Preparing

This past week, I did a little tour around my house and collected samples that I'll use for teaching my class on how to make and use recycled yarns.  It was a good opportunity to give beloved household items a good wash and airing!

Remember, if you're interested in taking this class on Friday at the Manitoba Fibre Festival, please register here!

These are only some of my supplies, but a short summary...the baskets.  These knitted baskets were taken directly out of household use.  The flowered one is used to hold medicines and odds and ends on a high up shelf in a kids' bedroom.  The white one sits in a hallway, usually filled with dog toys.

(We are still helping Sadie the dog realize that she can also return toys to this bin as well as distribute them around the house!)
This braided rug usually lives in the guest room.  It is made entirely of old clothing and is aging very well.  I recognized most of the clothing from around 1995-7 or so.  I made this rug for our first home in Durham, North Carolina, around the time we got married.

I wove this rag rug on a floor loom for an outdoor exhibit at the Forks in 2010, I think.  When it came home (a little worse for wear), I washed it, it cleaned up nicely and it became a rug in my guest bathroom.

Part of the reason it was easy to gather all this?  The professor and my kids have been working to paint our guest room recently.  It was an ugly brown color...we inherited it this from the last owner.  When we had our house insulated in June, the workers decided they could not insulate the house on the third floor from the outside.  (too high up, too hard to drill into the stucco to shoot the insulation in the walls.)  So, they drilled inside, and we've had a lot of chaos in cleaning up from this.  Because of the big bore holes, it was a good time to repaint...and we chose a cheery pistachio green shade.  The guest room is mostly reassembled now and looks so much better.  I feel relieved every time I see the new color!

Last but not least, I had an article come out recently in the Vancouver Jewish Independent about the start of the new school year and what we share when trying to connect with others.
That's the news from here!

I'm teaching on September 13th!

Yes, it's true!
I'm teaching a class on how to use recycled materials to make yarn...at the Manitoba Fibre Festival!  (The photo's from my book, Knit Green, an oldie but a goody...)
Check out this lovely kind blog post for more information..and
  To register, go straight to this page on the Festival website.

Other things, in brief...
Strippy McStrippit, my new cardigan design, is now live on both Ravelry and Lovecrafts.com.  (If you live in North America, Lovecrafts even carries Einband, the yarn I used for the pattern sample, so it's easy one-stop shopping.

On an entirely different topic, if you want to read one of my newspaper articles--this one's about Canada's federal voting date, religious minorities, Jewish holidays, and reggae.  (No kidding, I had to throw in reggae...)  Check out this piece, published last Friday in Vancouver.
We are one people, one heart 

Taking care

The last few weeks have been frenetic around here.  Since before Passover, a month ago, I have been super busy--first with all the household preparations, as my husband, the professor, was out of town before the holiday, and then afterwards, with catching up on all the work that seemed to fall between the cracks.  I've been doing some editing, writing, and even some designing. 

Then, the news (shootings, floods, wars) has been fairly daunting, too--and after a while, a person feels run down.  My piece last week for the Vancouver paper, The Jewish Independent, as about this issue and how to do a little self-care in order to cope.  It's called Staying calm amid bad news.

One thing that kept me busy was getting ready to teach a handspinning class in our local fibre arts community.  I both love teaching and feel a bit out of practice...I started my career teaching full time, but now work almost entirely by myself.  That transition from 'extrovert' job to an introverted lifestyle has meant that sometimes I have to really psych myself up and prepare to do a teaching job.  I still love doing it, but I don't get to do it as often now.  

On Mother's Day, I joined five women who seemed as determined as I was to take time to enjoy themselves and learn something new--and the break did us all good!  

This first photo is of the bags of samples I created for the class: eight different kinds of silk, mohair and alpaca, all weighed and measured in a cheerful and reusable bag in spring time patterns, complete with lists of where to buy resources and more.  I also brought along my books to share for those who were interested in a signed copy.  

These days, many of my students seem surprised to hear that I did actually write books on these topics!  (Alas, although they are still for sale, fame is so fleeting!)  If you missed your chance to take a class on Mother's Day, you can, of course, always order the books online.  Here's a link to Fiber Gathering and Knit Green for good measure...If you live locally, I can also sign your books if you're interested.  (If you live far away, postage may be prohibitive.) 

Meanwhile, back at our household, the Professor and my twins did piano lessons, grocery shopping, and playing with our dogs on their own...and surprised me with flowers and a sushi dinner as a treat.  Sometimes a break from routine, some learning, and some time spent doing something you love... is a good thing! 

Seek peace and truth in 2019...

Sometimes things happen because of luck or good timing.  Canadians don't observe Martin Luther King Day, but as a dual citizen, I can't help but think about it, even as it's not an official holiday here.

The Jewish Independent just ran my piece:
Seek peace and truth in 2019

And this hearkens back to many things I've learned from studying Dr. King's words over the years.

(Note: Jews come from all over the world, and therefore we're a people of all colors.  Also, historically, in some societies, Jews have been seen as "People of Color" regardless of their skin colour.  We share this issue of discrimination and prejudice with King, and many others, even if the country, time period, and context sometimes differ)

An important and interesting conversation has sprung up in the knitting world about race, inclusion, and diversity.  It's all over the knitting web right now, but if you're on Ravelry, the knitting database with 8 million members, there's a good summary and discussion here. 

