Knit a Market Bag for Earth Day

Earth Day is an important time to remind us all to think about the little things we can do every day to lighten our load on the planet. One thing I have been really focused on this year is using less plastic, especially water bottles and shopping bags. Looking for more patterns? Check these market bag patterns out on Etsy.

It’s great when craftiness and sustainability collide, as they do when you make your own bags to take shopping.

Knit Picks has a great free pattern for a knit market bag, the Montavilla Market Tote. It’s actually a great stash buster, too, because it uses three colors of yarn as written, and you can change yarns as often as you like for a really stripy, scrappy bag.

It is worked from a firm, stable bottom to a lace pattern worked in the round with color changes every round. Then the handles are worked in the same yarn as the base, or do them in a fourth color if you like.

To keep with the eco-friendly nature of the project, use scraps or yarn you already have in your stash. If you need to buy something to make the project, choose organic cotton yarn if you can (conventionally grown cotton tends to be really high on the use of pesticides). 100 % cotton yarn

What do you do to make your knitting more earth friendly? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Knit Picks.]

This free pattern uses cotton yarn. Check out Lion brands new Re-Up Yarn

Lion Brand’s new recycled cotton, gives knitters and crocheters another reason to love working with cotton. It’s eco-friendly! It takes, on average, 20,000 liters of water to make 1 kilogram of cotton. By using one 70 gram ball of Re-Up you are saving 1,400 liters of water. So try Re-Up for your next cotton project: you’re going to love how it feels to work with and how it feels to help save the planet while doing the craft you love. You can learn more about it here on this video below.

https://youtu.be/SP1e_baGcJs

Next Pattern:

Last year I shared with you Maxie’s Tank Top by Ainur Berkimbayeva, mostly because I really wanted to knit one (and I still do, maybe this year I’ll finally get to it!). I also am really attracted to patterns that seem to look good on everyone, which this tank top does.

Now Ainur has released a sweater version of the top, known as Maxie’s V-neck, and it seems to have that same wonderful property of looking amazing on everyone, at least as far as I can tell from the pattern’s project page on Ravelry.

This is a top down, V-neck, ribbed top that can be knit with short or long sleeves. Bust darts help with the fit. There are also 13 size options available so you can find just the right fit for you.

The sizes are designed to fit actual bust measurements ranging from 29-32 inches (74-81.5 cm) up to 62-64 inches (158-162.5 cm) and the pattern has instructions for A-C cups, with modification notes in the pattern to help folks with D+ cups make their sweater fit them.

It calls for sport weight yarn, which is probably the only thing that kept me from casting on this sweater immediately when I first saw it because that’s not a yarn weight I typically have in my stash (certainly not in sweater quantity).

Which just gives me an excuse to go shopping! Ainur used Purl Soho Wigeon yarn, which is 100 percent wool from the Falkland Islands. You can check the pattern page for other options that people have used, though wool seems to be a near universal choice as of this writing.

Ainur also does pay what you can on her patterns so if the cost is too much for your current financial situation you can use a code on the page to get a discount. (That said, if you can afford it, please support designers to the extent they ask to be compensated!)

Check out the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Ainur Berkimbayeva]

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