So, for all of you out there who feel good about creating with a "craft" but would shy away from the lofty goal of producing a piece of "art," this column is for you. Hook up with other people who like to create. Support those who are trying to supply us with the materials that we need. Finally, try not to judge, just experience. Worst case scenario, you make something that will make you laugh :)
Sara's Crafty Corner
I didn't think much of it at the time, but everyone that comes over to our house notices it and comments on how cool of an idea it is. So - here ya go, a step by step (Not complicated at all) guide to making your very own cup identifier.
ReUse Cues
re waste. At the same time, I think it's ridiculous to go out and spend a bunch of money to buy packaging to put these treats in and then make my gift recipient say "Now what do I do with this?" So this year, I came up with something a little different. Using aluminum drink cans, I cut off the tops, fancied them up with a little ribbon and wire, and "Voila!" a handy dandy cookie tote that looked cool, was completely food grade, and could either be reused to hold flowers, pencils, change, etc. or simply remove the ribbon and recycle. Get as crazy and creative as you want (I used pinking shears, hole punches, wire and ribbon), and feel good about your aesthetics as well as your love of mother earth.
for Free
I love to read about the different arts/crafts that I am interested - unfortunately, that can often lead to a bank breaking amount of cash outlay. That's why I'm always soooooooooo happy to find free material; and happy moves to ecstatic when it is high quality fare. Enter www.knitty.com. Any knitter will tell you that simply looking at patterns is inspirational. The designs are submitted by both famous as well as relatively unknown knitwear designers, and range from super easy to difficult. They keep an easily searchable archive of patterns - and did I mention they are FREE!!! Log on in, and plan on spending some quality time.
This is an "Award Winning" sheep's fleece that I purchased at a fiber festival. For those of you who have never touched one of these bad boys, they are greasy. The grease, lanolin, is what keeps the sheep "water resistant." Good for the sheep, not so good for someone like yours truly who is going to try and spin it and dye it. The other fly in the ointment? Sheep have no respect for the fact that you are going to try and do something with their fleece, so they get all kinds of crap in it. Straw, poop, grass, poop, sticks, poop, bugs, poop - have I said poop enough times so that you get my point as to how nasty these little boogers can get - and mind you, these are the "Award Winners."
So sweet, little old lady said that all she did was put some water on her fleece and soak it over night. Okey dokey. This should be so much "greener" than my tons of hot water and detergent. Lets try it! Here you see it submerged in water in a giant rubber maid on my back deck. Hey, it's East Tennessee. I should also have the heat from the sun to raise the temperature of the water enough to remove even more of the lanolin, etc. from my fleece! Poor doddy old English lady - she doesn't have that on her side of the pond.
Wanna snuggle up in that? Blech! And, quite frankly, there were only so many plants that I could water with the waste water. The fleece still had a ton of lanolin in it making it difficult (if not nearly impossible) to dye, card or spin.
I haven't done any kind of actuary green foot print standard on this, but I have a hard time believing that in the end this process is that much more environmentally sound than hot tap water and Dawn 3 time wash. Hey, but wasn't that fun!
It's that time of the year...
Yeppers, it's Spring (yeah, it feels like Summer, but it's still officially Spring);and with Spring comes the Market Square Farmer's Market. And this year I have company! One of your other GU girls, Sara, is now with me every (well most) Saturday. I have my yarns and wheel to spin to your delight, and Sara has a whole host of folk art meets reuse 
fabulousness. We also have The Green Urbanite "good for the Earth and you" t-shirts and aprons available. The clothing is all gently used, hand-dyed by Sara and me, and then screen printed by Tribe One, an incredible inner city program working to make a difference in their community.
We've had a number of customers ask if we have any of our products online, and I am working hard at creating a new "GU for You" section where you can buy any of our items on-line. 
We still want to see you at the Market, but appreciate the support for our website and art that you can give us by purchasing on line.
