Sustainable everyday favourites

As I'm always looking for sustainable everyday items myself, I thought I'd share some of the things I've found and use in everyday life with you. And I would love to learn about your favourites!

Almost every evening, I light my recycling candle - it has a permanent glass fiber wick and is fed with scraps of wax and candle leftovers. (Here is the link to the manufacturer.)



The soap foam pump is another one of my favourites: with only a very small amount of any liquid soap - and a lot of water from your cold water-tap - it produces soft soap foam, nice to your skin, nice to the environment and nice to your wallet.



Two months ago I stumbled upon this link and this other link and decided to try out sewing and wearing my own fabric panty liners. I admit I was a bit sceptical at first, but now - after several weeks of use - I sure am a believer: wonderful to wear, easy to sew, and a very good, sustainable alternative to the disposables ones.

(If you don't want to sew yourself, there are several sellers at Etsy who'll do the job for you - here's the link.)



While recycling your old flannel sheets and shirts for the panty liners, you can use the fabric scraps for making your own cotton rounds as well - when used, I simply throw them in a small laundry bag hanging in a corner of the bathroom, and wash them together with the towel and bed linen laundry.



(Of course there are sellers for these things too at Etsy, if you don't feel like sewing and recycling yourself.)

(German summary: Da ich immer selber auf der Suche nach nachhaltigen und umweltfreundlichen Alltagsdingen bin, wollte ich hier meine Favoriten vorstellen - welche sind Deine?)

Hibernating in a pile of sockwool ...

Oh dear, this year seems to run even faster than the last one ... and although hibernating regarding my postings (and I'm sorry for that!), I haven't been idle at all, but quite industrious -

So where shall I begin?

Well, it started with me finding an on-line provider of high-quality and non-expensive sock wool ... and as you know I love making anything but socks with that interesting, variegated yarn, I was tempted enough to buy a couple of kilos ...

As I had bought packages of unspecified colours, it was an even bigger challenge to find suitable projects - pink/rosé isn't really what I use to wear, but in combination with that green ...



anyway, it turned out to become a vest, a very comfortable one, which I'm already wearing.

The pattern, which is actually a kind of 'granny square' with distinct 'holes' at the corners, not only shows the colour variegation well but also produces a diagonal pattern which I find quite attractive. I found it in 'Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders' by Judith Durant, where it's originally used for a shoulder bag.

Then I had some of that greenish 6-ply wool left - and together with some scraps of Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn from my stash, I decided to crochet a little neck bag, using Lucy's 'Granny Wheel' at Attic24.



My bag is about 14 x 13 cm, and I can use it both sides.

The next thing I want to show you is the second version of the 'Japanese Flower Shawl' - exactly the same pattern as in my previous posting, still very different-looking as I used a 4-ply sock wool with very long colour sequences this time (found at a local shop) and a smaller hook. I also deliberately made a colour change for each round to get a more distinct appearance.



Here you have another picture featuring the Noro shawl to the left, the sock wool shawl to the right, for comparison.



As you can see, I've become really hooked on crocheting with variegated sock yarn - both the 4-ply and the 6-ply yarns are very comfortable for that purpose, and choosing smaller and bigger hooks makes the work pieces sturdy or soft, whatever intended.

And of course I started more projects than these just presented ... but I will show them later on, when accomplished.

Finally just another triangle shawl which I've just finished - knitted with a multi-coloured yarn I spun myself - a dear friend of mine will receive it as a birthday present.



(German summary: Es tut mir leid, daß ich wieder einmal so lange gebraucht habe, um aus dem 'Blog-Winterschlaf' zu finden - gefaulenzt habe ich trotzdem nicht, sondern mich vor allem mit Sockenwolle und verschiedenen Häkelprojekten beschäftigt: eine Weste, eine kleine Häkeltasche und noch eine zweite Version des Blumenschals - ja, und ein gestricktes Tuch aus selbstgesponnener Wolle ist auch noch dabei.)