When I wrote Fiber Gathering and Knit Green, beginning in 2007, I was insistent that the models and designs address diversity--in women's sizes, skin color, and more.  This meant that my first book deal fell through, as that publisher didn't agree with me. I wanted to include models whose sizes looked more like the average woman's size 12.  I wanted to include People of Color.  I wanted the books to look representative of what I saw in our fiber arts communities.  When Wiley & Sons (the 2nd publisher) chose and published my books, they helped with this goal.

Unfortunately, what I noticed, over time, is that some of my favorite projects, when featured as Ravelry ads, did not seem to sell patterns.  For whatever reason, those designs were not selling.

Maybe the adverts or designs weren't good.  Or, was it because of the diverse models who represent what we see around us,  (beautiful knitters -and people- come in all colors)--but don't acknowledge--every day?

When I redid the advertisements so that skin color was less apparent... Guess what?  More people clicked through to see the designs.  To me, this informal ad campaign showed me that sadly, the knitting community, like all of us, still has lots to work on when it comes to loving and appreciating diversity.  Change and inclusion takes time.

This week, I chose to buy an ad on Ravelry again, to support their efforts in a small way.  The photos in this blog post are the ad images I am running.  This time, in 2019, and on MLK weekend, I hope more people click through.

Designs featured in this post:
Bandana
Tank Empire
Spire Smock

On making a difference

I was invited to be a guest blogger on Donna Druchunas' blog-- Subversive Knitting!  Want to know more about how knitters and writers can make change?  Here's how it starts...
Today, Joanne Seiff, author of Fiber Gathering and  Knit Green, talks about her newest book, From the Outside In, and on how each of us can make a difference:

Thank you, Donna, for inviting me to post!  I’m thrilled to be here.

Did you ever think about how best you can make a difference in the world?  In our living rooms, most of us treat friends or family to the occasional rant.  I found the rare public “bully pulpit” in a place I didn’t expect....

To read more, follow this link to see the full post.  

Additions and deletions

So, I think the whole #slowfashionoctober movement has passed me by, because I'm not on instagram.  I'm a bit retro: when we moved to Canada, we didn't get cell phones here, and I eventually gave up on the US one I had.  I haven't kept up with the smartphone, texting, selfie stuff that I see people doing all around me.

In fact, I found it to be a relief.  We don't get a lot of phone calls and to be honest, I don't miss it, mostly.  Life with twins and two dogs is noisy.  I don't think I always have to be available--and juggling the folks in my household takes all of my attention a lot of the time.  Truthfully, the only time I really thought I should have a phone was back in the spring time, when I had my little surprise trip to the ER and was too sick to use one myself anyhow.

Although I have dropped in on the instagram conversation as a lurker, I realized I wasn't debating things in the way others have.  I haven't been wondering how I could make all my own t-shirts, or spelling out the origins of every piece of fabric or yarn in my stash.  I haven't sworn off anything much, either.  On the other hand, I don't buy a lot new in the first place.

My only recent purchases have been out of necessity.  I bought another pair of All Birds Wool sneakers when I visited the US.  They are all wool and biodegradable materials, and I have fallen in love with how comfortable they are...and since I am not really up for making my own shoes right now, I'll settle for an ethically made pair, ready for next spring, summer and fall, instead. (winter time in Winnipeg = boots from November to April)

Then, I had (gasp) an underwire pop out of one of those essential female undergarments.  I was down to way too few of those anyway, and had to go to The Bay and check out their lingerie sale.  Now, I think I bought all of "last year's models" and saved a lot of money.  Were all those bras and pairs of underwear made in a place with good working conditions?  With a decent minimum wage?  I just don't know...but Rome wasn't built in a day.  I have to take a middle path about this.  There's no way I'll have time to figure out how to make underwear this month.  It's just not in the schedule.

This month, as usual, I've fixed lots of things.  I mended and patched many pairs of little boy pants.  I knit up an extension on this sweater.  Instead of cutting off the old ribbing, I left it in place, picked up stitches right above it, and knit down.  Luckily, I had matching yarn left over, although I have a feeling the kid in question would have been fine with contrasting yarn, if that were on offer!

I debated cutting off the ribbing at the end, but felt it was risky.  This kid is narrow in the hips, so instead, I just basted down the ribbing on the inside, and it forms a double layer band towards the bottom of the sweater.  It looks tidy enough on the inside.

Now, in this action shot, over a hand me down polar fleece, if you undo the sleeve cuffs, you can see there is still room to grow this season, and the sweater has already been in action again...worn out and about.

The kid in question is pleased as punch to have his sweater back.

I haven't done as much writing about Slow Fashion this month as I had intended.  However, maybe I have some excuses to fall back on.  Pre-twins, I did write a whole book about this back in 2009.  You know, about making ethical and green choices when it came to choosing knitting yarns and textiles in general...Knit Green.

I also realize that while I may not be snapping so many perfectly staged photos, I am indeed spending those moments trying to mend, recycle, reuse, and maximize what we've got at home when it comes to clothing.  Yesterday, I showed someone the knitting in my purse.  It's the sleeve to one twin's fall sweater (each kid gets one handknit sweater a year, if I can manage it) and one half of a handknit kid's sock.  It's all from my stash--no new yarn purchases.  I'm still trying, one stitch at a time, to make things from scratch in a responsible way.

