…Joining Ginny’s YarnAlong, sharing what I’m knitting and reading…
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…Knitting…
Remember that simple bag I started knitting in this post? I frogged it and decided to start again on a larger round. I wanted the bag to be bigger. I originally intended to felt it, but since I went down a needle size, it’s knitted nice and tight and I want the bag to be big, so I don’t plan on felting it anymore. I was envisioning a bag for holding fruits and vegetables at the farmer’s market and the grocery store. We always need more of those bags. Especially a sturdy one with this hemp and wool blend yarn. I’ve had the yarn for a long time and it’s perfect for this project. I brought this project along with us to Saturday Market over the weekend. I needed something that wouldn’t take up much space (since we didn’t have any extra space in our jam-packed vehicle) and something easy that didn’t require a pattern. I was able to knit along on this during the car ride and whenever I happened to find myself in our booth alone (or when Bracken fell asleep on me.) This is a wonderful knitting project to bring along to market.
Remember that simple bag I started knitting in this post? I frogged it and decided to start again on a larger round. I wanted the bag to be bigger. I originally intended to felt it, but since I went down a needle size, it’s knitted nice and tight and I want the bag to be big, so I don’t plan on felting it anymore. I was envisioning a bag for holding fruits and vegetables at the farmer’s market and the grocery store. We always need more of those bags. Especially a sturdy one with this hemp and wool blend yarn. I’ve had the yarn for a long time and it’s perfect for this project. I brought this project along with us to Saturday Market over the weekend. I needed something that wouldn’t take up much space (since we didn’t have any extra space in our jam-packed vehicle) and something easy that didn’t require a pattern. I was able to knit along on this during the car ride and whenever I happened to find myself in our booth alone (or when Bracken fell asleep on me.) This is a wonderful knitting project to bring along to market.
…Reading…
I’m still reading ‘The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care’, which I wrote about here. As I mentioned before, I highly recommend it. It’s a good reference book to have on hand because it’s so packed with information. They recommend both parents preparing their bodies for conception, sometimes up to two years prior (especially if you’ve been eating a “Standard American Diet.”) I agree and think it’s very wise to detoxify and eat nutrient dense foods before pregnancy as our ancestors did. I also mentioned before that I didn’t agree with every single thing they wrote in the book, but with most of what I had read so far and a dear reader, Trina-Lea, asked me to elaborate. I’ll touch on some of my thoughts on the book here. Most of the little things that I didn’t agree with I noticed as I read along, but they didn’t stand out in my mind later. I’ll start with the topic of dairy consumption and explain a little of our history with that. The book is very heavy on the raw dairy, just like in ‘Nourishing Traditions.’ I really wanted to get on the dairy bandwagon after reading that one. We were milking goats twice a day and drinking the raw goat’s milk, along with turning it into kefir, cheese, and yogurt. We also used the whey for fermenting. When I wrote this post on how to make kefir, I was convinced that my body loved it. When Jeff and I drank the raw milk, our noses would get completely clogged that night so we wouldn’t be able to breathe through them and we would get really mucous-y. So I focused on kefir, which only seemed to make my nose slightly clogged and I ignored that, telling myself I couldn’t be allergic to it because it was cultured and even lactose intolerant people could handle it. When I was pregnant with Bracken, I was really concerned about getting enough calcium and I drank almost a quart of goat’s milk kefir a day, when our goats were in milk. I was even drinking it during his birth to keep my energy up. I continued after he was born. But Jeff and I noticed how incredibly mucous-y Bracken was and it was hard for him to breathe through his nose, which made it hard for him to nurse. It also made it hard for him to sleep and that made it hard for all of us to sleep. I decided to stop consuming dairy. It made a huge difference. Bracken’s breathing cleared up. His behavior changed and he seemed happier. My breathing cleared up. A red mark (I guess it was eczema) disappeared from my face that had been there for so long. I knew I had been allergic to dairy, but it became very obvious after Bracken was born. I noticed lots of little changes that I don’t remember now, only that I felt we had made a good choice in giving it up. It was not an easy choice and we missed dairy a lot, but our health was worth it. I was still concerned with getting enough calcium and we started consuming more bone broths (which is one of the main ways indigenous cultures that didn’t consume dairy, got their calcium.) After reading ‘Gut and Psychology Syndrome’ and realizing how many people these days cannot handle dairy, I thought both ‘Nourishing Traditions’ books really pushed the dairy without being aware of how very many people couldn’t handle it. So, that’s some of the advice in the book that I didn’t agree with (though I sometimes wish I did because reading made me crave it and miss it!) Wow, that was a long explanation to say something so simple, but I wanted to give the background.