How Dad Turned Cool...As long as I can remember, my dad has had a woodworking shop of some kind. When I was a kid, it was a great place to steal a hammer from - unfortunately I always got caught and chastised because not only did I take the "good" hammer (well, duh, who wants to use the shitty hammer?!?!) but I always either didn't put it back OR I put it back in the wrong place (Dad actually tried this Monk maneuver where he drew an outline of the tool so I'd put it back in the right place - whatever...) Those, of course, were back in the days before my father was cool. I seriously don't know how I survived it. He had all these crazy rules like "Don't wreck the car" and "Don't drink alcohol under the age of 21" and "Don't sneak out of the house and get caught by leaving the sliding glass door open so the cat sneaks back in the house and starts meowing and waking everybody up." Really, can you believe it. Then, the unthinkable happened; after my Freshman year in college and the "You need to start studying on the weekends" lecture - what planet was this man from? - Dad started to become cooler. The office that he worked in went from business attire to "casual business," so Dad started stock piling rugby shirts to wear (this is not an exaggeration - there were 2 full closets at one point.) Not my fashion taste, mind you, but more relaxed.
Somehow, we suddenly had more things to talk about besides any potential punishments that would be coming my way. And, Dad was using his woodshop to make some pretty cool stuff...So, about 4 years ago, I called up my dad in an excited state. "Dad, I just spent the last hour spinning on a spinning wheel I mean I thought the drop spindle was cool, but this is amazing I mean you can fly on this things Geez they are so expensive though it was so awesome! Will you build me a spinning wheel?" Yes, I used the giant, ecstatic run-on sentence to lull my father into complacency before springing the zinger on him. His response? "Well, if you get me some plans..." Woo hoo! VICTORY!!!
So the man doesn't work fast, but he does work cheap (except that he managed to get a new lathe out of the deal) and does some beautiful work. So I would like to share this beautiful spinning wheel with all of you. The Market Square Farmer's Market will be firing up soon, and if it looks like a day without rain, I'll be in the Green Urbanite tent with my wheel. Come by and admire John Shilling's handy work and the fact that he FINALLY got cool. Love you Dad!!!
Crafting to save the world, one head at a time...Knitters and crocheters, here's a call to action. Take those little leftover balls of yarn and turn them into hats that will first be sent to the White House and then to little heads in need all over the world. Save the Children and Warm Up America are teaming up with this great way to destash and build up some good karma. Follow the link to the directions for knitting or crocheting a hat, where to send finished caps, and other ways that you can help http://multimedia.savethechildren.org/video/caps2010PDFs/Caps%20for%20Good%20Action%20Kit%2010.25.10.pdf
The patterns are easy to follow and go together quickly. I have 7 finished so far and managed to knit one hat while watching "The Descent 2" (nothing like knitting to a horror movie). Get to it, though, as the hats need to be in by February 28th.
Same as it ever was...only better! Soda Soak Method Accordian, Horizontal, Diagonal, or Vertical Fold: Pleat fabric in 1” or smaller folds. Bind. This will make parallel lines of the dye if applied on the folded edges. Spiral: With the fabric lying flat, select a point and twist that point, spiraling the fabric around that point to make a bundly that looks like a cinnamon roll. Dye applied in pie-shaped wedges will spiral when the fabric is opened. Circles: Select a point, lift the fabric by that point. Smooth the fabric to make a cone. Bind along the cone. Dye applied in horizontal bands between the binding will make concentric circles. BTW - I strongly recommend wearing
I am incredibly fortunate to have both Deborah and Sara as friends; they are both good at reminding me of my focus. During a GU Girl meeting, we were trying to figure out how to get the word out about The Green Urbanite as well as how to off-set costs. Bumper stickers? We shot that one down quickly, not wanting to add more garbage to our corner of the planet. "I know, how about t-shirts! We've got this cool logo that Sara designed..." Yeah, but if you're going to talk the talk, you'd better walk the walk. Going the cheap t-shirt direction was tempting. We could quickly get some turnaround for a reasonable price. Advertising and some money to offset costs. Hey, but we're the GU Girls...we don't do anything the easy way!