Today, in other activities: I've made 3 loaves of challah, one loaf of banana chocolate chip bread, pureed the soup (and froze some) that I cooked yesterday, put chicken and potatoes into the slow cooker, got my freezer lamb for the year delivered, dealt with another house upkeep issue, and submitted an article on a deadline to an editor.  You know, nothing much... there's still time to fit in a little more mending and knitting, I hope! (and all before I pick up boys from kindergarten, too...)

Bermuda bag! On sale now!

Some time ago, I wrote this book, Knit Green: 20 Projects and Ideas for Sustainability and I designed some knitting patterns to go with it.  It worked out that I could offer some of the patterns as downloads online...but for one reason or another, some of these designs were not available, aside from purchasing the book.  Yesterday, I was able to fix that!  Now, the basic Bermuda bag and the Pin Check Bermuda Bag are both available for download on Ravelry, and also available on Love Knitting.  If you buy them both on Ravelry before the end of February, you can get $2 off, too! 

When I was a kid, I had one of these bags and I loved how "matchy matchy" it made everything...and it also seems like a perfect, vintage but new sort of thing....never really out of style or out of date.  Unfortunately, I am not able to carry one of these things now and hold onto the hands of both my twins in school parking lots, etc. so for now, I'll just have to say how cool they are for everybody else.  :)  And, imagine how neat it would be to knit matching covers for your outfits!  Cool!

For people who know me, I have a little bit of a bag thing going on.  I dig gorgeous bags---not fancy handbags, but useful, utilitarian bags for holding stuff. (heaven knows, I shlep around a lot of stuff while dealing with twins...)

 Just today I saw this field bag and these these bento bags--I tell you.  I feel seized by irrational desire.  I think I am subconsciously trying to contain clutter this way.  Our house is filled with clutter.  Piles!  Stuff everywhere.  And, you know, I'd like to be one of those zen tidy people, but I am not.  However, a good container...a good bag...well, it makes all the clutter appear to go away for a while.  Ahhh.  That's better.

Yesterday, I took a new handmade enormous wooden crochet hook I'd picked up at Ram Wools and I made something...a while back, someone passed along some old sheets and remnants her mother had saved, and said she thought I'd find something to do with them.  I contemplated getting rid of the box several times, but held out.  I'd cut and ripped one threadbare white sheet into a big ball of fabric yarn a while back.  Here it is in its new incarnation....it holds all those bits of paper with phone numbers scribbled on them, all those business cards that littered this area near the phone in our dining room until recently.  We are old school--we still have a landline, with a pile of phone numbers near it.  Now they have their own crocheted container/basket thingee.  It's not a fine job, I'm no professional when it comes to crochet...but it is tidy for the moment.  Ahhh.  Bags.  Containers.  I see a green ripped sheet in my office, and I'm imagining its future now.  If we can only contain it all?  Maybe I won't have to go through it or throw it all away?!

Earth Day: Every Day

Wednesday, April 22nd, was Earth Day...and I didn't remember to post.  Instead, we've been collecting recyclables to bring to preschool for art projects.  We've been using (and re-using) our cloth diapers... UPDATE: both boys are mostly toilet trained during the day.  Not at night though. Oh well.  It's a process.

Anyhow, we make an effort to think about the environment whenever we can.  It has to be manageable, but sometimes we find going the extra distance to choose the right thing, is worth it for us in the long run.

I wondered what sort of photo to post with this, because things are not green here yet.  Earth Day happens at a time when we don't even have grass or leafy trees...just the odd bud or two.  It was 14F (-10C) this AM.   So, I remembered last summer.  We just recently finished eating the bags of frozen strawberries from our basement freezer.  We still have lots of homemade jam left.  Here we are, on a windy, cool July day last summer, in a strawberry field relatively near Winnipeg.  We went picking twice.  We had great fun, including an impromptu ride on a farm "gator" tractor.

I was featured on a blog this week -- likely because of how Knit Green's ideas coincide with Earth Day.  Although my books were published by Wiley & Sons, this part of their publishing business was sold to Turner Publishing...and here's their blog!

Joanne Seiff links two loves: knitting and reading | Connect | Turner Publishing

To celebrate, I'd like to offer a discount to anybody who might like to download a knitting pattern (skipping the paper for the pdf?  An Earth Day move!) on Ravelry.

Until May 15, use the coupon code:
Celebrate!
to download any of my Ravelry patterns for 20% off.  Springtime - and thinking about the earth- are well worth celebrating.

drive-by knitting

I'd really like to get back to posting more frequently, so this is a speedy attempt.  Here are some (not very good) photos I've taken with my iPad to show off recent knitting and life here.  I have finished my version of Kapp, an Icelandic sweater pattern with Lite-Lopi in Size 4. It is too big for our boys now but will be just right come next fall, I suspect.  It was a pattern that required the knitter to already know how to do an Icelandic type sweater.  (in the round, bottom up, attach two sleeves and do a yoke, etc.)  The instructions were well-intended, but minimal.  There is a mistake in this, and it is around the collar area, and I hope you can't really see it because of the buttons (ancestral button stash buttons!) the slanty photo and the collar. :)  Whatever, it will keep someone warm!

