When Bryan and I lived in California it was easy to be eco-friendly because it was encouraged by the local and state government as well as the people around you. Since living in Missouri I've found myself slipping away from that type of lifestyle and I have decided to turn that around. We've been diligently and conciously recycling so that now the amount of trash that we take out to the curb each week has been cut down by almost half. It takes a little more work because we have to take our recycling to the center instead of it being picked up at the curb, but I find a lot of pleasure in seeing our recycling bin fill up and then empty out.
I've spent a lot of time researching other ways to help the earth and our pocketbook. Cloth diapering is making a comeback and these aren't our parents' cloth diapers! There are some that are the old fasioned kind and some that are very much like disposables. They come in plain white, solid colors or fun prints. Best of all there are diapers out there that can fit your child from birth until potty training, making them a great investment that if treated well can make it through 2 or more children.
We've purchased a small stash of diapers that should be arriving in a couple of weeks. Mostly we're going to do prefold diapers which are an upgrade from the old fashioned diapers that our parents used and we already have a couple of the more disposable type diapers that we've tried out and liked. We are planning on trying this out for a few months and then re-evaluating. Surprisingly, cloth diapers have an amazing resale value and if they are in good condition they can be sold for just under their original purchase price.
In preparing for these new diapers to arrive I'm going to be knitting up some soakers and longies to go over the prefolds. I was shocked to find out how much some people charge to make custom soakers so I'm definitely going to be making my own. There are a lot of patterns available for free online that allow you to customize the fit and embellishing the finished product is easy!
Tomorrow night I'm going to cast on for my first soaker in some white Encore Worsted that I have in the stash based on the free Curly Purly pattern that I found on Ravelry. These should be a fairly quick knit but I first need to get some accurate measurements of the girly girl so that these will fit.
And now for a few SP11 questions!
1. What is the one knitting accessory you could not live without?
I'm assuming that I already have patterns, needles, yarn, scissors, darning needle and tape measure? Beyond those things I'd be so sad if I didn't have a cute knitting bag to put all of my stuff in.
2. If you're heading on vacation, do you take knitting with you? If so, how much and what type of project?
Um, I take knitting with me when we go to church. Not that I knit in church, but there's 20 minutes of prime knitting time on the way to church and back that I don't want to miss out on! I have taken a couple of vacations since I started knitting and socks has been the project of choice especially when air travel is the mode of transportation. Scarves are also nice if they're still short. I like to take a couple of projects along so that in case I get bored with one I can switch over to the other.
3. Where have you travelled to that you'd consider your favorite spot?
Wow, that's really hard to decide! We were really lucky to live in CA because there are so many great places to travel to within the state! Our favorite vacation spot in CA is San Luis Obispo. There's a great place called Apple Farm Inn that we've stayed at 5 times and we love it. I also had a great time in Washington DC and would love to go back again. Outside of the US I thought that the Dominican Republic was beautiful and hope to take Bryan there some day, but we both absolutely fell in love with Romania.
4. What is your favorite knitting book at the moment? Do you own it?
I'm drooling as I flip through the Knitting Vintage Socks book. Mom drools with me.
5. Do you listen to podcasts? Which is your favorite(s)?
I do! I enjoy Cast On, Craft Lit and Stash & Burn.
2 comments:
I didn't know you'd been to Romania! You'll have to tell us about it sometime.
I went to school back east after growing up in California. I noticed the lack of recycling too. It was very very difficult to throw away soda (pop!) cans in the trash!
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