Cleveland -- For her groundbreaking animal- and eco-friendly knitting book, Alt Fiber: 25 Projects for Knitting Green With Bamboo, Soy, Hemp, and More, Cleveland resident Shannon Okey has won the Most Animal-Friendly Craft Book category in PETA's sixth annual Proggy Awards. Okey will receive a framed certificate and will be featured on PETA's award-winning Web site PETA.org. PETA's Proggy Awards ("Proggy" is for "progress") recognize animal-friendly achievements in commerce and culture.

Alt Fiber is a result of the confluence of Okey's two passions--animal rights and knitting. Packed with fun and unique knitting projects suitable for pro purlers and novices alike, Alt Fiber focuses on wool-free fibers, including seaweed, hemp, and soy-based yarns. Alt Fiber is tailor-made for people who love to knit but hate the thought of hurting sheep.

What's wrong with wool? Much of the world's wool supply comes from Australia, where sheep farmers cut large chunks of skin and flesh from the backsides of lambs--without using any painkillers--in a mutilation called "mulesing." Also, when their wool production declines, sheep are crowded aboard ships and transported thousands of miles across the sea. They die by the tens of thousands each year on these "death ships" before the survivors are crudely slaughtered in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

"Shannon has shown that you can knit one and save one at the same time," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Mulesing live sheep and exporting them overseas is a national disgrace for Australia, and the best way to fight this abuse of sheep is to steer clear of wool."

This year, Proggy Awards have gone to producers and marketers of vegan foods, shoes, and cruelty-free personal-care products; an animal-friendly production studio; and a member of Congress.

For more information and to read about the other Proggy winners, please visit PETA.org.