Now I am on to the next sweater.  This will be a stripy zip-up-the-front one, I suspect, as requested by my (skinny) boy, unless he goes for buttons at the last moment.  He likes long coatlike sweaters, and this one is being knit at a size 2 width but size 4 length.  There is no pattern to this.  I am just making it up as I go.  Winging it for me is only slightly more complicated than following a well-intended pattern without many details!

Long ago, I started a pair of Selbuvotter mittens, using a pattern from Terri Shea's great book.  However, things got distracting and I found I just could not concentrate on finishing those mitts at the time.  Hah.  You know, when I was writing books and getting ready to move to Canada, but not yet the mom of twins....well, it was the twin thing that did it, I guess.  Put me right over the top. 

I bumped into that little bag of half-finished project recently, and huh.  There was some very nice fingering-sport weight handspun 2 ply that I had done years ago.  It was just waiting to be mitts.  I took one look at that pattern I was trying to follow, and my eyes crossed.  (No, my twins still do not sleep through the night.  5 or 6 wake ups last night alone.  I lost count.)

I just cut the handspun right off the half mitten I'd done and started winging it.  I made some top-down mitts in the 20 minutes before I fell asleep or during odd moments here and there.  They fit fabulously and I was ready to go when I looked at them.  They looked sort of, umm, homespun.  Not bad, but just sort of homemade in a way I wasn't quite satisfied with wearing out and about.

I washed the mitts, gently fulling them in the process.  Then I grabbed some grape kool aid packets on a grocery store errand, and the mitts took a little dip.  They now are a lovely variegated purple/lavender contrasted with rich brown.  They look good and more importantly, they feel very warm, especially with another pair underneath.  Sadly, they do not photograph well in the spare moments when I have a chance to shoot a photo.

Today I was out shovelling and I tried all sorts of angles in the sunlight.  There is very definitely lots of "winter" out here, and while the temperature is tropical (-10 C, around 20F), I still wear mitts when shovelling.

Here's a failed shot of mitts that shows some snow drifts.  Here's also a photo of me in my winter gear.  I've made 2 pairs of mittens for myself this winter and I am now on to a third...I wonder whether winter will beat me and I'll have three new pairs of mitts by the time the snow is done, or -- maybe, (hah) spring will come first.  I somehow doubt it!

PS: I've now managed to download all the currently available pdf patterns from my both of my books to Ravelry...but no one has bought a single one of the new downloadable patterns yet!  There's still time to make mitts before spring!  Join me...?

 

Oh, for the days of Pony Express!

Here's my latest article--just out on the Op-Ed page of the Winnipeg Free Press this AM:

Oh, for the days of the Pony Express!

 As for the response?
As of 8 this morning, I have already been given a hand-delivered note by a neighbor who says she wholeheartedly agrees.  I did not think that being so frustrated by the mail this winter would result in getting additional (hand-delivered) mail!

On another topic--I am slowly uploading more patterns from my books to Ravelry.  Check out this Knit Green link to see which pdf downloads are now available.  More to come soon!

new downloads available!

It's definitely still winter here in Winnipeg.  About -40 with the windchill this AM (that is the same in Fahrenheit and Celsius). It has been a real slog, this season.  I am getting tired of putting little boys into snow suits just to go outside! We've got one of the coldest winters on record...and we have ample opportunity to wear woollies!  This post is to celebrate the launch of a few pattern downloads now available for sale.  All of them are relatively quick knits if you are, like me, still experiencing winter. :)

The first pattern is this Icelandic Winter Cap.   I loved my personal version of this design to death!  It is now felted with snow and hard use and battered and perfect for my boys' basement toy box, but still warm. It knits up quickly with Lopi yarns and is an inexpensive boost to your winter wardrobe...covers your ears, too!

The next photo is of the Sit Upon.  This is my only crochet pattern in print.  Made quickly with an enormous crochet hook and wool roving, these sit upons can warm up a bleacher seat or dress up your dining room.  It all depends on where you need it!  One of my Sit Upons actually works as a placemat underneath my dogs' water bowl.  It is a versatile and useful thing to have, and very fast to make.

The Mary Jane Socks, a pattern featured in an earlier blog post, are an ideal way to use one of a kind hand-dyed sock yarns.  Assuming all the stars align, I hope to feature a brand new version of this pattern in a special new hand-dyed yarn line.  In the meanwhile though, the pattern is now available as a download, too!

The Deep V Sweater is an interesting pattern and I'm surprised I have not seen more versions of it posted online.  Knit with two strands of cotton yarn, it can be knit with either two strands worsted weight or one strand bulky weight yarn.  It's designed to keep the chill away, whether you're at a festival or at home.  I look forward to seeing more versions of this pop up on line now that the pdf is available.

The last pdf from Fiber Gathering that is now available as a separate download is the Unmistakably Warm Cowl.  I am featuring a photo of this one that shows it around the ears, but it is, of course, also good for your neck!  When I knit this out of lighter weight alpaca, I was living in Kentucky and it seemed mighty warm.  I won't lie, this version is not warm enough for Winnipeg winters (but then, very little is!)--if I were to make this for wear here in Winnipeg, I'd make it out of worsted weight or bulky weight alpaca, and I'd make a bigger cowl, too.  The good thing about this pattern is that it is easy to modify and very fast to make. 

