

Cotton, an old favorite, is readily available at craft stores. I’ve also seen an increase in bamboo yarn. Linen comes from flax.  You might make a outdoor rug with hemp from the cannabis plant or with jute.

Animal hair makes great yarn.  Angora wool comes from Angora rabbits, Cashmere comes from goats including the Cashmere goat, Mohair comes from the Angora goat, and good old wool comes from sheep.  From South America comes Alpaca fleece from the alpaca, Guanaco wool from the guanaco, Llama wool from the llama, and Vicuña wool from the vicuña. Don’t forget silk from the silk worm.

Or, instead of buying new yarn, you can also reuse old sweaters by harvesting the material it’s made from. Here is post 1 and 2 from Re-Nest on how to deconstruct old sweaters for their beautiful bounty.

Next time you want to chaos stitch a sweet new scarf, pick out a natural yarn. It will feel so much better on your skin and will help out the planet.

P.S.  Ooops #2: my crochet hook is plastic. They do come in metal and wood, promise. You could also pick up a used one. The same goes for knitting needles!