I’m replacing my leather stuff with other things, bit by bit.



Not that I’ve been buying lots of leather the last couple of years while being vegetarian, but still. I have my winter shoes, my bag and jacket I never use anyway.

The jacket is going to be sold, it’s used once.
The shoes will have do their duty this winter, I’m not buying another pair of winter shoes right now, I can’t justify it.
But the bag is going today.
I went to the fair trade shop in town and got this (in solidarity with kamodsja). I’m definitly going there again, not only are the things tehy sell there fair trade, but I liked them for the design and the quality of materials used in the sweaters and the like. After all, I’m a knitter and somewhat crafty, good quality in fibers make me happy.

And in case anyone is wondering, yes, the bag is made out of laminated newspapers, with foreign letters.

Tags: leather, vegan, vegetarian

Two books I’m reading right now

No Sheep for You is a great book all about knitting with non-animal products. It does include silk, so the book isn’t completely vegan. But it does contain a lot of information on how and why different yarns behave like they do. And when a pattern calls for wool, this book gives you a lot of help picking the best alternative. Be it soy, cotton, hemp or synthetics.

The book even takes it a step longer, and not only tells you, but gives you an example. The editor of the book (Amy Singer) has said that she tried to show that everything you do with animal fibers, you can do without them as well, except felting…

For me right now, the only problem with the book is that it makes me want to spend lots of money on yarn, so that I can knit some of the projects. I am knitting the tuscany shawl out if it already…

Vegan Freak: being vegan in a non-vegan world is basically a book about how you can be vegan without losing your marbles. It talks very briefly about why you need to be vegan, and the rest is tips about how to interact with friends and family, the world, shopping and some other stuff.

I haven’t finished the book yet, but so far I really like it. The things I’ve learned so far are mostly stuff the people around me are going to benefit from, not me though. Because it forced me think about not being to preachy. I know I have preached a little about veganism on my blog lately, but that’s why I have a blog, here I talk about stuff to get them out of my system

The podcast the authors of this book produces is great as well, and I recommend it highly. It’s what made me seriously consider cutting out the crap and go vegan instead of vegetarian.

Tags: Books, knit, podcast, vegan, vegetarian

People keep asking me why I’m going vegan.
It’s actually a hard question to answer without getting too preachy or going on a long rant. So I’m doing that here instead.

I’ve been sort of vegetarian for years; I quit eating mammals but not fish. For ethical reasons. I’ve seen pictures and read some books (like Animal Liberation).
A friend I had growing up was vegetarian, with her entire family, so I always knew of the possibility. And I loved their food! It tasted so much better than the one I was getting at home.

Being that kind of half-assed vegetarian wasn’t hard. It wasn’t hard giving up fish later on either.
Something I did after I started reading up on the fact that humanity is over fishing every single sea on the planet. Fishing has become an industry very few people actually benefit from; a couple of large ships (trawlers) basically vacuum the seas.

I have been exposed to some vegans in the last couple of years, not all of them nice people, but healthy. I’ve read up on enough nutritional advice on vegetarianism to know how little the human body needs meat (of any kind). The same sources talk about milk and eggs like stuff you can eat if you want to but advices you to get what they contain of nutrition elsewhere as well.
Want calcium? Eat some broccoli or almonds. Protein? I actually get almost too much protein in my diet right now, (beans, fruits, nuts… orange juice).

The ethical side of this is another cup of tea.
Watch Earthlings. Then we can talk about ethics.

Tags: calcium, earthlings, egg, fish, meat, milk, vegan, vegetarian