It doesn't get more sustainable than this: Knitting with recycled wool

3 Stränge der Kremke reborn Wool in Pink, Dunkel grün und grün

Today, I want to briefly tell you about something that surprised me: Yesterday, I took the time to calculate how many garments we've given new life to with our recycled yarns. I arrived at an astonishing approximately 4200 wool sweaters, about 4000 cotton shirts, and almost 5000 pairs of jeans that were recycled for the first shipment of our Kremke Soul Wool yarns Reborn Wool, Karma Cotton, and Reborn Denim. And reorders will follow soon, bringing us to a total of around 20,000 recycled garments this year. This makes me incredibly happy because, for me, recycling is an essential part of sustainability.

Do you even know our recycled yarns?

We have three yarns that are recycled from used textiles. Such yarns are called post-human fibers, and ours are Reborn Wool, Reborn Denim uni, and Reborn Denim colori. Using Reborn Wool as an example, I'd like to briefly explain how the whole process works.

The production process of Reborn Wool from recycled textiles

First, incoming textiles are sorted by their wool content. Garments with a minimum of 60% wool are taken into the production line. The exact percentage doesn't matter initially. These can be pure wool items or various blends, for example, 70% wool, 30% polyester, etc. Next, these wool garments are sorted by color. The quantity of each color that comes out varies by season, which is why I can't always say precisely how long a color will be in stock. Then the garments are shredded, and about 10-15% recycled polyester from PET bottles is added. This blend is necessary because recycled fibers are very short and therefore not very tear-resistant and a bit irregular. The polyester ensures a smooth, stable thread.

Reborn Wool has a rather compact thread structure and is therefore perfect for knitting textured patterns – for sweaters and cardigans as well as for blankets and cushions. Here I knitted a blanket from Reborn Wool. It feels like pure wool, and some of the colors have a slight tweed effect, which looks very natural. Here is the pattern for the Reborn Wool Triangle Blanket.

Reborn Denim – a yarn from recycled jeans


Our Reborn Denim uni and Reborn Denim colori from Kremke Soul Wool are produced very similarly to Reborn Wool, except that here the limited color palette is expanded by adding 10% premium cotton. The yarn thus contains 85% recycled jeans, 10% cotton, and 5% other fibers – these are labels, sewing thread, and appliques. Here, the premium cotton provides the necessary stability.

Karma Cotton is made from recycled cotton and PET bottles


The Kremke Karma Cotton is not recycled from worn garments, but from yarn scraps and fabrics that were not used for garments. Just like with Reborn Wool, 30% recycled PET bottles (rPET) are added to 70% recycled cotton fibers. Karma Cotton knits up like a beautiful, soft pure cotton yarn, is easy to care for, and is therefore suitable not only for tops and sweaters for adults but also ideal for knitting baby and children's clothing or blankets. The photo shows a simple summer sweater made from the recycled cotton yarn.

And what does PETA say about it?


In an article about vegan wool from the animal welfare organization PETA, it states on this topic: "Plastics such as polyester or polyacrylic are chemically produced and can imitate a wide variety of fabrics. [...] Despite petroleum being the basic material, the production of many plastics scores better on ecological comparison portals like the Higg Index than wool. This is because the intensive animal husbandry required for wool production causes environmental problems. For example, the widespread use of highly toxic chemical baths in conventional animal husbandry leads, among other things, to water pollution. A more ecologically sound alternative is recycled plastics, for example, rPET (recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate). rPET has an almost 90 percent lower CO2 footprint than nylon and a 75 percent lower CO2 footprint than new polyester. In addition, it even causes 50 percent fewer emissions than organic cotton."

Eco Cashmere – a mix of recycled and premium cashmere


Our Kremke Eco Cashmere is also made from pre-consumer fibers, specifically 50% from recycled cashmere remnants that arise in the same spinning mill from which we source Eco Cashmere. The other 50% is premium, meaning non-recycled cashmere. This results in an affordable, pure cashmere yarn that doesn't pill and is incredibly soft and light. Hinterm Stein designed this wonderful StepUp sweater with Eco Cashmere.


Well, that's all for today. I would be happy if you help us save 20,000 garments from landfill next year too, and simply try one of our lovingly developed recycled yarns for your next knitting project. Here you can go directly to the Recycling Yarn category. Oh, by the way: The yarns are surprisingly affordable.

If you want to stay up to date and never miss a discount promotion or new yarn release in the future, it's best to subscribe to our Soul Wool Newsletter. As a small welcome gift, we'll send you a free pattern after you sign up.

See you soon!
Your Britta the Knitta