Last week I was talking about World Earth Day and what we could all do to help save the planet from plastic pollution. Well this week I want you to cast your mind forward to an event coming up in June. So where will you be on June 13th?

Well, if you’re a knitter then the answer might well be: I’ll be outside somewhere knitting in public!

Yes, Worldwide Knit in Public Day is coming up and there are events all over the USA and further afield too. My local group has spinners, weavers and knitters all hoping to attend and I think a few local shops may be setting up a stall or two as well.

Last year I attended a much smaller event which was just a few knitters in the centre of a shopping area. However, quite a few knitters popped by, drawn by the offer of an extra discount at the adjacent yarn store I am sure! In previous years, I have sometimes not even found a group but have just taken my knitting needles and sat outside somewhere to enjoy the scenery and knit ‘en plein air’, as they say.

If you’d like to find out if there’s a Knitting in Public event already planned in your area, have a look at the Knit in Public website. And if you can’t find anything, then you have time to chat to your knitting pals and get something organised for June, then add it into the site so other people can find you too!

Oh, and while I was looking for photos for this blogpost, I was wondering if I could find some pictures of me knitting outside, only to realise that in almost every photo I had knitting in my hands! Ah well, it's good to have obsessions...

Happy Knitting in Public!
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Moira

This week sees the celebration of the 45th annual Earth Day, an event aiming to concentrate our eco thoughts for the year ahead. It's almost like making New Year's resolutions for the planet.

So my resolution for this year is to continue the battle against plastic bags. I made my first BYOB – Bring Your Own Bag in 2007. That was after I saw reports that more than 12 billion plastic bags were used the previous year in the UK alone.

Although the numbers are a bit less than that now, there were still an estimated 8.4 billion bags used last year just in the UK – that's about 130 bags per person, which is an incredible number.

I saw a chart this week which showed a timeline for the average plastic bag. It had a tiny line which represented the typical usage for a plastic bag (15‐20 mins) and underneath there was a very long line which showed the 1000 years it would take for that bag to break down. Focuses the mind somewhat, doesn't it.

So here’s a suggestion for Earth Day 2015: How about making two new knitted bags, one for yourself and one for a friend? The photo above shows the Small and Medium sized BYOB Bags and either of those would be perfect for your own shopping trips or for gifting.
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The medium size is about the same size a regular supermarket bag while the small size is perfect for quick shopping trips or when visiting the mall. I really like this size of bag and find that I use it frequently.

There are also two other advantages in knitting a small size bag: Firstly, it doesn’t take much time to make, and secondly it doesn’t take much yarn either! So you may well have enough yarn already in your yarn stash ready to be made up into a new bag.

If you’d like to use the same colours as I have here, they are Lily Sugar 'n Cream in Mod Blue (Turquoise) #18111, White #18001 & Blueberry #18725 and they certainly make a cheery combination.

I hope you enjoy making your new Small bags and also to making your not-so-small contribution to the problem of plastic in the environment!

Happy Earth Day and Happy Knitting!

Moira