Ethical Crochet

I commit to this page informations, photos and some of my own meditations. I think it will be useful and I deem it my duty, too. Thank you for your visit: I hope you'll read the whole page.


I must state something first. It is my persuasion that people who buy and consume a product only because they're used to it and they don't know any alternative are deprived of a right: the right to choose. If I don't know how a product is made and all the processes involved, how can I make me aware of it? I don't know what I buy, don't I?
When choosing yarns for my works I always followed my aesthetical sense, the touching pleasure and the look of the fibres. I wanted to buy yarns that help me to get to my works done the way I want.
Thanks to the internet I found a lot of info about yarns, fiber companies from my country and especially from abroad. Thanks to internet I found out new (for me) fibers and yarns and a lot of informations and fotographs about how wool is made.
I found out the pattern for a knitted bamboo garment. Bamboo yarn made me curious, so with a google-search I found the vegan way to knit and crochet. I found out a gallery full of real horrors too. These are the sites:



I realized that nice happy knitting sheep in wool advertises is a lie and an offending hypocrisy, as well as an happy pig in a sausages' advertise.

I've never bought furs, I haven't eat meat and haven't bought leather (except winter shoes) since long time... but I didn't realize the real situation.
Thanks to some A.R. organizations and their campaigns, I realized that the use of any animal product is absolutely wrong, immoral an full of consequences for the future.
In recent years we are learning to be more and more aware of what's beyond the products that we use daily. We control the ingredients, we read labels, we avoid products coming from sweatshops... basically, we know that every item has a story, as it is the product of a system that we want to understand deeply.
I don't know if you are omnivore, vegetarian or vegan, anyway I think that YOU have the right to know what you put in your shopping basket.
Awareness has changed my life, hope it will change yours too.
Check this link, it will clarify what i'm talking about:


Will we accept that thousands and thousands of creatures are forced to a miserable existence, imprisoned, abused and tortured, to finish their life piled in a lorry, thirsty, waiting to arrive to the slaughterhouse? No? But then we accept shamelessly to buy a loden coat, or a felt brooch, or a wool carpet. Maybe it's possible, technically, not to feel empathy for the suffering of gentle creatures that, presumptuously, we consider "lower". Maybe it's also possible to consider some animals as objects with no rights, no sernses and no nerves. Still, I think that it's NOT possible to keep unconcerned when watching a video like this:

 
Learn more at SaveTheSheep.com

After watching this, we can be really aware of the cruelty that hides beyond the regular ball of wool.
Now you can see some more pictures, consider that I've selected the less violent ones, not to offend the sensibility of those of you that are more empathic towards animals (because hopefully you already know that we have to stop this massacre).

 
shepherd "working"

these poor creatures are still alive! they have been immobilized for the "mulesing"! Please, remember this picture the next time that you see some advertisig about wool and about the shepherds' traditional trade:

The "mulesing" means to skin the perianal area and to cut the animal's tail with no anaesthesia. "Mulesing" prevents the wool to get in contact with foeces.

images courtesy of: oltrelaspecie.org
destination slaughterhouse
a dead sheep trampled during transportation

 

Ignorance can't justify ourselves. We can't pretend that what we have seen is an exception: it's the routine. Shepherds and breeders know that they're making these creatures suffer, but (they say) no one cares. Well, I do care. I'm saying that our choices can make us part of the problem, or part of the solution. There are so many new types of yarn that are way better than wool. They are warm, bright and colourful. We just have to ask at our local shop, or maybe online, there is pile yarn, microfiber yarn, chenille... different thicknesses, different colours, good for anything we want to do.

We know that fur means cruelty, we know that leather clothes drip with blood, we know to avoid ivory, pearls and coral to respect animals. Ok. so it's time for one more step. We have to boycott the wool industry. Even better, let's ban wool, felt, leather, silk, feather from our studios.

Thanks for your attention. Please remember what you have read the next time you have to buy yarns.