We waited to introduce Bracken to solid foods and at seven months old we still hadn’t given him much food. This book recommends earlier. I have no regrets, because we’ve always done our best along the way and what felt right for us, but I would introduce solid foods earlier next time around. (I have no regrets about the dairy either, I have so many cherished memories of milking the goats and making all kinds of delicious food with their milk.) We live and learn and our feelings and opinions change. This book has given me good food for thought and obviously it’s a topic I have a lot to say about. And though I could keep going (and going), I’ll wrap this up for now.
I’m still reading ‘The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care’, which I wrote about here. As I mentioned before, I highly recommend it. It’s a good reference book to have on hand because it’s so packed with information. They recommend both parents preparing their bodies for conception, sometimes up to two years prior (especially if you’ve been eating a “Standard American Diet.”) I agree and think it’s very wise to detoxify and eat nutrient dense foods before pregnancy as our ancestors did. I also mentioned before that I didn’t agree with every single thing they wrote in the book, but with most of what I had read so far and a dear reader, Trina-Lea, asked me to elaborate. I’ll touch on some of my thoughts on the book here. Most of the little things that I didn’t agree with I noticed as I read along, but they didn’t stand out in my mind later. I’ll start with the topic of dairy consumption and explain a little of our history with that. The book is very heavy on the raw dairy, just like in ‘Nourishing Traditions.’ I really wanted to get on the dairy bandwagon after reading that one. We were milking goats twice a day and drinking the raw goat’s milk, along with turning it into kefir, cheese, and yogurt. We also used the whey for fermenting. When I wrote this post on how to make kefir, I was convinced that my body loved it. When Jeff and I drank the raw milk, our noses would get completely clogged that night so we wouldn’t be able to breathe through them and we would get really mucous-y. So I focused on kefir, which only seemed to make my nose slightly clogged and I ignored that, telling myself I couldn’t be allergic to it because it was cultured and even lactose intolerant people could handle it. When I was pregnant with Bracken, I was really concerned about getting enough calcium and I drank almost a quart of goat’s milk kefir a day, when our goats were in milk. I was even drinking it during his birth to keep my energy up. I continued after he was born. But Jeff and I noticed how incredibly mucous-y Bracken was and it was hard for him to breathe through his nose, which made it hard for him to nurse. It also made it hard for him to sleep and that made it hard for all of us to sleep. I decided to stop consuming dairy. It made a huge difference. Bracken’s breathing cleared up. His behavior changed and he seemed happier. My breathing cleared up. A red mark (I guess it was eczema) disappeared from my face that had been there for so long. I knew I had been allergic to dairy, but it became very obvious after Bracken was born. I noticed lots of little changes that I don’t remember now, only that I felt we had made a good choice in giving it up. It was not an easy choice and we missed dairy a lot, but our health was worth it. I was still concerned with getting enough calcium and we started consuming more bone broths (which is one of the main ways indigenous cultures that didn’t consume dairy, got their calcium.) After reading ‘Gut and Psychology Syndrome’ and realizing how many people these days cannot handle dairy, I thought both ‘Nourishing Traditions’ books really pushed the dairy without being aware of how very many people couldn’t handle it. So, that’s some of the advice in the book that I didn’t agree with (though I sometimes wish I did because reading made me crave it and miss it!) Wow, that was a long explanation to say something so simple, but I wanted to give the background.
We waited to introduce Bracken to solid foods and at seven months old we still hadn’t given him much food. This book recommends earlier. I have no regrets, because we’ve always done our best along the way and what felt right for us, but I would introduce solid foods earlier next time around. (I have no regrets about the dairy either, I have so many cherished memories of milking the goats and making all kinds of delicious food with their milk.) We live and learn and our feelings and opinions change. This book has given me good food for thought and obviously it’s a topic I have a lot to say about. And though I could keep going (and going), I’ll wrap this up for now.
How about you? Knitting? Reading? Have you read the above book? What are your thoughts?
P.S. Some fun things came in the mail today. I have earth-toned knitting and beautiful blue spinning in my future, yippee!
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