Earth Day Special: Two (Temporarily) Free Patterns
UPDATE: These patterns are no longer available for free but can be purchased here.
Did you know Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970? We still have a long way to go in reversing the damage we've done to this home of ours, but I think there are tiny steps each of us can start to take that will add up to big change. To honor the planet and all of its gifts, I wanted to create something special for Earth Day this year that would be useful and also inspiring to others who want to begin taking these tiny steps.
Enter the Marseille (crochet) and Alsace (knit) Tea Towels. These washable, reusable kitchen towel patterns make excellent additions to your home and beautiful gifts for loved ones. Scroll down to find the patterns for free until Tuesday, April 24th at 11:59pm EST, after which they will return to normal pricing and join my Purposeful Patterns initiative whereby $1 from the sale of each pattern will be donated to the National Geographic Society.
While saving the planet can be totally overwhelming and seemingly impossible for any one person to do, it's the collective efforts we all make that will start to make an impact. I was inspired by my dear friends from the Life of Plenty blog who recently wrote a post about the immense task of overhauling everything in your environment to to lead a "cleaner" life, and how just simple changes here and there can really add up over time. They are focusing on making adjustments to their morning routines to reduce toxins and chemicals in the products they use in their homes and on their bodies, because "making small steps is better than not doing anything at all."
I've been blown away with the love my French Market Bag pattern has received since I released the pattern last year, and I've seen a huge increase in downloads of my knit version, the Farmers' Market Tote, as well. It's heartwarming to know that people are starting to reduce their use of plastic bags and replace them with prettier, handmade totes and that I've been able to be part of that. So in keeping with the home/kitchen theme, I designed two washable, reusable towels to replace paper towels and hopefully spark more thoughtfulness when it comes to replacing disposable items in our homes with more sustainable practices.
Both the Marseille and Alsace tea towels use the linen stitch in their respective crafts and were inspired by French bistro towels, which I personally love to use as kitchen towels, napkins, cleaning rags, and pressing cloths for steam blocking my knits. I chose to work with Lion Brand Yarn 24/7 Cotton for the designs for its durability and drape. I hope these patterns will inspire and motivate you to make small changes in your daily routine to help protect and renew our wonderful world.
The Marseille Tea Towel is an easy level crochet pattern, and the techniques involved are single crochet, chaining and skipping stitches, and working into chain spaces.
The Alsace Tea Towel is an easy level knitting pattern, and the techniques involved are knit, purl, and slipping stitches.
Looking for other ways to reduce waste in your daily routine? Check out the French Market Bag and Farmers' Market Tote patterns!
Don't forget to share your projects made using Two of Wands patterns on Instagram with the hashtag #crewofwands so your post will get featured on my site and you'll be in the running for monthly pattern giveaways!
Check out the #crewofwands community page here.
The pattern and photographs of this design are the property of Two of Wands. This pattern and design are subject to copyright, and are for personal, non-commercial use only. You may not distribute or sell this pattern or any items created using the directions in this pattern without consent. Please visit my policies for more information.