I am excited about being able to market these patterns separately!  Several blog readers have either posted comments or mentioned privately that they think this is great too--thank you so much for the moral support.  I am really hoping that making these patterns available individually will offer knitters more options to enjoy knitting these designs.  As one friend explained, she already has my book, but would love to just have the convenience of a single pattern at a time--no scrolling through an ebook--available on her iPad in her knitting bag.  Here it is, friends!  Thanks for your kind words and support!

(More to come soon...I am already slowly posting Knit Green patterns online as I find spare moments.)

Walking the walk

When I wrote Knit Green: 20 Projects and Ideas for Sustainability, I tried to give information on sustainable ideas as choices that anybody could make. That's how I see it--we each make choices based on our individual values. One of the things I wrote is that I'm a moderate...I haven't given up my car or gone off the grid. That said, I feel like I have to strive to do more.

When I wrote the book, no babies were on the horizon for us. We had a long struggle with fertility and designing and knitting for babies was hard. I did a few baby designs anyhow. (Lots of people knit for babies, so it was just one of the parts of my job that wasn't my favorite....)

In doing research about fertility issues, I found a lot of recent research has gone into environmental pollutants that cause hormonal disruptions. Hormonal disruptions affect fertility. Plastics, like Bisphenol_A, can significantly affect the human body. While humans are actively using plastics in all parts of life, we're not sure yet what its long term effects are for our health. Some of those research results and effects are pretty worrisome. We often only find out long term affects of our inventions a long time after they are developed. (nuclear reactors and radiation, for instance)

In our case, there were no clear causes to why we didn't get pregnant, so no easy way to fix the problem.

Yet, the information I learned about plastics--a petroleum based product--led me to think a lot about why and how it is used.

I am now applying the same research skills to things one needs for babies...and I am stunned by how much baby stuff out there is synthetic. Synthetic: Plastic, man-made, petroleum-based, not natural, etc. It's hard to avoid the sheer number of plastic things out there--right down to basics like disposable diapers or bottles.

As I research, I'm making different decisions than I think many people may make when it comes to these fetuses I'm toting around. The professor and I are trying to find a lot of second-hand things, because if the stuff is plastic, it off gasses and doesn't break down in landfills. We can reuse it instead and reduce waste. For instance--we can try cloth diapers to reuse materials, reduce landfill waste, and avoid plastics. Yes, cleaning them takes energy, but it takes less energy and costs less than manufacturing new diapers and throwing them away after one use.

We are trying NOT to buy or acquire polyester or synthetic materials if we can avoid it. Not only is this oil dependent (oil is a non-renewable resource) but on a practical safety level, it is very flammable. Put your kid in synthetics like fleece all the time? Have you done a burn test on that? It melts!! Wool, on the other hand, is naturally flame resistant.

Since we aren't zealots, we're not going to be able to avoid plastics in everything we do. Our house has plenty of it. Despite my best efforts, my wardrobe is certainly not free of synthetics.

That said, here are answers to a couple of questions that have been posed to me:

So-and-so (average 5 year old) loves his fleece vests! What have you got against all that? (As in, Joanne, what is your problem!? Just buy synthetics and stop being such a vigilante.)

Answer: Kids wear what their families offer them to wear. (So-and-so also loves sugary cereals, but doesn't have to eat them if they aren't offered to him.) Just because someone loves something doesn't mean it is good for them. A fleece synthetic is made from oil (a non-renewable resource), is flammable and melts on the body, and doesn't biodegrade easily. It may cause health issues--researchers are still trying to figure that out. Further, many people find that polyester based materials do not breathe well, so people sweat more and have more skin-related problems with that.

Will I manage to avoid all polartecs/fleeces, etc.? No, but I can make an effort not to buy more of them. I can hope to raise kids who love soft wool, organic cotton, or cool linens instead.

Some babies CAN'T wear wool!! NOT even superwash! What will you do if your kid is extra-sensitive? (This has been extended to...some babies can't tolerate or thrive with cloth diapering/nursing/etc.)

My first response would be REALLY? So, you're saying that plastics/synthetics/polyesters (been around for 100 to 150 years) are always better for babies than natural fibers? That I am essentially going to be abusing these kids by putting them in things like cotton/hemp/linen/wool? While we've had humans in natural fibers for, at minimum, the last several thousand years--and they've done admirably-- we really don't have that long a track record for synthetics.

I'd argue that a very small percentage of people are sensitive to certain commonly used natural fibers. It is the exception and not the rule. It is also likely that someone sensitive to superwash wool is sensitive to the chemical process used to make the wool "superwash" as compared to the actual fiber itself. (Chemicals used to process wool or cotton commercially can be very toxic--a good reason to try organic fibers or locally handprocessed fibers instead. Cotton commercially processed with formaldehyde or wool "cleaned" with sulfuric acid can be toxic...no doubt about it.)

It is also just as likely that the kid is having a reaction to plastics as natural fibers. The kid might be allergic to detergent rather then the fiber. In some cases, the person might just have sensitive skin. That is, he/she is sensitive to everything.

