What is Recycled Silk Yarn? (part 2)

As the name implies, recycled silk yarn is made from recycled silk, more specifically the waste silk from industrial weaving mills in India (the silk is mostly used to make saris). The yarn is hand-spun in Nepal, giving women there a way to work and earn money. It's beautiful all around.

The Beauty of Recycled Silk:

Because the hanks of recycled silk yarn are made individually, each one is unique. There's no dye lot on recycled silk yarn, and even if you buy two hanks from the same manufacturer at the same time there's no guarantee that the colors are going to be the same.

(photo courtesy of: http://www.ethniccrafts.co.uk/)

But really that is the beauty of using recycled silk. Each piece has its own individuality and everything you make from the yarn is its own work of art, completely unique.

(http://knitting.about.com/od/yarn/p/recycledsilk.htm)

Sarah E White – author of sari, eco friendly, organic cotton - knitting.guide@about.com

Keeping with the theme of loving the planet, it seemed the perfect opportunity  take a look at Labour Behind the Label, a campaigning organisation with a clear mission.

(photo courtesy of: www.ethniccrafts.co.uk)

Labour Behind the Label (http://www.labelbehindthelabel.org/) "supporting garment workers worldwide"

Labour Behind the Label is a campaign that supports garment workers' efforts worldwide to improve their working conditions, through awareness raising, information provision and encouraging international solidarity between workers and consumers.

This is just one of the issues that they campaign to change:

Working conditions

In many countries, a job in a factory producing clothing for the UK fashion industry is a sought-after position.  But workers across the world face a daily grind of excessive hours, forced overtime, lack of job security, poverty wages, denial of trade union rights, poor health, exhaustion, sexual harassment and mental stress.  Even in factories which on the surface look clean and modern, workers are often deprived of their internationally-recognised basic rights. Learn more about the conditions workers face here...

http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/issues/itemlist/category/169-working-conditions

E: info (at) labour behind the label . org (all one word)

Labour Behind the Label provides some real food for thought. 

Sari spiral brooches

These are spiral brooches with the edge – quite literally!  Measuring 5cm (approx.) in diameter, these spirals are handknitted from cotton rich wool (pink/mid blue and navy respectively) and edged with colourful sari silk yarn.  These brooches look stunning set against a plain background…..and the beauty of them is that each will match many colours, such is the rainbow sari palette.

They also make ideals gifts – affordable, easy to post. 

To buy, visit  www.folksy.com/shops/MosaicTree and click on ‘brooches’.