The Economics of Clothing Part 2 (More reasons)

I keep thinking about clothing and how quickly we go through things, and it bothers me.  I look at the pajamas with the tears in the fabric that my son purchased less than a year ago... That should not be.  I look at where we get the majority of our clothing and our fabric from.  The affordable stuff, comes from India or China, and it leaves a huge carbon footprint on this old earth (and most likely is manufactured by children who are overworked and underpaid).  It just doesn't seem right when I know there is a forest full of fiber, as well as local sheep, alpaca and more.  It is not hard to spin, in fact, wouldn't it make more sense to spin something locally and dye it locally and weave it or knit it locally and wear it locally.  Wouldn't one logically assume that we grow what we need, and the warmth that we need to cover out bodies in is right here.  Everything we need.

For instance, I use a kick spindle when I spin.  What's a kick spindle.... below in that picture is my kick spindle.. you put it on the floor and kick the wheel and round it goes .  It was made from local cedar, by someone locally who crafted it so that I could spin.  It's a great little spindle and I love it.  Much faster than a drop spindle once you get used to it.  On there I spin wool so that I can make hats and mitts and things to keep you warm and dry.

You see, one of the great things about wool is it's ability to keep you both warm and dry, and should the wool get wet, you will still be warm.  It's amazing.  As long as the wool has some lanolin (sheep fat) it will keep things water proof.  It's rainy here where I live and wool  does well here.  As well wool breathes, which is better for your skin then clothes made out of synthetics, which don't breathe.  

At this point I've been thinking, with so many people out of work, why aren't we creating a cottage industry where you have home spinners who create textiles, and designers who make things from the fabric or wool,or textile creators who design and create clothing themselves.  Locally without that carbon footprint that is going to get bigger as gas prices keep going up.  

This is just a little food for thought, but I'm going to go back to spinning now and figuring out how to make a working textile industry in a stuck economy :D...