I've been trying to write up my list of editor-approved blog posts.

They're about climate change, national security, sustainability, international environmental cooperation -- all sorts of green newsy goodness. I've got quotes, sources, cites and decent narrative through-lines for most of them.

But no matter how hard I try to write -- and I really do enjoy my work -- the fact is that  today I'd rather be knitting.

Given the bumpy wind-down of 2009 -- from the failed climate conference, to a guy trying to suicide-bomb a passenger airliner -- I'm guessing a lot of us wish we could bug out from the day's dour hard news for more innocent, immediately gratifying activities instead of observing the world's progress towards hell in a handbasket.

Maybe I can't stop China from building more coal-fired power plants. But I know how to knit a really nice scarf.

Do-it-yourselfism has undergone an enormous revival in the US in the past decade, and it's easy to see some conceptual linkages between environmentalism and this revitalized interest in basement electronics and baking pies. Preferring to make or buy one-off, handmade items aligns with the micro-brewed, anti-globalization, pro-locavoremovements that have been building for two decades.

Wanting to knowing exactly what your crafted whatsit is made of, and where the materials come from, is similar to wanting to know what invisible substance may be leeching out of a plastic water bottle, and how it might be hurting you or your kid.

There are be more concrete connections as well, such as "smart crafting." This involves working tiny sensors, micro-circuit boards, conductive thread and other devices into garments, to create wearable technology: clothing that collects data from and responds to movement and the environment.  

It's not at all impossible that I could sew a carbon dioxide sensor into a scarf knit from conductive thread, run its data it through a flexible textile circuitboard, and connect that to my iPod Touch as the readout. It would be a fashion statement and a personal pollution sensing device.

Why go too deep?  A healthy environment is better than a polluted one. Knitting your own hat can be more interesting and satisfying than buying one at Target. 

Still, if you like your hobbies firmly tied in to your environmental concerns, here are some resources that are keeping up with the eco-maker zeitgeist:

CRAFT and MAKE magazines: While not explicitly environment-oriented, projects and experts profiled in these two ur-tomes of the DIY movement are often concerned with open-source technology, recycling used materials, using natural as opposed to artificial substances, shopping less, and experiencing more. CRAFT devoted an entire issue to green crafting before going totally digital about a year ago.

Crafting a Green World: This blog's writers obsess on making things with old T-shirts, vintage fabrics (whose carbon burden is well in the past), used greeting cards, yarn reclaimed from old or unwanted sweaters, and the like.

Fashioning Technology is the smart crafting bible.

How Can I Recycle This? The title of this UK-based blog pretty much speaks for itself.

Ikea Hacker features projects from readers who creatively customize off-the-shelf Ikea goods to meet their particular needs, at a fraction of the cost of buying custom-made.

(Ikea's environmental rap is mixed. The sustainability of its wood supply chain is difficult to verify. But the signature flat-pack methodology saves on packaging materials, as well as energy for shipping. The company was an early mover in removing formaldehyde and brominated flame retardants from its products.)

ReadyMade Magazine's monthly MacGyver Challenge asks readers to create something that's well-designed and useful out of some or other particular piece of consumer-economy detritus. Past challenges have ranged from re-purposing a defunct inkjet printer to finding new uses for now-outmoded slide projector carousels.

Sew Green covers your enviro-needlework jones.

Swap-O-Rama-Rama events combine recycling used clothes with on-the-spot workshops to transform someone else's unwanted garment into your next great outfit. There is information on the site to help you start your own community swap, or find one already scheduled (worldwide).

Image: From science-artist Valerie Laws' "Haik Ewe" project involving quantum physics, poetry, and sheep.