Knitted Shoes Reduce Manufacturing Waste

While this story has nothing to do with hand knitting, it’s still a really cool example of how knitting can impact lives.

Both Nike and Adidas have been producing athletic shoes with entirely knit uppers, and earlier this year Adidas came out with the first soccer shoes that were completely knit other than the sole. They also have a shoe-sock combo that is completely knit.

The shoes are not only cool from a knitting/style standpoint, they’re also greener than other shoes, because traditional athletic shoes are sewn together from several different pieces, which leads to wasted material. When Nike introduced its Flyknit running shoes, it said the reduction in waste compared to other shoes was about 80 percent, which is great.

Since both Nike and Adidas are working on this technology, the hope is that even more shoes will be produced this way, limiting waste and making shoe production less expensive because there is less labor involved. And when you see these shoes, as a knitter, you just have to smile.

[Photo via Fast Company.]

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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