Conclusion? I know that the last few generations of babies have been raised with lots of polyester/plastic/synthetics in their environments. That's what many households are used to--but it doesn't have be that way. We can think it over and review these things. These are just habits/tools for childrearing and we can try to create new habits instead.

Am I being naive? Perhaps. We'll see...but new is not always better when it comes to using plastic. There are reasons I am trying to "walk the walk" and "talk the talk" that I wrote about in Knit Green.

At the end of the book, I mention that it's important to find people who support your new "green" choices. I'm working on that for myself, because it does get tiring to be told that "of course plastics are the right, better, intelligent choice." Sometimes surrounding oneself with positive or neutral opinions is the way to go. I hope I can do that for others. I hope that sometimes, people can also do that for me, too.

distracting views

Well, the boiler pipe leak hasn't gotten worse. The house is warm and toasty and I am almost over being grouchy and tired by yet another stupid plumbing malfunction. That doesn't mean it's fixed yet--oh no, the plumbers are busy (and/or sick) and in the great scheme of things, this is probably a small leak and a minor house disaster. Also, before I hear the "I told you so" chorus from people who think we shouldn't own an old house, (Uhh, yes, you know who you are, family members) well, I'll repeat my refrain...new houses and new repairs sometimes cause problems, too. These things just happen sometimes. For some reason, these things are happening to us A LOT these days. Oh well. Life is like that!

If only this had happened BEFORE the big bedroom paint job!! We're trying not to cry about that, but the professor did such a beautiful job before this happened.

OK, in order to avoid dwelling on something we cannot fix, let's distract ourselves. If this reminds you of the way you keep a toddler from crying by distracting him with a new toy? Well, yes, that still works on me. I'm all for distraction when these unavoidable housing problems spring up.

Quick, look at that lovely Lido Key beach photo from Florida. Yes, this is what the beach looks like in Sarasota. White sand, nice views, warmer weather....Ahhh. I'm taking a deep breath here.

Since beach views are not always reviving, here are a couple of pictures the professor took during my book signing at Picasson's Moon.

This is a really fun yarn shop where the staff is so kind and helpful and the yarn choices are pretty interesting. The interior decoration--funky clutter, complete with lots of chairs and cushions, books and antiques--really makes it stand out.

I was there signing books and visiting from 4-7 pm and my charming professor kept stopping in to make sure I was still doing ok. He took several photos, including this close up of me signing someone's copy of Fiber Gathering. You may notice here that I am wearing the Tank Empire pattern sample from Knit Green. I am amazed by how versatile this tank top is in practice. It's good in hot weather worn with just a camisole underneath it and it is a superb vest during the Florida winter. What I didn't expect to find is that the A line shape makes it a very useful maternity item as well. You can't see my belly here, but it really covers it up!

It looks to me as though few or no people have posted or attempted this pattern, at least when you look at the Ravelry.com statistics. My only guess is that the gauge information is offputting. The gauge information is for a cotton/linen yarn that shrinks when blocked. If you'd like to make this for yourself but want to substitute another kind of yarn, look at the gauge after blocking. Knit up a swatch in your yarn choice, block it, and then worry about matching gauge to the information for after blocking. That's how you'll come out with the right size when you knit this.

I hope sometime to knit this project again in another color or two...this tank/vest is a staple of my wardrobe, especially when I travel or teach about my books!

Distraction accomplished, I feel calmer now. I will keep slowly posting Florida photos while waiting for the next housing fix to take place...I hope this post distracted you as well!

Making Green Choices...cancelled

If you're in Virginia and eagerly awaiting my talk tonight, I hope you check online first!

Making Green Choices, scheduled for this evening, has been cancelled due to the bad weather here. (Last night's freezing rain, sleet, and ice hasn't melted the way the weather reports said it would.) In fact, this evening is supposed to have more precipitation. In terms of safety--and making the most green choice--I hope everybody will stay home instead!

While the temperature was roughly 50 degrees warmer (Fahrenheit) than in Winnipeg this morning, it's still below freezing and like an ice rink outside on many of the side roads. Apparently, I do take the weather with me. My sincerest apologies to Virginians!

Those books...

It's hard to believe that just last September, I got to introduce Knit Green on this blog. In fact, in October 2009, I got to introduce a new knitting project from the book in nearly every post! That said, the book release was sort of a quiet occasion. We'd just moved to a new country. I only managed to to travel a small amount to promote the book...(unless I get a teaching gig, I can't afford to cover those travel expenses.) I also sent out some postcards to offer yarn shops the possibility of a trunk show...and I never heard from a single yarn shop. I guess it was a quiet book release!

In fact, in looking back on it, it's only been a year and a half since Fiber Gathering was published. It's been quite a year and a half...

Why am I mentioning this?

Well, I know there are likely lots of people who decided that they'd wait a while before buying my books. Maybe they wanted to know if Library Journal reviewed them well (they did!) or if the price would go down. The prices have gone way down...just check out the Amazon links over there for more information on that...

Books also make great gifts. It's possible you're not a knitter, (what?! Not a knitter?) but given the statistics, (1 in 3 women in North America knit or crochet) I bet you know someone who is. Even if you're not aware of any knitters, there are spinning, dyeing, crochet, rug hooking and other projects in my books. Oh, and if you're wearing clothes? There's eco-friendly information in Knit Green that you will find useful.

