Do you also have a pet that spreads hair all over the house?
At the latest when brushing out your beloved fluffy animal, which has a thick undercoat, the thought has certainly come to mind: "Whoa, you can stuff a pillow with that..." or knit a sweater.
Humans have been spinning small amounts into dog wool for centuries. But thanks to her background knowledge and knowledge of the problems of global textile supply chains, luckily Ann Cathrin Schönrock didn't stop at that thought.
She saw fiber as the solution to a bigger problem. Because the increasing demand for precious animal fibers such as cashmere is leading to more and more animal husbandry worldwide and thus to defoliation, desertification of the soil and higher greenhouse gas emissions in sensitive ecosystems such as in Mongolia.
At the same time, textile companies are actively looking for authentically sustainable textiles to use. All of this while pet undercoats accumulate on our doorstep and end up in incinerators via household waste, creating unnecessary CO2 emissions.
Without further ado, the sustainability scientist and designer decided to produce her own yarns from the combed out undercoat of her dog Emma and to put an end to the waste of resources. To do this, she looked for a textile engineer in Franziska Uhl to jointly develop the first industrially spun yarn made from dog fibers.
YarnSustain Schönrock Uhl GmbH has grown from this vision since 2017 with a lot of passion, research work and courageous action. The Impact Start Up has unique expertise in the development and production of pet-based yarns and products.
Ann Cathrin Schönrock & Franziska Uhl, founders of YarnSustain
At a time when the term 'sustainability' is being used in an inflationary manner, anyone who uses it needs to make his or her definition of it clear.
For us, “sustainability” is a holistic approach that takes on different forms and can be found in many areas. You can find out how we work sustainably in various areas with just one click.
We make the common good a condition of economic success. This makes us the prime example of an "impact start-up" in which investments can be made without having to question the ethical component. The greater the positive impact - the resource rescue of the independent NGO modus intarsia eV (iG) - the larger the turnover can be in the GmbH Without the socially positive influence of the non-profit association, the value creation and the economic business model of the GmbH cannot function.
Ann Cathrin Schönrock, co-founder of YarnSustain
This is exactly what is currently happening with the combed undercoat of dogs in millions of households in Germany and around the world. Dog fibers are a particularly warming, soft and particularly resource-saving noble fiber that is literally at our feet and has been ignored up to now. Not a single animal has to be specially bred for this.
The increasing demand for precious animal fibers such as cashmere is leading to larger herds and more and more animals worldwide, and thus to defoliation and desertification of the soil in sensitive ecosystems (e.g. in Mongolia), with negative effects on the climate and the natural environment.
YarnSustain's Chiengora® yarns are a regionally available alternative to cashmere and angora and can help to correct the many ecological and animal-ethical system errors in the textile industry.
The use of dog fibers stretches far back into human history and across many cultures from Scandinavia to the indigenous peoples of the American continent. There is also a hand spinner community in Europe that spins wool in elaborate manual work. To do this, they often use the fibers they collect from their own pets. We were able to benefit from this tradition and would like to take this work to the masses with our further development and industrial application of dog fibers with Chiengora®️. Many hand spinners of dog fibers are part of our non-profit organization partner modus intarsia eV (iG). There you can exchange ideas with like-minded people and also spin small quantities of dog fibers prepared by us for private inquiries.
YarnSustain's Chiengora® is the world's first industrially spun yarn based on pet fibers. From the previously overlooked resource "dog fibers or wool" we produce uniquely soft and authentically sustainable yarns in a complex and specially developed process.
Dog undercoat is a valuable resource that can be used to produce an unimaginable variety of authentically sustainable, regionally produced and animal-ethically correct yarns and fabrics. The yarn is the basis for knitted and woven fabrics. Alone or in combination with other yarns that comply with the YarnSustain Standard, there are further possibilities for textile design in the areas of the clothing and interiors industry.
The starting point for the variety of products are our two yarn qualities:
Chiengora® Original is our first machine-spun yarn quality. The original among our authentically sustainable yarns is incomparably soft and can be compared to angora wool in terms of feel, look and feel. Chiengora®-Original yarns are particularly suitable for fluffy sweaters or can be used individually as hand-knitting yarns for creative knitting ideas.
Chiengora® Chienmere is our yarn quality that is comparable to cashmere yarns and has similar warming properties and a soft feel. Chiengora® Chienmere is particularly suitable for processing on industrial knitting machines and is therefore an ideal yarn for fine knit products such as socks.
We combine our yarns in woven fabrics with other yarns that meet YarnSustain's standards in the warp and/or weft. The yard goods are developed in one of the leading German weaving mills and produced on request for our B2B customers.
