Sustainable Knitting: Cold Weather Edition

My husband has recently taken up winter hiking here in New England, which is both admirable and a little unhinged, if you ask me. Much to my surprise, he asked me to knit him a scarf or cowl to keep his neck warm. He rarely makes knitting requests, so I had to oblige. I even agreed to knit it out of black yarn… man, I must really love him! (If you know, you know).

My hubby is a bit of a tree-hugger so I went shopping for a sustainable yarn to add a special touch to the project. I’ve knitted with recycled cottons before (here and here), but cotton wasn’t going to cut it for cold, windy hikes, so I went shopping for wool. 

Knit Picks Upcycled Alpaca Blend Yarn

I didn’t have to search too far to find my yarn. My fave brand, Knit Picks has quite a few options for sustainable yarn. They have their own lines of recycled cotton and recycled acrylic, a sock yarn with recycled nylon, plus they sell Remix by Berroco.

I chose their Upcycle Alpaca Blend for this project. It’s made using small bits of fiber left over at the mill after spinning standard yarns. Instead of letting them go to waste, Knit Picks works with the mills to give those scraps a second life

The Upcycle yarns are limited edition so its availability is a little unpredictable, but that makes it all the more special. So, if you see a color you like, buy it now before it goes away.

So… this yarn only has a three-star rating on the Knit Picks site, which gave me pause. But all the negative reviews focus on the fact that it knits up thinner than a typical worsted weight, closer to a DK. That feedback is fair and useful, and I’m genuinely glad people mentioned it. But, IDK, giving a one-star review for that seems a touch extreme? Anyway, rest assured that this yarn is in fact quite lovely. It’s soft, warm, and very pleasant to work with. And once you know what you’re dealing with on the WPI front, it’s easy to plan around.

Because of that thinner gauge, I decided to hold two strands together for my cowl. That gave me a denser, more airtight fabric, which is exactly what you want when you’re knitting something meant to block cold wind. 

This is one of those cases where reading reviews ahead of time really paid off. Instead of being surprised halfway through, I was able to make an intentional choice from the start.

Knitting the Neck Thingum, Minus the Pattern

My original plan was to knit a cowl called the Neck Thingum, which some knitting friends on Bluesky recommended to me. Unfortunately, the pattern seems to have completely disappeared from the internet. Rather than abandoning the idea, I went into improv mode.

I studied the photos and read through other knitters’ project notes on Ravelry to fill in the blanks as best I could. I’m not sure if I ended up with the exact design of a Neck Thingum, but it’s just a cowl and does exactly what it’s supposed to do. I’ll drop some notes at the end to share what I did.

All things considered, I’m really happy with how this project turned out. The cowl is warm, practical, and it’s getting a lot of real-world use during those winter hikes, which is always the goal. The sustainable yarn really exceeded my expectations once I adjusted for the higher WPI, and I’d absolutely use it again for cold-weather accessories.

If you’ve been curious about sustainable yarns beyond recycled cotton, this is a great one to try, especially for accessories where warmth matters.