Green Options

Via the UK Telegraph, I recently learned about Alex Queral, an artist currently living in Philadelphia, PA who creates portraits of celebrities and politicians, but what is interesting about him is that he carves these portraits out of discarded phone books.

Queral started using phonebooks when off looking for some wood and happened upon some abandoned phone books. They can be advantageous to use as they are often a free material that can be found in recycle bins and trash piles. Queral carves the famous faces into the phone books and slowly peels away the layers to create a low relief sculptural portrait.

If you frequent your local farmer’s market, being a crafty person that you are, you bring along your very own handmade bags to carry home your produce, right? Right. In fact no matter the market, I bet you have a handmade tote bag that is at hand to carry home your loot.

Well, what about the non crafty people? Should they be relegated to using plastic bags? What if everyone was given a free handmade bag to carry home their fresh produce instead of those plastic bags? And what if these bags were made out of fabric left overs such as outgrown t-shirts and scraps?

Bags for the People was formed in reaction to when Glenn Robinson would work at his local farmers market in Union Square in New York and hand out hundreds of hundreds of plastics bags every day. He would see people that would bring their own bags, but they would still rely on some plastic, too.

Having some free time on his hands Robinson used some old clothing to create bags that he then gave away at the farmers market to help curb plastic bag use. The simple idea was received very well and people thought they were being given a gift with their purchase. “People were so excited to get these bags,” Robinson said.

Tin can reuse is a popular topic here at Crafting a Green World. We’ve gone over tin can reuse, general metal reuse, and eight simple to advanced projects having to do with the reuse of tin. Well we’re not done yet!

August is National Inventors Month and in celebration of this imaginative occasion, Altoids has partnered with HowStuffWorks.com to honor creative citizens they call “Tinnovators.” These inventors have found ingenious uses for their Altoids tins once the mints are gone.

Been looking for an organic wool yarn warehouse? A one stop shop for all of your woolly yarn needs? Well, Garthenor Organic Pure Wool has got you covered. With over 80 eco-friendly organic yarns to choose from, this site has it all and more.

The fiber for these yarns are from traditional and rare breeds of Organic British sheep. It is eye opening to learn about all the different breeds of sheep and the different fibers that they produce. Just look at the sweet faces on the Bluefaced Leicesters and the Herdwicks!

I’m always a bit reluctant to highlight a yarn blend here on Year Worthy Yarn. Not because blends are necessarily bad but because it is often difficult to figure out which fibers are environmentally friendly. Especially when a yarn contains five or more fibers.

But The Fibre Company’s Savannah yarn caught my eye. This blend contains merino, organic cotton, linen and soya and comes in both DK and Bulky.

Savannah is hand dyed and The Fibre Company is committed to using low-impact dyes and environmentally friendly processes and fibers where ever possible. Savannah also comes in a wide array of colors perfect for many projects.

Ever get the urge to revisit the 80’s, pining away for your acid wash jeans? What if you could knit with a variety of jean washes? Would that sooth your soul enough to put down the crimping iron?

Well Tahki Jeans yarn has got you covered.

This tape yarn is made from 100% organic cotton and colored with low-impact dyes that are environmentally-friendly.

So we’ve all heard of the benefits of the 100 mile diet and have even coined the term locavore, but what about using the same principals and applying them to yarn?

Well, meet Ecological Arts who offers a small amount of handspun, organic and naturally dyed yarns.

Not only are these yarns, handspun, organic and naturally dyed, the fibers are locally sourced as well as the plants used in the dyes.

Fibra Natura yarns come in a variety of interesting materials, but what got my attention was their 100% certified organic cotton yarns.

Both Links and Cottonwood claim very high industry standards for organic certification and sustainability. Using the Global Organic Textile Standard, these yarns have been certified as an EKO Sustainable Textile.

So you’ve got your Generation-T book and you know how to transform your old tees without using fusibles, but have you made or used t-shirt yarn?

Check out these three Etsy sellers that have some amazing t-shirt yarns. All are cut in one continuous line from old tees and transformed into yarn.

Here’s another entry into the eco-friendly yarn field, again from Sirdar. I’ve already covered Sirdar’s Eco Wool, but this yarn is plant based. Just Soya is a lovely little yarn made from 100% soybean fibers.

Generally softer than cotton, Just Soya is another great summer yarn. It is silky, smooth and comes in DK weight. Perhaps a summer shawl or tank would be perfect to whip up in this yarn.