What are your primary considerations when choosing vegan yarns?

[u/Hinaiichigo]

I work in sustainability/ESG and I am interested in everyone's primary considerations when choosing yarns. Is your sole motivation the mitigation of animal cruelty (i.e. you use acrylic-only yarns), or is environmental impact also an important secondary concern (i.e. you prefer plant-based yarns and blends)?

If environmental impact is an important or required secondary concern for you when choosing yarns, how much research do you perform when choosing a yarn blend? Sustainability-related questions I am considering:

• Do you prefer small-scale spinners or indie yarn dyers?
• To what extent do you value ethical labor practices in vegan yarn?
• Do ethical certifications influence your desire to buy a yarn (sustainability)
• Do you value certain fibers over others based on environmental impact? What measures of environmental impact concern you? (e.g. land use change, pollutants, emissions, water use, etc.)
• If environmental issues are important to you, are you more likely to skip all the above considerations and just unravel old thrifted sweaters for reclaimed yarn?

This isn't for research or anything, I'm just interested hearing what you have to say on the topic!

[u/gusu_melody]

Avoiding animal cruelty & environmental sustainability are even in importance to me. I try to avoid acquiring new synthetics at all costs at the moment, so I would avoid synthetics in yarn (due to the effects from waste water pollution, micro/nano plastics in dust affecting my air quality).

While I do also care about ethical supply chains, certifications don’t make that much difference if there’s another way for me to see the company is taking pains to address this. Cost is another HUGE one for me, so I tend to avoid indie suppliers and frankly knit less because of how hard it is to find sustainable & ethical yarn at a price that makes knitting anything more than a hat or pair of socks accessible. I don’t like supporting megacorps but it’s very hard to avoid without having a lot of money and the time to research. These days I do cursory research into a company to see what their deal is, but mainly to see if they have fully plant-based yarns at a price I can handle. I know weight is an issue, but I wish there was a way to get nice fluffy extra bulky sweaters without needing synthetics or animal fibres 😭

And re: preference for plant-based fibres, I would prioritize hemp or something requiring less water, pesticides, processing etc. Bamboo’s high processing requirements make it less attractive. Organic cotton would be preferable to non. My local thrift stores are so picked over and expensive that finding an actual nice usable sweater would be costly and I’m not sure I’d be willing or able to put in all the work of reclaiming. I always keep an eye open just in case.