Recycle, it's good for the sheep!

Jason has been wondering for awhile when the conservation side of my personality would kick in to gear where knitting is concerned. Up until now I have wanted the best of the best needles and the nicest of the nice wool and cotton too. But it's starting to get expensive and thrift more than excess waste worries have made me look at ugly oversized knitted sweaters at thrift stores more than once. Well, mainly just the oversized ones. I can't help but think "that must have taken like 12 balls of yarn!" As you all know I have become obsessed with the Mason-Dixon Knitting book as of late and one of the patterns I have become particularly wistful about is the doubled up worsted weight cotton bath mat. Basically for all you non-knitters out there (and shame on you for not even trying you don't know what you are missing) reallllllly fat and soft bathmat! I want to make it so bad but am having a few hang ups like, well, not enough extra money to blow on a ton of cotton yarn for something I really don't need. There is also the issue of instant gratification at work here too. I could get it on eBay I'm sure... But than I would have to wait a few weeks... Blah to that! So back to the sweater recycling. I work at a consignment shop here in dekalb and our consignors, which we love dearly, tend to forget that we do not take winter items in the summer so even though that big bulky sweater is made of cotton, it is not a "summer" type of item to have on the shelf. It just won't sell. So some of our consignors, which we love so dearly, say it's okay that we donate anything we don't take, which we really do love that because it keeps our shop tidy and the salvation army truck stops by every Tuesday and Friday or something like that. Needless to say right now we have a stack in the back room ready to go off to the salvation army that is brimming with sweaters. I've been looking for the right sweater to recycle for awhile now and there was this one, right on top of the pile, that was absolutely perfect. Size large (fits the oversized bit), 100% cotton (fits the content bit), worsted weight (fits the weight bit), color is off-white (fits the color bit), and perfect! Absolutely perfect! I found the perfect sweater..... To completely disassemble! And disassemble I did! I have it half done, and made center pull balls too.

I was able to make a center pull ball fairly easy by using, of all things, a toilet paper roll. It works great. You just make a notch in each end and drop the end of the yarn down the center of the empty tp roll and secure it in the notches and then just start wrapping it around... Over and over.... It does take quite awhile, but it's going to be worth it. Why go through all this work? Because it is free! I will post some pictures of it tomorrow, I'm too lazy right now.

While I was doing all this winding I was listen to an older episode of Crafty Pod with Sister Diane... She is so neat!... Anyway, I was relistening to the episode about DIY daily planners and it was a really good idea starter. She recommends some great sites where you can get templates for calendar pages to print out (for free) and also has an idea about creating sections for collecting "Crafty goodness" ideas. After listening to all this and finishing off a third ball of center pull yarn I decided to come up with my own template just for me and my needs. This is what it looks like.

The grayed out section is for me to write down what hours I will be working that day (I work a lot and it can be difficult to keep track of). There are two reasons why I'm going to make a DIY Daily Planner. 1) I'm starting school and it will be great to keep all my dates in order and in one place and 2)I have all those Avon binders that are the perfect size to make into daily planners. I think I have about 6 of them, so I might make some to sell in my etsy store too... and no they will not have Avon all other them, I plan on covering the whole thing in wonderful art... that I make. So, if you want a hand made daily planner for only 300 dollars just let me know and I will make you one... just joking of course, I'm not sure how much I will sell them for. Most likely take off a zero and subtract some from that. I will get to that when I get to it.

Also, There are four new members to the quilt block swap so far this month, exciting! There are now a total of 12 of us which is so great. I was worried that there would only be 4 total, period, end of story and than those other three would see how lame the swap is and drop out... I guess other people get as excited about these things as I do, which I don't mind at all. I would really like this swap to become a long term deal with constant making, sending, and quilting each month! Yeah! And now, I'm sick and it's late so I'm going to bed. Goodnight!