Knitting Orange to Be Green

I have been following the Knitting Daily Knitting Green Challenge, and was inspired this afternoon to create my own recycled piece of knitting history.  So, here's the whole story.

Weekend before last, my husband and I spread 46 bales of pine straw around the yard (need something in the South to keep the moisture near the ground in the flower beds and garden).  My daughter's job was to pick up all of the plastic baling strings, which she did.  Then they sat in a box near the trash can for two weeks, somehow missing trash day.  It must have been fate.  Anyway, yesterday morning I looked at them and the idea of knitting them like yarn started to percolate in my brain.  This morning, my daughter and I knotted them together, counted the yardage, and the bale ball was born.

It didn't take long for me to grab a pair of bamboo US 15s and start knitting it up.  Market bag, I thought.

It took about 3 hours to knit the bag completely and the two handles.  Attaching the handles was a little more difficult than I expected.  And the plastic knotted ends (all knit to the inside) don't weave in as well as wool.  The inside's a little bumpy, but the outside is pretty awesome! And I have to mention that Buddy, my knitting dog was a tremendous hinderance--I mean help!--during the knitting process.