So, what does one do when you want to get the word out and help minimize the impact to the environment? Why you tye dye! My sister and I combed the second hand stores for high quality, pre-owned shirts (reuse and a higher quality product - sweet!) Then launder and dye. Final step, take our one of a kind, "new" shirts to Tribe One - an incredible program that everyone should support - for silk screening (btw - thank you Jason Scott for the awesome suggestion). Below I describe my personal take on tye dying. Before anyone asks, I did not use natural dyes. The majority of them do not take well to cotton. Therefore, I used dye which is formulated to produce vibrant colors. I also used soda ash to help set the color. My goal was a vibrant t-shirt that would appeal to people for several years with minimal overall environmental impact.
Materials: Jacquard Procion MX Dyes and Soda Ash (available at Jerry's Artarama)
2.Fold and tie fabric.
Always fold on a clean, flat surface. When folding or bunching, expose as much fabric as possible. Make small folds rather than large folds. Use string, rubber fands or narrow elastic for resists. Bind tightly. 
3. In 1 cup of tap water, mix 2 or more teaspoons of dye. Apply the dye to the fabric using a squirt bottle, paint brush, or sponge. Apply as many colors as you like. Do not oversaturate the fabric with dye or all your colors will run together.
gloves, or have a good story as to why your hands are hot pink...
Now go re-create!!!
Fashion Forward Rewind
What hasn't changed is the fact that I prefer to dress with more of an individualistic flair. Fortunately, I have learned that one can embrace parts of a trend instead of the WHOLE trend, and that pieces can be constructed to meet those ends. Thus enters the DIY Fashion site ThreadBanger. With smart, easy to follow tips, you can embrace your inner fashionista without breaking the bank or your carbon footprint. ThreadBanger also has decorating and other DIY tips. So, give it a whirl, you've got nothing to lose!
Directions for DIY GU Swag (aka - how to use your iron on transfer...) So you came by the booth, picked up your free iron on...what's next? After you have chosen your cotton or cotton/poly blend to iron it on, just follow these easy steps:
And the Winner is...
Amy Theiss and her daughter Nina. Some of the other suggestions that we received were:
For our first challenge, we asked you to come up with a clever use for a clementine box. Amy and Nina rose to the challenge and created a handy dandy portable gardern with their empty box. Not only did they score creativity points, but also big GREEN points for helping educate Nina on how things grow. Great jobs Junior GU Girls!!! For their great efforts, they will both be receiving super awesome The Green Urbanite T-shirts. WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!
Ain't Nothin' Sexier than Utilitarian...
Yeah, that's right - I'm talking about a dishcloth/washcloth...and we're knitting it. Why? Well for one, because we can. Secondly, it's a great way to practice knitting skills without feeling stressed about the final product. Finally, these things are absolutely amazing. You can use them as hot pads; you can clean up any number of things; and, if you do them in the seed stitch, they have excellent exfolliant properties for both body and dishes.
If you want to use an old t-shirt for this project, the prep is super simple: either start at the bottom of the tshirt and make one long strip around and around the body, or cut lots of thin strips and tie them together as you go. REMEMBER, this is a utilitarian piece; aesthetic perfection is not the goal! You will not be wearing it to the Oscars... 
One thing to keep in mind if you are planning on using the t-shirt is that these are really better to use at either scrubbers or trivets - their ability to soak up water is pretty limited.
Once you have your materials, grab a set of US size 7 or 8 needles. Cast on 40 stitches to make an ~8 inch wide cloth. I like to do a seed stitch because it offers a natural scrubbing property and it is incredibly easy. Seed stitch is as flows: Knit1, purl1, and repeat Knit1, Purl1 to end. When you flip over your work, Purl1, Knit1 and repeat to the end. If you ever lose your place, either do the opposite of the stitch you just did, or do the opposite of the stitch directly underneath it. And again, remember...THIS IS A DISHCLOTH/WASHCLOTH! If you screw up a stitch, who's going to mock you? The dirty dishes? Your elbows?
