The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet is always a good source of information regarding glass and its industrial uses. Art is important but since glass is such a large part of everyone’s life it’s good to pass on information on other glass news. This story is about “green” glass and the many colors that are now available in bottles. The glass manufacturer Verallia in South Seattle has invested over 20 million dollars to renovate their plant so they can make more of their bottles out of recycled cullet, crushed recycled glass. They receive a lot of their cullet from Canada and the Seattle area and most of the bottles they make go to wineries in the Pacific Northwest. This is good for them and good for the planet. Everyone wins!
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Knit a Blanket with the Texture of a Ceiling
Knitwear designers can get inspiration from almost anything when it comes to re-creating a color scheme, an image or a texture in stitches. Sometimes the inspiration isn’t always obvious in the finished project, but sometimes it’s more literal.
That’s the way it is with the Tin Ceiling Blanket from Purl Soho. Not just because the inspiration is in the name, but if you’ve ever seen one of these old ceilings you can see that the design of the blanket is quite similar to the pattern of the tin tiles.
This is also a good example of the idea that you don’t have to use fancy stitch patterns or lots of color to make a big impact with your knits. This single-color blanket (designed by Gianna Mueller and inspired by a washcloth and towel set designed by Sandi Rosner) is made completely with knits and purls, other than slipped stitches at the beginning of rows to make neater edges.
The pattern is written out row by row, but there’s also a chart, which means this project is a great opportunity to practice reading a chart where you can check your work against the written pattern if you need to.
It comes in two sizes, a crib blanket and a throw. The yarn used in the sample is an organic cotton sold by the cone, which is a great way to get a large quantity of yarn and have fewer ends to weave in. In fact, you can knit either size of the blanket with just one cone of yarn, which isn’t inexpensive but makes you a great, sturdy, heirloom quality but still washable blanket you’ll use for years to come. (Of course you can use any sport weight yarn you like to make this blanket.)
Check out all the details and grab the free pattern from Purl Soho.
[Photo: Purl Soho]