Earlier this summer, DBNY had a sale on lace yarns and among them was Possum Lace. Yarn that was made with 30% possum fur.
I didn’t think anything of it and got a skein of “Old Roses” colorway which was so pretty that I figured it’d be a pretty way to try my hand at lace knitting. Plus hey possum!
I suppose I should have thought about it more and realized that possums aren’t like sheep, hanging around to get sheared.
The possums are killed and then their fur is taken for the yarn!
However, in what is a 180° flip on what I expect to see in ‘conservationism’, by buying possum yarn, I am SUPPORTING the New Zealand environmental conservation efforts.
Because apparently the little bastards are eating New Zealand!
If locusts had fur, I’m sure we’d all be happy to buy locust yarn thanks to their crop destroying nature. Dustbowl anyone?
So yea, I’m a little taken aback about this. I’m used to the opposite message of not buying things made from animals because it’ll promote their extinction, i.e. ivory, furs of exotic cats, etc. Gonna have to percolate that in my brain for a bit.