I’m going to talk about a thing that I like (plastic pellets in my knitting), but every time I talk about it, someone comes along & goes ‘but whyyyyyy use plaaaaaaaaaaastic’ (even on posts where I have explained, at length, exactly why). So I’m just going to preemptively request that folks not do that here, because it’s kinda tiresome (to be fair, this is way way way more of a problem on instagram than here, you folks are cooler than that!).

So here’s the thing, I REALLY like how plastic pellets feel in my knits. They give things a heft & solidity & presence that wool or polyester stuffing just doesn’t, & that I have come to enjoy.

I’ve tried non plastic options, & I don’t like them as much.

Dried beans/rice/lentils aren’t as dense, don’t fit in the fabric in quite the same way, & can attract critters. Glass filling (tiny beads without the holes) feels similar to plastic pellets & doesn’t attract pests. But the glass beads are tiny & won’t stay inside your knitting unless you sew a liner, which substantially complicates the project. Metal filling (like ball bearings) is much heavier (so you have to do a mix of it & something else), more expensive, harder to find, occasionally dangerous (lead), & harder to work with.

So I use plastic.

Because I love how it feels, it’s easy to work with, it’s inexpensive, & it doesn’t attract pests. It’s the right choice for me! You can absolutely positively for sure make a different choice for you if you want. But I love this, & I think you might too.

Plus, saying ‘don’t use six ounces of plastic in something you’re going to make & keep for a long time’ really isn’t the sort of change we need to fix the world. Fixing the world is going to require governments to force huge businesses not prioritize profit over all else. It’s not something that individual consumers can do. You can’t shop your way out of an apocalypse (though I assure you, those huge businesses work damn hard to convince you that you can solve this through your own shopping choices, because then you feel like it’s your job to clean up their mess, and that’s GREAT for them).

So yeah. Plastic. Because it works really well for this. You don’t have to use it! But you totally can if you want, & you don’t need to feel bad about it.