Day Seven: Just A Wee Cozy

Today's post comes straight from Twisted in Portland. Cassie and I joined up with the PDX Knit Crawl and went to twenty yarn stores in just two days! We didn't win any of the big prizes but we were smart enough to show up at twisted first, and got some rocking goody bags. In them were a selection of buttons, some magnets, a few patterns and a ball of yarn. The yarn pattern was to be used for a tiny cozy, and boy is it tiny and cozy. I knit this with 32 stitches on size 0 needles, what can I say, I knit super loose. I cast on using the figure eight method which is what gives the little cozy it's very square corners.

All Alone, Out in the Wilderness.

This only took about an hour or two, and was really relaxing once the cast on was done. It perfectly fits my ID and a few cards/cash, so it's just perfect for me. Hopefully, if i always put my cards back in there, I'll be able to find them without rooting through my entire purse, but we'll have to see how it goes. I already knit a second one in a sparkly black yarn for the husband, but I have my doubts as to weather or not he'll want to use it.

Odd things in Odd places

So it's been a while since I've updated, as can happen at the holidays! A few new things are going on here.

I joined Ravelry.com! What an amazing site. It's still in it's beta testing phase, but is really quite amazing. I learned, through ravelry, that I am actually a much better knitter than I give myself credit for! YAY!

I actually made this cool project, the pattern is named Quant. So it's very cool! I wear it quite often, and I also made another one. I think my head must have been secretly cold and needed me to knit to keep it warm.

Wow.. Ok, so the uploading tool doesn't seem to be working, so hopefully pictures will follow

I also am organizing my first swap on Craftster.org! It's a cupcake themed swap, which I think will be a lot of fun and a lot of craziness.If you haven't signed up for craftster, what are you waiting for? There's so much to see and do, and share, and praise, and love!

I just posted a project on their, some cool polymer clay horns I made forever and a day ago! Very cute, very cool, very geeky!

Well, there is a lot of turmoil going on in the family, and I'm needed elsewhere. Hope your day is amazing, and that I'll be able to upload soon!

Plarn! Lots of Plarn!

I love plarn... plarn, plarn, plarn, we love plarn, Fun, fun, fun.

So I ran into a bag of plastic bags in my cabinet today... and noticed that there were a whole heck of a lot of them. I looked up some facts, and it turns out that Americans use 380 billion plastic bags a year. Given that there are 301,139,947 people living in the U.S. (as of July 2007), that means every man, woman and child uses just over 126 bags per person per year.... Well I don't give bags to babies, so this figure is probably much higher. Factor in how many people use reusable bags, how many of us shop at Costco or places that do not use bags, and that number gets a little scarier.

So what do we do with all the bags, Most are sent to landfills never to be heard from again. Only 1-2 percent of plastic bags are recycled. Now I admit to using bags as liners in my trash cans, using them to scoop kitty litter, throwing away the ones that get torn or ripped during use. Plastic bags are part of daily life. At some grocery stores unless you ask for paper, your purchases are plopped unceremoniously into a plastic bag.

Wow, I really do sound like I am on a high horse don't I? Heh. Don't worry, just some facts and figures before I get down to business. I'm done with the boring, lets get to the fun. So what did I decide to do. I decided to get all those bags from all those cabinets and do something with them! I made a huge pile of plastic loops and just started knotting them together! WOOO! Plarn!

Plastic Yarn, one of the things to come out of the "eco-crafting" trend, is used in knitting or crocheting. I haven't decided what to do with mine yet, or finished using the bags I have "in stock". I have just had a realization though, many of the crafters go out to the grocery stores where plastic bags are recycled and ask to take the bags...dropping the number of recycled bags again! Damn! I am only asking people who don't already recycle to save bags.... Man that freaks me out now! Back off the high horse.

So here are the before, after and during photos of my first expedition into plarn! Once I get the balls knitted into something I will post again! WOOO!