Knit Picks Website and Podcast

One of my favorite places to shop online is Knit Picks, whose slogan is "Passionately committed to affordable luxury knitting"

They have a wonderful assortment of yarns in many colors, fibers and sizes. A great collection of books, knitting needles, and other supplies can also be found on their site. I have made many purchases, and I have been happy with all of them. This picture (and the next one) come from the Knit Picks website.

Their descriptions of yarns and colors are quite reliable. New products and colors are introduced all the time.

There are also many amazing knitting needles, including circular, straight, interchangeable, and sets, which are made of various kinds of wood and metals in all sizes.

The Knit Picks podcast is my favorite crafting podcast. First of all, the woman who does the podcast, Kelley, has an incredibly soothing voice which is a joy to listen to. The content of the podcasts is always informative, there are interviews, information about yarns, book reviews, and much more. Summaries of the contents of each podcast can be found on the website. You can download the podcast from iTunes, or at the Knit Picks' website. You can also listen to the podcasts directly from the site.

Crayon Scarf

This is my latest crochet design:

Since I made this one, I have made ones in green, yellow, and purple. I am making them about 4 feet long, to fit children from about 4 years old to 12 years old. I have perfected the design and hope to write up the pattern to sell on etsy. I'm also planning to make some to sell through my etsy store.

I'm sending the first batch of scarves to OAK in Boston. OAK is a wonderful store which opened recently. It's on the corner of Newbury St., and Gloucester St. It is stocked with all hand made things, thus the name is an acronym for One of A Kind. OAK also has a blog which shows pictures of the store and displays of the unique items carried by the store.

A Great Homeschooling Picnic

A quote for today: It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it. ~Jacob Bronowski

Today, while other young people were returning to school, my daughter and I went to a "Not Back To School Picnic". I have been homeschooling my children since my oldest daughter finished first grade. That makes this my 15th Not Back to School Picnic! I haven't missed any since we started homeschooling.

It was a beautiful day today. We have always had our picnic at Great Brook Farm in Carlisle, Massachusetts. It is a state park with a working dairy farm, and many trails for walking, bicycling, horse riding, and - in the winter - cross country skiing.

Here is a picture of the dairy barn:

And these are some pictures of students with their "barefoot irreverence" to studies:

A great time was had by all!

If you want more info about homeschooling, one of the many websites to check out is Jon's Homeschool Resources

A great source for information on homeschooling in Massachusetts, is the Massachusetts Home Learning Association website.

Finally, I would be glad to try to answer your questions, just email me at alysamerle@dudleyzoo.org

PLARN

A quote for today: "Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again." Dorothy Day

I've been making a lot of PLARN lately (PLastic yARN). I go through spurts where I convert plastic bags into a form that I can crochet with, and then I don't feel like it for a while. There are a variety of tutorials on line that show how to make PLARN from grocery bags. A friend of mine made this one on YouTube

This is a picture of some of the PLARN balls I've been making:

The red, clear, and bright blue balls are made from newspaper bags, the rest are made from a variety of grocery bags. Sometimes I sort the bags by color, other times I combine a variety of bags. The brownish ball on the right was made from a variety of dark bags; I think it will make an interesting pattern when crocheted.

Many of my friends know that I use plastic bags to create PLARN, so they save their bags for me. I am often greeted with "I have some bags for you". Following is a picture of the plastic bags I have that are waiting to be transformed into PLARN:

In addition to grocery bags, I use bags that are somewhat thicker. The thicker bags are cut in a continuous spiral and wound on pieces of recycled cardboard. I often use them as accents to creations that are made primarily from grocery bags.

I learned from Etsy that the items I create from the PLARN are called upcycled. Something is upcycled when you take one item that has already been used, and turn it into something different

This is one of my recent completed PLARN projects:

I'm pleased with how it came out. For more pictures and a more complete description, you can check out my website at Etsy.com