I’ve just received this email from a passionate knitter, Kristine, seeking support for a campaign to reduce wool miles (what next?):

Hi Michael,

This is something I was hoping you might share with your various email

connections. A friend of mine in Victoria has spearheaded the TON OF

WOOL project:

wool.pozible.com…

Kylie is passionate about minimising the “air miles” of the wool we

knit with. This project is her way of actually doing something about

it.

From her press release:

“TON OF WOOL”  is an innovative online initiative to demonstrate the

viability of onshore processed wool. Supporters of the project pledge

money online at wool.pozible.com… in return for rewards such as

yarn and wool top. Intended to help boost demand for sheep-to-skein

“all Australian” processing, the project is also about education.

Current labelling and terms like ‘Grown and spun in Australia’

obviously aren’t telling the full story, when that product has been

scoured and processed in China, and it’s not on the label. If

Australia is shipping seventy percent of its wool clip to China, that

means we’re using fossil fuels to transport around 60 million tonnes

of scourable waste each year. Consumers should have a right to know

when a product has left the country before it’s reached them for sale.

Less about speed than quality, the project entails taking time in the

top making and spinning stages to ensure that people who pledge on

Pozible will get a product that will leave them speechless when they

open their packages. No other company in Australia is producing yarn

from Cormo sheep, an unmulesed, sustainably farmed breed founded in

Tasmania, which is what makes the end product so special. TON OF WOOL

is about proving that we’re capable of making first class yarn without

it leaving the country and that there’s a demand for it.

—–THE IMPORTANT PART—–

Kylie has to raise $33,000 as a *minimum* to get the ton of wool

processed. She’s doing it through “Pozible”, which is a

Kickstarter-type website that allows people to contribute to big

projects – but the contributions don’t count if the target isn’t

reached. There are 45 hours to go, and she’s now within $2K of the

total. It’s been amazing how this thing has picked up steam. (She was

at $24K when I blogged it yesterday on mysite.)

Anyway, I just thought perhaps you could share this with anybody you

thought might be interested. The entire online Australian knitting

community is getting behind this project, but it’s worthy enough that

I think others would be interested to know about it too!

Thanks,

Kris