BYOB

First of all, Happy St Patty's day to all! I completely forgot to wear green today... o well. I haven't really posted in a while, because I have been working on formatting of the blog. Now if you want to see what I am knitting, the percent bars tell you how far I am and you can click on the project to get more info including: pics, where the pattern is from, what yarn I'm using, and any other useful tidbits of information.
The knitting love of my life right now is definitely my lace qiviut scarf. It's so deliciously light and airy. I adore the feel of it and the pattern is really nice too. For those of you who have no idea what qiviut is I'll give you a brief education... Qiviut (kiv-ee-ute) is from the down of a muskox and actually that's what qiviut literally means- down. It's an amazing fiber. It's eight times warming than wool, has a smaller micron count than cashmere (so it's softer once it's blocked and handled a bit), very strong, and is the lightest weight natural fiber known to man. It's very rare as well and also expensive! I can't remember how I initially heard of qiviut, but when I found out I was going to Alaska last summer I was determined to find and buy some.
I visited the Oomingmak Co-op, but they don't sell the yarn only premade garments. They are gorgeous though and each pattern they use is specific to a tribe of Native Americans in Alaska. My search continued and finally in Fairbanks, I found some Windy Valley Muskox. It is fabulous!
On a non-knitting note: I already loved Ikea, now I am sure that we are sole mates! They have started a new campaign called BYOB- bring your own bags. Ikea is going to charge customers five cents for every throw away plastic bag that they use and then the proceeds will be donated to American Forests. Why are they doing this here's why:
The amount of plastic shopping bags that we all use once and toss is overwhelming.
- The average family of 4 accumulates 1460 plastic shopping bags a year
- 100 billion are given away each year in the US
- Plus it can take up to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to break down in the environment.
I love the idea of this campaign! But let's all take it a step further. Knitters Unite! Let's knit our own bags and challenge ourselves and family members to use recyclable bags. Check out my hemp for knitting bag or the tote made from recyclable bags. It's great for the environment and it's instant gratificaition. I always use reusable bags and I generally get compliments from people in the grocery store, plus I feel like I'm saving the environment every time I buy groceries. That's one more reason to buy food, hooray!