Earth Day Knit-in

Yesterday, a small group of knitters and recyclers met on Main Street for a Earth Day Knit-in.

The woman who organized the gathering is an avid recycler and a talented artist. Two years ago, Kathi began rescuing clothing and turning them into works of art. She planned a recycling show for the community and challenged people to create something from the cast-offs. She gathered clothing and rented a storage unit; and then doled out the bounty to crafters. I cannot even imagine how many tons of clothing were kept from the landfill due to her efforts.

For her recycling show, Kathi turned blue jeans into 3-D sculpture and tailored a covering for a collapsible gazebo out of blue jeans. She turned sweatshirts and T-shirts into tote bags. Kathi made a skirt entirely out of labels cut from garments and turned old clothing into stylish and modern garments.

For today's Knit-in, Kathi brought a huge bin of 1 inch strips cut from T-shirts. As we sat in front of the ReStore (a place where salvaged building materials can be purchased) we knit those strips into rugs and trivets. I made a small trivet in no time on the size 19 needles.

If you are interested in knitting a T-shirt rug, I would advise purchasing a circular needle. The straight needles work well for the trivets, but to make a sizable rug, a circular needle would be best.

When I finished the trivet, I worked on a helmet liner for the troops, using wool I reclaimed from a thrift shop sweater.

Several people stopped by to ask questions and to see what we were doing. One or two of those who stopped may pursue making a rug out of recycled T-shirts because Kathi offered to give them bags of free T-shirts. I requested some of the T-shirts in her stash so I can make a rug for my bathroom.

What did you do on Earth Day?