Simple Pleasures

I'm so excited!!! Finally it appears as though Anchorage is catching up to the Lower 48. Today I received our curbside recycling bin from our local waste management service. I know many communities in the Lower 48 have had curbside recycling for years, but not so here in Alaska.

Last week, our local paper ran an article about recycling and mentioned that of 35,000 customers of Alaska Waste, only 5,000 were taking advantage of the curbside recycling program. Wow!!! The article made it sound as if all of Alaska Waste's customers could sign up for this service - so I dutifully called to find out that no, not all customers have recycling available in their area (sob...) But... it seems as if our neighborhood is on the Orange Route, so yup - every other week for a mere pittance a month (less than having 2 grande latte's at a local coffee establishment!!) they would come & haul away my recycling!! Yeah!!!


My husband and I have been trying to cut down on the amount of trash we put out each week by recycling what we can. We dutifully sort all recyclables and then bring it to the recycling center in Anchorage when we can no longer walk into our storage space under the house. I am just so excited that now all we have to do is wheel the container to the end of the driveway & some nice people will come & take it all away. We don't even have to sort!!! Yes - simple pleasures, indeed.

For those of you less than enthusiastic about recycling (I can't imagine!) - here's my latest F.O.:

TTL Mystery Socks - Finished, originally uploaded by Arctic Knitter.

These are the Mystery Socks from Through the Loops. What a fun knit & great way to find my sock knitting mojo. This pattern has consistently been one of the most popular patterns on Ravelry. I liked how clues were doled out weekly giving us less than lightning quick knitters a good pace to follow.

Details:

Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy.

The jury is still out on how I feel about this yarn. I kept splitting it - perhaps it was due to the wonderful pointiness of the knitpicks needles. It knits up rather nice - a great finished project. The skeins are bountiful as well - I have tons left over. I think I'll use it to make some holiday ornaments.

Colorway: Lipstick Lava

Needles: Knit Picks #1 (2.50 mm)

Size: To fit a size 8.5 (64 stitch count)

Now I need to decide whether or not to keep these or pass them along as a gift.

**Don't forget (as if you could) that tomorrow is Election Day. Please exercise your hard earned right, privilege, and duty and vote!!