The Sweatshop of Love Blog

I’m giving my fingers a much needed rest this Sunday night to update everyone about the weekend I’ve had. Does typing count as finger resting? …bygones.

I got an email last week from Rich with Distant Village, a sustainable packaging company specializing in the most eco-friendly custom packaging possible. He found my card at New Wave and wanted me to try out a new idea he was working on! Tree-less paper yarn:

Tree-Less Paper Yarn

He stopped by my Sweater Club Thursday night and dropped off these samples. Before trying it out I was thinking it would work with jewelery and home goods, things like place-mats, napkin rings, cup cozies. Just to try it I pulled out my size 6 needles and made some swatches.

Tree-Less Paper Yarn Swatches

The end product looks really cool, but it is hard to work with. I couldn’t even knit with the rust color ball. It was hard on my hands. I had to rest a few times and work on my sweater dress. Now that I’m sitting here typing not only are the muscles in my hands sore, but the skin that had the most contact with the yarn is ripped up a little and very sensitive. I knew right away that big projects like a place-mat wouldn’t be practical.

Cuff Ideas

But the bracelet idea stuck, and I designed a couple examples. The yarn over cuff at the top is lace-like and the picture doesn’t do it justice. The beaded cuff would obviously be made with cuter beads, I just didn’t have any on hand. The bottom, smaller cuff I think is the most solid design.

I’m meeting with Rich tomorrow and am going to show him the results. I think these would be great in a knitting kit complete with beads, tree-less paper yarn, patterns, snaps. Enough for four different cuffs. Maybe even individual cuff kits? I’m not sure. I’m thinking this would be a great workshop class and the kits would be popular on etsy.com. Sustainability is huge with knitters and if I can design some cute cuffs I think people will get behind this stuff. When knitted in short doses, of course.

Meanwhile, PT and I had a Indian Food Fest, starting Friday with onion dahl, cucumber salad, and naan.

Delicious Friday Dinner

I had almost nothing to do with the preparation of this meal! PT handled the whole thing and he did an amazing job. I haven’t had much experience with Indian food before this weekend and this meal was a great starting off point.

Saturday for dunch we made eggplant curry and potato cakes.

Eggplant Curry and Potato Cake Dunch

The potatoes were out of control. Spicy and crispy and creamy! Little Indian potato pancakes. The curry was excellent, too! I love eggplant and I don’t use it often enough, clearly. It was rich and spicy and the flavors went very deep.

(We took a tiny break from Indian food for PT to make me bagels and lox, something I have never had before.

Bagels and Lox Breakfast

If you have no idea what bagels and lox is, like I didn’t, it is a bagel, in this case an onion bagel, with cream cheese, smoked salmon, tomato, and onion. My breath was certainly rockin’ after I ate it but I didn’t want to brush my teeth, brushing away the memory of this meal.)

Dinner tonight was an amazing mix of rice, veggies, fruit, and nuts.

Rice, Nuts, and Fruit

Lets see if I can remember everything we threw in this meal: rice, tomatoes, red bell pepper, peas, onion; dried blueberries, cranberries, apricots, peaches, golden raisins; toasted cashews, pecans, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds. And of course a lot of spices like chili powder, curry powder, cumin and fennel seeds. The only thing I would have taken out was the pumpkin seeds that got really tough. Other than that this was out of control and my favorite meal of the weekend. I’m glad we made a ton of it!

Before I close I want to give a little heads up. This blog was born during what I like to refer to as my happy time of year: after football season and before baseball season. Tomorrow ends my happy time. Be warned.

Saturday is the kick off of a new program I’m starting, monthly workshop classes! This Saturday’s workshop is Knitting with Beads, something that is kind of tricky. Like anything with knitting, and I say this all the time I know, it looks trickier than it actually is.

I’m working out the patterns today, actually putting them down on paper, and I’m teaching myself how to knit with wire.

Wire+Beads=Bracelet!

I’m happy to report that knitting with wire is much easier than it looks. I knit this puppy up in no time.

See? Not a Liar

I started it to be funny, but I actually kind of like it! The beads are ridiculous and of course I got the ugliest gold wire, but somewhere in my head it is cute and wearable. I go to do something else and think about the bracelet, convincing myself it is actually really ugly, then come back to it, pick it up, and re-decide it is cute. We are making them Sunday.

In class we will start with bead knitting with yarn. We have three hours so we will be able to cover everything. Interested? There is still room! This class is $40, including the beads and wire, and it is Saturday from 1-4pm.

This afternoon I have also been working on my new side job of assistant editor-like person for Grocer Gram Quarterly. I’m not kidding. I’m writing blurbs related to food products, like this:

The Quaker Oats Company to Focus on Whole-Grain Oats

For the first time in its 130-plus year history, The Quaker Oats Company will campaign for all its products at once, focusing on the whole-grain oats in its most popular products. “This repositioning helps us elevate and communicate the power of this surprising super grain – the oat – to meet the needs of the growing number of health conscious consumers,” said Mark Schiller, president of Quaker Oats. Quaker is pushing whole grain oats as the ‘super grain’, a key ingredient in the health and wellness of everyone. The ‘Go humans go’ campaign is encouraging Quaker customers to use the super grain to power their bodies and minds so they can live life to the fullest. In the ads the iconic ‘Quaker Man’ offers an encouraging smile to all people using Quaker whole grains to fuel their activities. In addition to boosting sales, Quaker hopes to raise money to help fight childhood hunger with its Quaker Go Project that encourages people to use the energy from Quaker whole-grain oats to fuel forward Through donations, grants, and volunteerism.

I wrote that and it is going in Grocer Gram Quarterly. My life is weird.