yarn yoga

Stara knitsthought of some very thought provoking questions to interview me with. Now that I look at them, I answered them super-wordy-like, but hey, that's me. If you want me to interview you, which I'd love to do, here's what you need to do:
1. Leave me a comment saying “interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions here. They will be different questions than the ones below.
3. You will update YOUR blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Here I go!

Stara says: 1. You're a dedicated Vegan that avoids using wool and other animal-derived yarn, what made you decide to become one? Did you babystep first as a lacto-ovo vegetarian or just dive right in?

Initially, I was a lacto-vegetarian. When I was about 16, I received a small pamphlet from PETA in the mail. I read it cover to cover and was just shocked and saddened by the photos inside. I’ve always been very compassionate towards animals (as well as people) and it hurt me to see them suffer. I wanted to do whatever I could to help them. I decided that I would quit eating meat. At the time, I didn’t realize that the dairy cows were being treated just as poorly and even worse. Well, I was a teenager and although I was a vegetarian for 2 years, I still ate by-products. No eggs, but I did eat dairy and basically anything that wasn’t meat. Needless to say I wasn’t very healthy, so after 2 years I started eating meat again and quickly regained my energy and strength. Eventually I shook the guilt off and didn’t think a whole lot about my choices and the effects they were having on animals.
Fast-forward to hmm, last month or so. I noticed that some of the knitters on craftster weren’t using wool. I wondered why. Little debates started popping up and I read them all. I even searched for old debates to look through. I did plenty of my own research and through that I ran into all the other traumas that animals of all types are suffering through. My heart sank. I contributed to their pain. I had to stop and I had to stop Now! So, from that point I went vegan. I think it was a Thursday. J

On that note, I have a confession to make. I fell in love with Rowan’s Summer Tweed and it contains silk. Hell, it’s 70% silk and 30% cotton. I caved and I bought it. I’m still not 100% sure on my thoughts of the silk issue, but I will research it more and hopefully not buy it again.

Also, if there are trace amounts of honey in something, I will still eat it. Amy’s Kitchen makes some great frozen veg*n foods. Not all are veg*n, but the package is clearly marked if it isn’t. The point is, when you get into the nit picky part of being a vegan, like learning what all the scientific names are for some trace elements, it starts to make less of a difference. If you are just starting out, learn the main things and avoid them, then work on the tinier stuff.

2.Another Vegan question: What's your husband think of it? Is he a herbivore or carnivore?

My husband is a carnivore. You could almost call him a strict carnivore, if there was such a following. He eats meat with no remorse and loves every minute of it. We are total opposites in that respect. He was NOT happy about my choice to become vegan. He would have been a little bit better off had I chose vegetarianism, but Vegan? It took him a while to get used to that idea, but he’s still not happy about it. He’s dealing with it for now. He’s hoping that it’s some sort of hobby and that I’ll get over it and he can have hope of having a steak on the table when he gets home from work. Hello? When did that ever happen before? I hated cooking meat!! If I cooked the meat, I wouldn’t eat it. The only time I ate meat in the times I wasn’t veg*n, someone else cooked it for me. I rarely cooked for him in the first place, so his hopes being gone are all they were. He can’t really miss something that never happened.

3. My husband thinks my knitting is 'cute' but doesn't get the obsession: What's yours think? Is he supportive of or exasperated by your yarn woes?

For the most part, he’s supportive. I don’t really like shopping *gasp! No really, I get frustrated when things don’t fit the way I want them to. Also, I might like the way one thing fits, but in the design of something else. With knitting I pretend like the yarn pays for itself twice: once in a hobby, and once as a garment. That makes each item worth 50% of the total cost. See? I can justify anything! I do all my yarn shopping on a separate credit card that he doesn’t really use or look at. So he doesn’t really notice too much. J He doesn’t care for all the extra balls lying around from old project leftovers, but I tell him that everyone has that and that I’ll use them for something eventually.

4. You're a student in Louisiana; are you there for school or were you raised there? What made you choose your school? I see you have a Dixie button; do you feel a deep southern pride, do you prefer to the rest of the nation? (Side note: I ask because I'm from Ohio but went to school in Tenn and loved it...I also found that most Southerners prefer the south, while I'm somewhat ambivilent about my birthplace (even if I share it with the Wright brothers:) )

I was born and raised here. It’s kinda funny, because I was adopted and my original parents are from here as well. So, no matter what I would have been in Louisiana. I basically chose my school because I was lazy. I didn’t know what all to do for college when I was in high school. It turns out, you have to get the ball rolling on your own. People don’t give out scholarships if you don’t apply.
Southern pride. I’m not really sure about that. Once I get my degree, I’d like to move. Somewhere like TX, CO, or FL. Tennessee is Beautiful! I wouldn’t mind living there either. I dreamed that I lived in NY last night. That would be cool. I’m not really confined by regions. I just like cities with a lot of culture and things to do. Louisiana has it’s own culture, but I’ve gotten my share of that. It is lacking in the activities department. CO would be nice cause you could get a lil’ of everything: snowboarding, mtn biking, knitting.. all the stuff that I’d like to do more often. I do like the southern hospitality we southerners carry. I am proud of that. It isn’t always there, but most of the time it is.

5. And finally, a knitting related quesiton: Do you prefer to work on larger projects (like your gorgeous sweater) or smaller ones?

I prefer larger projects. Living in the south, I won’t get as much use out of my sweaters as I would if I lived, well, North, but I do love to knit them. They are calming and are I find that I am drawn to them more than smaller projects. Plus, in the south, we don’t have a big selection of sweaters. I like the ability to design my own and have others ask where I bought it. (No, that hasn’t happened… yet!) I haven’t found a use for very many small knitting projects. I’m not really a hat person. I’ve made a water bottle sling, which is small. I think the other small thing I made was my shrug. Plus, how many cozies does one really need?


I will update with pics from the great SEX I had last weekend in Houston very soon!