This is definitely the time of year that people start buying things for their friends and families. However, I know that times are rough, so it's possible you might not be in a big buying mood. Have you considered asking your library to buy copies of Fiber Gathering and Knit Green? That way you know lots of people can enjoy reading them without any expense at all.

Many people will be getting e-readers for the holidays, too--what about purchasing an ebook? That too makes a great gift...

I try hard not to be too pushy about this sort of thing on my blog...but it is technically a part of my living. So far, I haven't earned anything past my advance on either book. For each book sold, I earn a very small amount. (Think roughly 80 cents to a $1. That's an average many authors have to live with...but unless your book is a best seller, it's hard to live on it.)

I imagine I'm preaching to the choir here, and that most of you have already bought my books. If so, thank you so much! I'm incredibly proud of them, and so happy to hear every time someone says that they've enjoyed them. Thank you for saying that, too. I'm grateful for every kind word.

Now, don't you know someone else who might like a book?! :) (wink wink nudge nudge?)

KAL starts tomorrow!

The Sock Knit Along starts tomorrow on Ravelry! Although most of the participants will be doing the Ploughed Acre Socks from Knit Green, I am going to do Mary Jane Socks from Fiber Gathering. I even got the skein of yarn all ready in a ball to start knitting right away on October 1. (For those that know me, yes, that yarn has purple, green, blue, black, and even a bit of white in it. Perfect to match nearly everything in my wardrobe.)

The hole across the street that used to be a house? Today they poured concrete for the new building's foundation. I could watch the process from my office. After the truck left, the workers walked the top of the wooden shell, carefully smoothing out the concrete at the top.

It's hard to see here through the trees but it was quite an interesting thing to watch. I'm sorry I didn't catch a photo of the enormous yellow crane thing they used to shoot the concrete into the wooden foundation molds...every time I got up from my loom (I wove today) I watched the action! Despite these photos, it was a very sunny day today. I shot these through a window, and the window itself is, well, a bit cloudy.

It's been a quiet but very joyful day here. Lots of sunlight and a breeze to dry some laundry outdoors on the clothes line, some dog cuddles, and I wove about half a rug. Tonight is the first weaving guild meeting of the year, too.

Tomorrow, I get to start my first KAL with friends and I have plenty of time to knit tomorrow for starters! What could be better?

(Mint chocolate chip ice cream with fudge sauce? World peace? A self-cleaning house?)

on the radio

One of my lovely blog commenters said something like "Gosh I'd be nervous if I were interviewed on TV/radio, etc.!" You know, I'd be nervous too if I'd known it was going to happen... In Neepawa, it all just happened to me in the 15 minutes before and after the class I taught. I didn't have a chance to get nervous. Then I actually had an opportunity to get nervous this week--and I forgot!

Several months ago, I sent an informal email (about knitting, of course) to someone at a radio station in Virginia. The announcer contacted me once or twice, and we set up a time to talk. I even put it on my office calendar.

Yes, but how often did I look at the calendar? Not very often, of course, because for the last 2 weeks, there were 2 sets of guests on the 3rd story of my house, so I "decamped" and didn't use my 3rd floor office so I wouldn't get in their way. Yesterday, the last set of guests left. (More on that in a bit...)

Today I was grading engineering graduate student papers--at 20 minutes or more for an academic level paper, it takes a while-- and the phone rang. There was that radio announcer. He said we'd go live in 2 minutes.

"Huh," I thought and looked at the calendar. Oh. Right.

If you want to hear what I sound like on the radio, here's the link. It wasn't a long interview, thank goodness. I'll be curious to hear what you thought of it. Cause, you know, if I'd remembered that I was going to be on the radio? I might have gotten nervous.

About those guests...my wonderful Professor and I just looked at the most recent water bill. It covered the months of May, June and July.

"Gosh," he says, looking worried and surprised. "Our water usage has gone up!"

There was a long pause then. "Do you think, " I ventured, "It might be those 11 guests we had between May and mid-August?"

Oh yeah. It might be that.... :)

a deal

Teaching 4 days a week and having two sets of houseguests (it was three sets last weekend--we even used the living room sofa bed) has kept me from posting...but I miss you!

Just noticed today that Knit Green is on sale over at Amazon.com! 42% off of the list price. Click on the book cover over on the right column of the page if you're interested. So, if you've been thinking about buying the book for yourself or as a gift, now would be a good moment. I don't control the pricing in any way, and earn the same (very small) amount per book regardless. I just can't resist telling you about a deal...

I'm off to Neepawa on Saturday to go to their sheep show. Hopefully I squeeze in another post-with photos-before or after I leave. In the meanwhile, thank you for all those nice comments about my newly painted porch steps. The professor did a great job and I love the color every time I step out. It makes my porch feel all new and fashionable! More to come soon, I hope.

ebooks

I'm hearing about more and more people who are buying their new books only as ebooks. This way there is a much smaller carbon footprint for their purchase. (No paper, no printing, no shipping--all in all, a very good and green idea.) I'm sort of old fashioned, so I still really enjoy buying my books as, well, books...but even so, I end up buying a lot of my books used so I know more than one person makes use of that original production energy. However, on thinking about it, it seemed to me that other people who were interested in buying Knit Green new might worry about their carbon footprints.

