Mother Earth doll and other little things

Hey,
I decided to post an other little blog today to show ans tell a couple of other things.

A couple of weeks ago I've made a Mother Earth doll!!!, I love her



I found a box again with craftthings that belongs to a dutch course "het complete handwerken" from the seventies that I get from my neighbour when I was 14 or so. The coursemaps I have also, these I get from my grandmother, you can find al crafts in it from knitting, to needlebinding to sewing to macrame:) Thank to these lovely people! Now I can use these things and i'm looking foreward till i have time to learn new crafts.
In the box I found many lovely things as tabletweavingcards, emroideryfabric, a spindle etcetera




My needlebind try-out project


I've been very busy last weeks...
*This week I've a difficult examination and three weeks ago I had the first that wasn't mutiplechoice so that means learning a lot of definitions....
*My father was 25 years at his work, there was a nice party at his work.
*Last saturday I was in Aachen with my parents, a lovely city in germany with two lovely knitting shops junghans wolle and goerg & goerg
*last week I had 3 meetings, one from the studentunion from 7 till 11 in the evening with chattering till 1.30 in the night, one from the university environment group where where we've cooked together before it:lovely pumpkin pasta and sort of pesto from parlsley, cashwew and walnuts, and one from the national union of university environment group on friday where i get the last train and was home at about 1 o'clock at night.

Greetz

Sylvi:) progress animalabuse for wool and tips for buying environmentfriendly yarns in europe

last year I've started this project but I wasn't satisfied. I couldn't get the gauge I want (it was a lot to small) with the yarn I was using then. Therefore I've frogged it and started again with cascade eco wool wich I accidentally found in a Dutch webshop for an affordable price.

Normally I don't like to use wool because the sheep abuse that happens mainly in Australia where the most wool comes from. Unfortunately that are not the happy sheeps you see on pictures enjoying in a meadow....
The "primalsheep" loses its wools scattered over a lot of time and doesn't need to be sheared by human. We although have breeded the sheep so that they are now depending ons us human. That we can not thurn back and I agree that wool is a very nice material but the abuse isn't a thing to neglect...:

We are clipping the sheeps in a time of the yearwhen it's still to cold for them without there wool coat so that many of them freeze to death..
There are to many sheeps in a farm so the individual needs are neglected
Because they are breed so that they get as much wool as possible from one sheep, the sheep get "fliestrike" Espacially around the back of the sheep flies lay there eggs in the wool. the larves who born out these eggs can eat the sheep alive...
To prevent this condition ranchers perform muleshing. Unasthetized they cut away large strips and skin of the back ans the legs.. Before the wounds are healed a lot of them nevertheless get fliestrike...
Eventually the most of the woolsheeps are slaughtered. Most of the time not in there living country Australia but on the other side of the world in North-Africa and the Middle East!


I would never use silk yarn... for one pound of silk, 3000 wors are steamed o gassed alive... Angorarabbits have a terrible life and often they make the males death after birth because they have less wool and 50-80 percent of the young cashemere goats is murdered because there wool doesn't meet the standards...

When you can stand to see a documentary about this and read more about it, look at:
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/wool-industry.aspx

For some projects altough it is difficult to get non-wool yarn. The most things I made are made from cotton (When i can afford it also eco and faitrade certificied. You don't want to know how many pesticides are used... and how the workingcircumstances are, but that's or an other blog), acryl (but that is not very environmentfriendly and most times I don't like the look of it)or other plant-based yarns.
Non-wool sock yarn,nice thick warm yarn, soft lace yarn and thick felt is difficult to get here in the Nerthelands or is very expensive...
I feel very guilty when I use wool in this circumstances...

Therefore I was very happy when I found an eco-wool that at least hopefully would be a bit better for the sheep and also more environmentfriendly! I've started again and I have already finished the back, the left side and thothird of the right side een tough I have very less time to knit! It looks very natural and knits very fast despite all the different cables on the back. The gauge with a single thread cascade eco wool and 6mm knitpro needle is a bit smaller as in the original (I knit pretty loose). I've modified the xs pattern also a bit smaller so that the endresult would be about 28'- 30' inch because I want to use it as a long cardigan and don't want it to be oversized.



