Crafting a Green World

Steampunk, a genre combining future living with the romance of the Victorian era, started to come to prominence in the 1980’s. Influenced by fantasy and science fiction writing, and inventions for time-travel by H. G. Wells, steampunk has started to trickle into the mainstream in recent years.

It has gone beyond being relegated to the novel and expanded into all other aspects of art and design, making its way into fashion as well. The style is most often characterized by the use of found and repurposed objects, open circuitry and exposed gear cogs. There is also a blog devoted to all things steampunk called The Steampunk Workshop.

The mentality of do-it-yourself that is pervasive within steampunk is what helps this aesthetic cross into green culture. The clothes, jewelry and modded phones and computers are all created with vintage or thrifted items to achieve the proper “look.”

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If you are looking for a yarn store online that will check all the eco approved boxes, this is it! Knit For Brains (a name that makes me giggle) carries all natural fiber yarns that are not only made of yummy fibers such as soy, corn, banana, milk, organic cotton and bamboo but they are all cruelty free or %100 vegan.  Being that I had never crocheted with a yarn so edible and luxurious I had to order some soy and banana fiber yarns from them. You’re not really supposed to eat this stuff (even though half of them are also names of stir fry ingredients), but my kitty did think the soy was delicious and slurped some of it up like spaghetti!

Corn, soy and bamboo are all very similar in texture and feel, being very smooth, silky and soft. The soy was totally easy to work with, in fact it was like a crochet dream come true - it never got caught on the hook like the funky acrylics do, it pulled through so easy my project went twice as fast, and the end product was soft and pretty.  I didn’t get to try my banana fiber yarn yet, but the texture is really fascinating - it looks a little wild, frayed and fun…could possibly get caught on the hook? Read the rest of this entry »

Mmmmm. Alpaca. Can anyone get enough of super soft and sweet alpaca yarn? It feels like a dream to knit up and your finished product is warm and cuddly.

Frog Tree, another one of those great companies like Be Sweet and Conserve, supplies wonderful hand spun alpaca yarns. Their mission is “to supply meaningful and continuous work to various artisans and non-profit groups.”

Their alpaca yarn is made by a non-profit cooperative based in Bolivia, who also trains women to make hand knit items made from the yarn. Their yarn has become so popular that they needed to expand their cooperative to Peru.

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Besides filling the role of fearless leader here at CAGW, I’m the “strange girl in charge” of Strange Folk, an indie arts and craft show right across the river from St. Louis, MO. This will be our 3rd year, and there’s lots of great new shtuff in store. For starters, we’ve extended the event to two days: September 27th and 28th, 2008.

Vendor applications are now being accepted on our website thru July 6th. Last year we hosted 100 vendors from across the country, and will be accepting 120 for this year’s event. I’m giving Crafting a Green World the inside scoop, because we are aiming to make Strange Folk eco-friendly as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Autumn just filled us in on the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 (S. 2913). If you have any concerns about it, I’m here to tell you how to present those concerns to the people who can make a difference: the federal government.

As of May 15th, this bill was voted out of Senate Committee on the Judiciary and placed on the full Senate’s intent calendar. That means that the entire Senate will be involved in making the next decision about whether this bill will move forward. You can follow the progress of the bill, as well as media coverage of it, at its page on Open Congress or on its official bill status page on the Library of Congress website.

Preparing to Advocate

Before you communicate with your Senators about this bill, you have to do your homework. Read the rest of this entry »

Amid a dwindling economy, a controversial war, and an incomprehensible environmental crisis, it’s easy to overlook the more “benign” pitter-patter of Capitol Hill. As modern makers we declare independence in a sense, through what we create, but count on the protection of copyright in order to exclusively maintain our intellectual property. The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act, if allowed to become law, will drastically weaken and complicate rights of individuals to pursue damages for copyright infringement. This legislation claims good intentions, yet has been drafted with dangerous loopholes.

I urge the indie craft community to take a closer look at this bill, and act quickly… it was introduced to congress on April 24th, 2008, and is rumored to be fast-tracked to a vote.

In this special two-part post, I will introduce you to the legislation, and Skye will jump in later with some advocacy tips. Read the rest of this entry »

To spread the word about the need for meaningful climate action and motivate our elected officials that we need to act now to solve global climate change, Bill McKibben, of Step It Up fame, has stepped it up himself with his new organization 350.org.

350.org is spreading the word far and wide about the importance of the number 350 and you can help! Together with Craftster, Etsy, Craft Magazine, Burda Style and Thrifty Fun — 350.org has launched the Creativity 350 partnership and contest to draw creative energy and attention to 350.org’s goal of reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million to stave off dangerous climate change.

The contest is in two parts; a 350-themed craft contest and a 350-themed T-shirt design contest. For the craft contest, you are invited to craft any project that creatively expresses the importance of the number 350, using any crafting technique. For the T-shirt contest, you may create an original T-shirt design that creatively expresses the importance of the number 350.

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I feel like I just found a unicorn! Trying to find a one stop shop for eco art supplies is like finding a needle in a hay stack. Even if you have some earth friendly crafting supplies here and there in big chain stores, what we all yearn for is that one store that has a delightful eco minded collection and nothing else toxic to dig through. It’s such a buzzkill to have one recycled paper pad in a store full of stuff so nasty and smelly and noxious that I am hurrying out of there for some fresh air.

Before I rant anymore about how silly we humans have gotten with our toxic craft inventions, I think I shall go ahead and share this mythical creature I found. Eco Art Works! (Oh my gawd, I hardly know where to begin because this online store has such a cool and interesting selection, every single item is a green crarfters treat.) Eco Art Works crosses barriers between the artist, the crafter, and children to bring a full range of eco art supplies from non toxic professional watercolors, pastels, and paints to organic yarns, beeswax modeling clay, soy crayons and paper making kits. If you aren’t dizzy yet from this Bigfoot-like sighting there’s even more, so hold on to your chair… Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes I get rid of fabric.

Shocking, right? Fabric is meant to be hoarded, right? But honestly, though those old pastel celestial prints might be useful for insulating my house or making my fridge run more efficiently, I am so over the stars thing and I am never going to use this stuff.

My local quilt guild takes donations of kid-friendly and soldier-friendly fabrics for various community service projects, but what if you don’t have a guild nearby? And more importantly, is there anything I can do to find a new life for the perfectly good yarn that I often see abandoned in thrift stores and at garage sales?

Here are five organizations that accept donations of craft supplies. Feel free to add more in the comments. I’ve tried to stick to permanent organizations instead of individuals or temporary efforts, and this list contains only organizations where I could confirm they accept donations. (There are hundreds upon hundreds of organizations listed all over the web, and hundreds of websites, but many of them no longer exist.) Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve already covered the mysteries of fusing plastic, but did you also know that you can knit with it too?! To continue my what to do with my overflowing bag of plastic bags kick, here is a quick tutorial on making your own plastic yarn or “plarn.”

1) Gather your bags. I separated mine by color, but why not go crazy and mix and match?

2) Start by cutting off the handles and the bottom of the bag. The result will be a nice smooth rectangle, as the bottom gatherings will have been removed.

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