Last month I made a trip to Vancouver to visit my son who went to live in Canada last August. One of the highlights of the trip was the opportunity to have a day’s skiing on Grouse Mountain, one of the three ski mountains surrounding the city.
For the first part of the day, it was wet and misty, but the moments of blue sky were wonderful! I love to ski (you can read my post about clothing for skiing in the post ‘What to wear for skiing’.
At the top of the cable-car on the mountain, there was a shop, Grouse Mountain Outfitters:
Inside the shop, I was interested to see the display below.
It shows in stages how the ski-wear brand ‘Picture’ uses recycled plastic to make first flakes, then pellets, then yarn, which can be woven into cloth for their jackets. Here is a photo of a ‘Picture’ ski jacket.
Nearby, were jackets and fleeces by another brand known for their commitment to ‘reduce, re-use, re-cycle’: ‘Patagonia’.
Their use of recycled materials is long-standing.
I am increasingly conscious of how my fabric choices affect the environment: I mostly wear clothes made of cotton, bamboo, linen and wool and I like to seek out second-hand and charity-shop bargains to help reduce the amount of clothing that is thrown away every year.
However, there are times when, for extreme conditions (for example, in the mountains), certain modern synthetic fabrics offer essential qualities, so it is good to see firms like ‘Picture’ and ‘Patagonia’ employing methods that re-use synthetic materials and reduce waste.
We did get quite wet in the morning’s rain (I discovered that my gloves were not up to the task!) but the moisture in the year produced a wonderful rainbow – an added joy.
Thank you for reading my blog. Quilt patterns are here, Fabrics are here, Classes are here.