The Bins + Silly Knitting

For my birthday Abby gave me this funny book and have been wanting to make something from it since.It has patterns for silly things like a knitted hand grenade, a glass of beer, picture frames, ear muffs shaped like fried eggs and lots of knitted cakes and sandwiches. Abby and another friend who is also a knitter just had a birthday so I knitted the ever-useful apple holders for them! It protects the apple from bumps and bruises when you take it to work or on a picnic and makes the apple oh-so-stylish! Is the A for Abby or for apple? You decide. (Shelley, if you're reading this, I hope you don't feel left out, not getting a letter. I didn't think of embroidering something on the apple until after I gave you yours. If you bring it on Monday, I'll put a letter on yours too if you would like one.) The bobble is actually a button so you can get the knitted apple off of the real apple.

After knitting this pattern, I realize that the book's directions are a bit sloppy. Every decrease is a k2tog and the finishing directions are lazy. The apple holder was to be knitted in 4 flat pieces and then sewn together. That seemed like too much work so I knit it in the round, added paired decreases to make it a little neater and modified it some. I used size 8 dpns and some yarn left over from this project.

I went to the craziest place yesterday! The Bins, aka the Goodwill Outlet. Yes, Goodwill has an outlet. I guess it's all the stuff that hasn't sold in the regular stores and is an inch away from the landfill. I've been hearing about the place from my friend Rosie a lot and finally decided to go see for myself.

It's a warehouse filled with huge plastic bins. Fabric items and books are seperated from everything else but that's as far as the organization goes. People dig through these huge bins looking for treasures and most things are sold for $1.29 a pound! It's insane and a little disturbing. They have signs cautioning the shopper (aka bargain vulture) that there could be sharp objects in the bins. I spent a fair amount of time dreading the used syringe or dead rat I was sure I'd come accross in the next bin. I even saw some "professional" bins shoppers wearing gloves to sort through the stuff. I'm not exaggerating. This is how some people make money. With enough determination, there is some valuable stuff to be found and purchased for $1.29 per pound.

I came out feeling grimy and dirty and $9 dollars poorer. I got several sweaters I'm planning on felting, some linen fabric I'll make into a skirt. a really cute, old apron and one of those woven grass mats people take to the beach. This is what I did with one section of the mat. With some hot glue and scissors, I transformed my old, ugly, plastic planter to the new, improved tiki planter!
It now holds mint and chamomile plants. Come join me for some sun tea later this summer!