You are finished when your piece is the length that you prefer. I usually do squares. Cast off, tuck in your ends, and call it a day.
Now get creative! Try different colors, patterns, fibers; sew them together to make bathmats, rugs, dishdrainers, WHATEVER!!! Seriously, you are your only limitation on this project. Be fearless! And remember, it's only a washcloth...it's only a washcloth..it's only a washcloth...
Stained Glass Class Pics
Alright peeps, if you've ever thought of doing it, I'm here to tell you that you can. Sam and I had a great time, met some cool people and came away with some surprisingly nice looking pieces. Thank you to everyone in the class for putting up with my spouse and me, as well as letting me take your pictures. Thank you to L'Jon for being our instructor and letting us run wild.
I am a firm believer in the adage "If you're not growing, you're dying." Unfortunately, I'm also not in college anymore spending my days learning new things. Fortunately, Knoxville 
offers affordabale arts education programs for both adults and children. Personally, I'm signed up to take a stained glass class with my husband (it was my anniversary gift to me - I mean him), but there are pottery classes, jewelry classes, dance classes, and the list goes on. For more information, please visit
http://www.ci.knoxville.tn.us/recreation/arts/default.asp for a list of classes, start dates, and prices.They also offer parties for both young and old.
I'll make sure and let you see what I create out of my two week class - no matter how hideous!
LYS? WTF?
The first acronym, I'll be happy to explain. For anyone who likes to knit, crochet or weave, the LYS is the local yarn store (or shop). Of course there are the big chain hobby and art supply stores that will supply you with your yarn needs, buy you won't find much out of the norm and unfortunately, you won't find a huge amount of non-synthetic materials. I'm not going to launch into the synthetic versus non-synthetic argument, because I don't want to bore you to death. I'll save that for another day. Let's talk about the places that we have close to Knoxville where you can go and start getting your hands on some really good stuff (if it sounds like something out of a Cheech and Chong movie, it's not far off!) I'll also give you some personal experience tips. Everyone may not have the same experience, so take it for what it's worth.
The Yarn Haven
www.theyarnhaven.com
464 N Cedar Bluff Rd
Knoxville, TN 37923
(865) 694-9900
Open Tue-Wed,Fri 10am-6pm; Thu 10am-8pm; Sat 10am-2pm
Honestly, this is probably the most newbie-friendly spot in town. The owner works hard to help out offering not only classes, but answering questions for those who "just drop in." If you aren't completely confidant in your skills or you just like that "homey" atmosphere, I would highly recommend them. Check out their website, as there is usually something going on for all kinds of interests.
Loopville
www.loopvilleyarn.com
Suite 13
5204 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919
(865) 584-9772
Open Mon,Wed,Fri-Sat 10am-5pm; Tue,Thu 10am-8pm
If you are looking for that really cool yarn that you saw in Vogue Knitting, Loopville is the place for you. The owner carries a wide variety of high quality yarns, as well as a diverse array of fiber combinations. While there is some assistance available, this shop is really more tailored to the experienced fiber enthusiast.
Knitting Nest
http://www.theknittingnest.com/
109 West Harper Avenue, Maryville, TN
(865) 983-9554
Mon - Fri 10am to 6pm, Thurs 10am to 8pm, Sat 11am to 5pm,Sunday Closed
If I had grown up to own an LYS, I would hope it would be like the Knitting Nest. Located in a renovated loft in Maryville, it’s that kind of place that you just want to move in to. Great variety of yarns, lots of classes, and an active part of Maryville’s revitalized downtown, it is definitely worth the trip. Some of the reviews that I read said that it was not particularly child friendly; I had my daughter with me, and I did not find this to be the case – then again, I’m blessed with the world’s smallest 80 year old. Make your first trip a grown-up excursion and just enjoy yourself.
