All of the cotton yarn we sell is Organic, meaning no chemicals or pesticides were used to grow the cotton and there were no chemical processes used from the raw picked cotton to the finshed yarn product. We look for and offer yarns that are certified organic and fair trade. Fair trade means that the people that processed the yarn from start to finish received a fair living wage and work in good conditions. There is also a guarantee of no child labor exploitation or slave wages. This can make anyone feel good about their purchase.
Most of the colors are color grown. That is the way it grows in Peru. It is simply amazing to see the range of Deep Browns, Deep Greens available with colors like Sage, Cream and Natural. We were so used to thinking cotton was grown solely white, like a cotton ball. Now people have access to the amazing feats of nature & man with these kind of cotton yarns.
We knit with all these yarns and love them all. They are very soft and wash very well. All the color grown yarns get deeper (some more than others) in color with hot water and machine drying. Most conventional dyes fade over time. If you want to keep the color as is I would suggest a cool water wash with no machine drying. There is usually a one time shrinkage of a knit project by about 10~15% in the length, so keep this in mind when working on a project unless a pattern already specifies it.
