Let's talk about knitting and climate change

The climate is changing and it's impacting our knitting, but no one is really talking about it. Today Anjali and Alison talk about it, joined by TWYAK's first-ever guest: Lisa Johnson, a climate journalist with CBC News and an avid knitter. The conversation covers the climate impacts of knitting -- from sheep farms to finished sweaters -- as well as the "climate resilience" knitting can bring to knitters and their communities.

Find Lisa's work at lisasjohnson.ca

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Background Reading from Climate Lisa

• Greenhouse gas emissions from a diversity of sheep production systems in the United States — Article with the surprising finding about more intensive vs more range-based sheep farming methods, but please watch the episode for more context from Lisa
• Environmental impacts associated with the production, use, and end-of-life of a woollen garment — Follows a theoretical 300-gram sweater from sheep to the end of a sweater's life, in an attempt to measure its environmental impacts
• Evaluating Environmental Impact of Natural and Synthetic Fibers: A Life Cycle Assessment Approach — Looks at the environmental impact of six fibers: conventional and organic cotton, silk, jute, flax, and polyester
• Learn more about regenerative wool at Fibershed

Knitting Things

• Mungo, a recycled cotton-wool yarn from Retrosaria Rosa Pomar, entirely made with pre-consumer waste from Portuguese spinning mills
• Look at My Holes pattern by James Watts
• Project Hail Mary cardigan pattern, charts and resources

Alison's Book Recommendations

• The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts
• The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives
• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Anjali's Podcast Recommendations

• Bandsplain's Radiohead episode, Part 1 and Part 2
• Dissect Season 11 about Radiohead's In Rainbows