It also seemed to me that if you were, perhaps, driving around to festivals with your copy of Fiber Gathering, it might be easier to transport as an electronic file.

Yet, when I've checked the sales figures of my books, I was surprised. I found very, very few books have been bought as ebooks. (fewer than 20 copies total for each book.)
....so I'll come right out and say it.
Did you know that you can buy Knit Green as an ebook download? You could download and knit designs from this book without ever printing it! You could also perhaps print out just the patterns you were planning on knitting...

Also, did you know you could get Fiber Gathering online as ebook download?

I'm not very good at being a salesperson for my books sometimes. I'm also not too hot at this promotional thing...it makes me feel very self-conscious. However, this topic seemed like maybe it was worth mentioning. I'll be curious to know from you, dear readers, if you are reading more books as ebooks these days. Does this sort of thing tempt you? I'm curious. Tell me if you're tempted by this sort of thing or if, like me, you're still sort of a fan of the old-fashioned, paper and print, hold-in-your-hand book. Inquiring minds want to know...

...that other book

In the last day or two, a new book on sustainability issues and knitting has been released. It is published by a well known company that I've written articles for quite a bit, and even a design or two. The book is written with an anthology approach, with essays by well-known people in the knitting world and top-notch designer contributions.

All of this is ok--because one of my goals in writing a book about conservation, sustainability, and "greener" choices for knitters was to help more people think about their choices. In fact, when I heard about this book--maybe a year ago--I tried to be positive about it. I figured that our books wouldn't be the same...and as best I can tell (I haven't read that other book cover to cover yet) they aren't. My book has more information in it rather than personal essays. My book has a variety of designs from easy to intermediate, and likely has some projects in it that are better for the beginner knitter. So, while famous people contributed to that other book, their contents weren't the same. Things like that made the books look different, as best I could tell.

Except for the titles. You see, book titles don't have to be copyrighted, and they are essentially chosen by committee. For my books, I created a long list of titles I could live with, and in each case, the publisher chose one of those titles with a group consensus. I assume the publisher researched those titles, and I googled every single one of them to be sure I wasn't stepping on anyone's toes. That's fine...I assumed that was just good manners.

A lot of friends have recently discovered this other book because of all the publicity around its release. They immediately email me or call me to complain. Couldn't this other book have chosen a different title? Couldn't they have been a bit more careful? ...and yes, I have wondered these things myself, although I've known about this book for a while.

In fact, back in the "olden days" of publishing, there likely would have been lawyers involved, and a last minute name change, and all sorts of efforts to avoid this situation. However, in today's whirlwind publishing world, with issues of free download piracy and ever more books being released ever faster, maybe that isn't possible. To be clear about confusion, it is the kind of situation where two books are published within 8 months of one another. The only difference in their titles is an "ing." Luckily, the subtitles are different too.

I won't lie. My own personal green monster--the jealous, angry, frustrated one--has come visiting. I feel pretty annoyed, because my book came out first and yet I cannot do a thing to defend its title. I suppose this is only natural, and I'm trying hard to keep my chartreuse buddy under wraps and get her to go back into her lair.

However, I also see two positive end results. First is an unintended one. That other book? The new book? Its title is close enough to mine...Knit Green: 20 Projects and Ideas for Sustainability that it's briefly driving up sales of my book. That is, people look up those words "Knitting" and "Green" online and they find my book, too. Hopefully, they find something of value in it, and they purchase it. So, in that sense, I have to be grateful for the inadvertent free publicity...which I'm sure that other publishing company hadn't planned on. Thank you.

Second though, and most important, is the bigger issue. If more people write appealing books about environmental issues, more readers might buy them. If you own a book about sustainability, you just might read it. Then, you might think about the issues, and do a thing or two about conserving our planet's resources. Although personally I'd love to sell more books (or ebooks) and maybe even make a living, on a bigger level, it's more about learning about the earth. It's about making a difference in the world and keeping our knitting -and our lives- eco-friendly. That's important stuff... Stuff I also care about.

In honor of Earth Day, I've been invited to give a talk tomorrow, April 22nd, in Winnipeg. I'll be speaking at the Millennium Library downtown at 7 pm. The Manitoba Craft Museum and Library is hosting this gig, and artists and crafters will be selling art made from recycled materials before the lecture. The Museum will be selling my books, too, and appreciates any donations you can make to support their mission. After the lecture, I'll hang around to answer questions, sign books, and visit. There will be a trunk show, with samples from the book on display for everyone to touch and see.

If you're local, I hope you can come! I look forward to seeing you there! If not...please feel free to join me in the comments below.

If you're one of those people who contacted me about that other book and its title, I really appreciate your concern and commiseration. I have felt a bit rough round the edges. Still, I think if we can all visit with our personal monsters occasionally--letting them out from under the bed or opening up those closets...we find in the light of day that this is not the scariest thing, or at least not as scary as we'd thought it to be.

Losing glaciers, polar bears, low lying islands? Extinctions or natural disasters? Maybe more of an issue in the long run.

Please join me--wherever you are-- in celebrating and honoring Earth Day 2010.