About environment and animalfriends I've collected a couple of links here for European people who are seeking to get these:

Dutch links:
http://www.houseofyarn.nl/contents/nl/d22_cascade_eco.html where you can get cascade eco wool
www.trikoo.nl where you can get pakucho fairtrade undyed cotton, bio-wools, and other environmentfriendly yarns
www.stormopzolder.nl
www.herbalana.com

European links:
www.wollbox.de/epages/61169902.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61169902/Categories/Conjoined Soysilk, vegan lace yarn
http://www.wollbox.de/epages/61169902.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61169902/Categories/%22Crystal%20Palace%22 vegan sock yarn
www.cucumberpatch.co.uk/sincere_dk.htm affordable organic cotton in levely colours (they offer also a lot of environmentfrienldy rowan yarns but these are expensive)

When you've good places for buying environmentfriendly or vegan yarns in Europe let me know!!! So that I and maybe my blogreaders can use more animalfriendly yarns for new projects.

Till a next blog!

World Food Day and the University Environment Group

Hey,
Here is a new update of my blog after 4 weeks or so.... I will try to write in English from now. I haven't done this before because my English writing skills aren't very great. My apologies when there are big mistakes in my grammar or so.

I was very busy last weeks with my study and the tasks that belong to my voluntary job as one of the two coordinators of the university environment platform. We are group of students who try to make the university and the students more aware of environment issues. We also try to make the university really more green by way of exert influence at for instance the purchase- and the energy-policies of the university in collabaration with other groups, this isn't always very easy but when this succeeds we have done a good yob for the nature. Soon we wil check again for useless lights in university buildings at night.And we are thinking about projects as an climate neutral computerroom and an fairtrade policy at the university
At studentscale we are offering biologic vegetables for an affordable price. We offer at about 100 students and employees in one week! Other things we do for the students are thing as offering recycled collegeblocs,an recycle workshop and environmentfriendly meals!!!

14 oktober we had an Worlmeal what will say that we offer a 3 courses menu that only consist that amount of food that is available for one person on this earth when you should divite al the food honestly over all the people in the world. This is more food dan you would think. This lett us sea that there is enough food at the world. It depends on waht whe eat. The Worldmeal doesn't contain meat and fish, few other animalderived ingredients (with a totally vegan option). The vegetables and as much as possible other ingredeintes are biologic and from the neighbourhood.

It was a very great busy and tiring day for me. I was responsible for organising the cooking and the rest of the day. I was a bit stressed because one of the gashoses was leaky and an part of the cooking was missing till after the lunch but except that everything went well.
We've cooked for at the original plan 30 guests. Some people however make so much advertised that I eventually at 4 o'clock have heard that there came about 10 people more!!! This is very very great especially because nearly all our guests where students what the most years wasnb't the case! It was a bit stressy but we have managed the task and where ready at time.
I've also taken the job on me to speak a word to the guests, because I want to learn to become more confident about myself in these kind of things.

Here are a couple of foto's of this lovely day.
We've eaten:
Colourful cornsoup (with onions,corn,paprika, parlsley vegetablebroth and thickened with flour)
Chili sin carne (Dutch brown beans, with fresh carrots and leek, corn, tomato and garlic) with coucous and a fresh salad with chicory, apple, lettuce and carrots.
And as dessert Biologic yoghurt or yofu with apple, cereals ans thick juice

We had very positive reactions and the question to organize this more often. We ware therefore thinking about organizing A environmentfriendly (and animalfriendly) christmasdinner!

I was very tired after that day(I have been at work for 12,5 hours at the day itself (9.30 till 10 at night), 6 hours at the day before for organizing an authorisation for cooking, printing promo, making placemats with a test to determine your footprint etc...
I haven't organize such events before but I have managed it. I personally get also many complements from the people that I organized it so well. Do I deserve them?

At least I've sleaped very very gooed that night, was happy to see the people enjoying the food and the atmosphere, cooking together and chatter with a girl who was coordinator a couple of years ago!!!

Till my next blog, hopefully very soon from now!!!