Weaving Rubbish

Fruit and vegetable shopping can be an ethical minefield.  Do I buy the loose apples flown from the other side of the world, or the local apples wrapped in plastic?  The loose bananas, with nature's natural packaging of a banana skin, or the fairtrade bunch of bananas wrapped in plastic?  It is difficult, and I'm not sure there are any easy answers.  After a trip to the supermarket, I realised I had all of this packaging just from fruit.

It was quite scary when I put it all together.  Instead of throwing this all away, I used it to weave a tapestry for the British Tapestry Group 'Off the Loom' workshop this weekend.  Members were asked to contribute tapestries made with recycled materials for this workshop.

I cut the packaging in to strips, and also used some old warp as a header and footer.  I particularly like the ends, I purposely kept them not woven in.  You can see some of the other tapestries produced for this workshop here.

Hats and a Star

September is here, there is a chilly feel in the air and my knitting is reflecting this.  In an attempt, possibly futile, to use up my stash, I cast on hats for my parents.  For both I used the Farm Beanie pattern by Alison Britt.  This is a quick knit, using 4mm dpns using DK yarn.  For my mum I picked some purple yarns.

 

And for my dad, a green and brown chenille-type yarn (the label had gone missing a long time ago!).  In hindsight, knitting the the chenille-type yarn was a bit of a pain, as it was more difficult to see the stitch definition.

And whilst the air is feeling autumnal, I am thinking ahead, and my first Stjarna star is finished.  Have you started any Christmas knits?