The garden was tilled and I planted about half of it. I know I really need to go weed it, like, YESTERDAY - been pretty much hiding out at home and knitting lately though.
Speaking of knitting, I am becoming good at it. I've taught myself a lot, learning from various websites and books. I can now knit lace and next I want to learn cables and color knitting. What I love about knitting is that it is such an old craft. I feel like part of an ancient community when I knit, because knitting has been done for centuries upon centuries......it's a lovely, "connected" feeling to knit.
My first hand knit lace scarf.
I've been using only natural fibers. I started with cotton and now I use mostly merino wool and alpaca. It's wonderful to use natural fibers!! I even have a skein of camel yarn. :) Again, it's the feeling of being connected to ancient crafts that is so very appealing -- in addition to making something warm and useful, of course.
A friend gave me a whole alpaca fleece yesterday. I am really looking forward to preparing the fiber and spinning it into yarn. It's relaxing just to think about it. Such a beautiful fleece, too - mostly a honey rose color. There is some white in it and the color goes all the way to a deep gold. I think I'll leave the color as it is (without dying it) and knit it from light to dark, so the finished product has a lovely shaded effect. Perhaps a whole blanket! That sounds WONDERFUL. :D
Meanwhile, my quest for sustainability continues. I have made some permanent changes, such as only buying natural fiber items for both clothing, crafts and home use. In fact, I have converted all of my bedding to cotton and it is really nice. I had no idea that natural fiber was so much nicer to use. It breathes, it's warm and doesn't suffocate my pores. LOL. I love it.
I've been trying to use sunlight as much as possible, to save on energy costs and light bulb use. Haven't used candles for light yet, but that is something I may do as the days get shorter later in the year. I may also start to use the wood burning stove for heat, too. We'll see how the cost to do that works out.
I have also stopped buying bottled water entirely. I have two stainless steel refillable bottles which work great. I stopped consuming anything that contains aspartame or MSG. I am still working on eliminating corn syrup from my diet entirely. I need to do more home cooking! Cleaning out my kitchen is definitely on my to-do list so that I have more space for that. I plan to try canning later this year, too, so I will need lots of counter space (and I have very little to begin with)!
So, the journey continues. I can say that I have been lagging a bit due to my health.....however, things have been moving forward even though progress hasn't been drastic. Lasting change is what I am striving for, anyway. :)
Alpaca wrap I knitted recently.
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