Knitting & Crochet Blog Week: A Tale of Two Yarns

SHOOT! I had these posts all set up and ready to go, but for some reason they were stuck in "draft" mode, and didn't publish this week... Well... Better late than never, right?
 

PROMPT: Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

Yarn 1: Indiecita Baby Alpaca

First I should say that I don't believe there's such a thing as a bad yarn. Except acrylic yarns. Blegh. So, when I say that I really hated working with this baby alpaca, it's mostly because I got it when I was really still learning how to knit. I pretty much only worked in stockinette and simple ribs. I didn't know jack about drape. But this yarn was pretty much hell for a beginning knitter. It split on my needles. It didn't frog well at all. and when I finally got a finished project out of it, it was far too droopy. Now, I hope I know better than to try to make a 3x1 rib cowl out of fingering weight alpaca. But still. I struggled to get anything off the needles with this yarn.

Yarn 2: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino

I think I really love this merino for similar reasons. To be fair, I've worked with it a lot, and so I know its properties like the back of my hand. Merino is one of the most forgiving fibers I've ever worked with, and it's not so hard on the fingers (like cotton--ouch!). The project of these mitts was the first time I felt really, truly competent as a knitter. The floated stitches were a knew skill, but I managed them without much trouble. The yarn's variegations worked out pretty much exactly as I expected and hoped. My stitches were even and controlled. I felt good working with this yarn. There are plenty of other factors that contributed to that, to be sure, but still. Good memories. I love this yarn. It also comes in some amazing colors, and I can't stop myself from buying it whenever I see it.

I'm going to cheat and add a third yarn.

Yarn 3: handspun

I've never knit with a handspun. I'm really dying to. The colors are so incredible, especially in plied yarns. I want to play with them all and see how they work themselves out. Okay. I'm going to stop drooling now.

2KCBWDAY1

Ceviche de Soya

Welcome to lent: No-Meat Meals! I'm really excited about this, since I'm kind of tired of explaining that no, I'm not a vegetarian, and no, my church doesn't teach us not to eat meat, and no, I'm not allergic. I just don't like meat.
Regardless of your lenten habits or culinary preferences, I hope you'll enjoy this recipe. I personally don't like the fish version because the texture bothers me, but it's the more popular version, and is served in Mexico year round. Also, I'm feeling lazy about conversions, so good luck with that?

Soy Ceviche
serves 30
Ingredients:

• 1 kilo dried soy meat subsitute
• 8 laurel leaves
• 2 onions
• 1 kilo tomato
• 1 Tbsp dried oregano
• 2 bunches fresh cilantro
• 1/4 kilo limes
• 1 kilo ketchup
• 700mL orange juice
• 1/2 L orange soda
• 4 medium avocados
• 1/2 cup salsa Valentina OR diced green chiles to taste
• salt

Directions:

1. Place soy in with 1 slice onion, laurel leaves, and 2 Tbsp salt; cover with water and heat to rehydrate
2. Dice tomatoes, cilantro, and remaining onion
3. Juice limes and strain to remove seeds and pulp
4. Place tomatoes, cilantro, onion, oregano, lime juice, and 3Tbsp salt in pot and mix well
5. Drain the water from soy, remove laurel leaves; add to tomato mixture
   
6. Add ketchup, orange juice, orange soda, and salsa/chiles
7. Add avocados last, just before serving
8. Serve cold

To make the fish version:

• Substitute fish (like cod or talapia) for soy
• Increase lime juice to 1L
• Dice raw fish filets, and let sit in lime juice for 30-45 minutes before adding to tomato mixture as above

Coming Soon: Knitting & Crochet Blog Week

I have been spending more and more time doing crafts. Usually, my crafts of choice are yarn-related, but thanks to my work with two manualidades groups, my horizons are being broadened every day. I've realized recently, however, that that part of my life isn't something I tend to share here on this blog. I think I'd like to do more of that. SO! I've decided to participate in the 2nd annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. Every day for the week of 28 March-3 April I'll be responding to prompts up on this website.
Why am I telling you this now? Well, mostly to help promote Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. I know some of you reading this are knitters and crocheters as well, and I want to invite you to participate. Maybe you don't have a blog yet, and you think this could be a good time to start. Maybe you'd like to spend some time reflecting on the things you've been doing for your own sake, even without posting them anywhere. Maybe you're not interested in blogging yourself, but you'd like to read more about crafting. Whatever the case may be, resources are available for you over at Eskimimi's site.

Secondly, I was hoping the knowledge that this is coming might strike a different cord of interest with you, dear readers. I've noticed that the feedback I've been getting on my blog posts and emails is lower than it was at the start of my YAGM year, but that my soup recipe was quite popular. This blog is partially a public journal to record my experiences as a volunteer in Mexico, but I mostly write for you. I want to invite you into conversation about what you'd like to hear more of, and what you don't. Please know that I always--always--welcome your comments, suggestions, or reactions. So tell me, what do you want to know more about? What should I leave off? What are your questions about Mexico that aren't getting answered?

Sustainable Systems, pt. 3

"The way we eat determines, to a large extent, the way the world is used." -Wendell Berry-

Food in the States is cheap. That's partly due to those subsidies I talked about, but it's also because an estimated 80% of the agricultural workers are undocumented. They're underpaid and overworked at difficult and dangerous jobs. They're doing jobs that most of us don't want to do. If you balk at that claim, maybe you haven't heard about the United Farm Workers campaign to put good, hard-working Americans in those jobs instead of undocumented migrants. They have an easy sign-up form for you to become a farm worker on their website, TakeOurJobs.org, but very few people have taken the challenge.
I'm not saying that undocumented entry to the States is excusable. I am saying that if we want to change the systems that push people to cross the border without papers, we need to look deeper at our own national economic policies. We need to look at the people who do make the decision to cross, and see them as human beings whose lives extend beyond the five minutes it took them to climb the border fence or the two weeks they wandered in the desert. We need to look closer at our household purchases, too. Sounds overwhelming, doesn't it? I promise, it's not so bad. The first two of these issues warrant further conversation, but here are a few suggestions for what you can do at home:

• Cook fresh food instead of packaged. Processed food has a lot of preservatives, extra salt, and fillers that just aren't healthy. Prepare your own meals and make sure you like everything you're eating.
• Think of buying well, not cheap. One of the simplest ways we can vote on a daily basis is by changing our buying habits. We might not be able to vote Dole out of business, but we can certainly tell them that we'd rather have cleaner, safer food, and better working conditions for the people who grow it. Buying locally and organically is an investment in your health and global economic justice.
• Do you know where your food comes from? One of the non-migration effects of big-business agriculture is the breakdown of personal connections with our food. To me, it makes me wonder what I'm really eating. Local Harvest has a great tool for finding farmers markets and CSAs near you.
• Organic farms don't use chemicals. Even when you wash your produce, some of the chemicals used in food production are actually inside the cells of the food. Some of those chemicals are perfectly safe, some of them not, and some of them... well, we just don't know yet. I don't know about you, but I'd rather spend 20cents more on green beans that are just plain ole green beans. Even if you don't have access to a farmer's market, fresh, canned, and frozen produce are increasingly available at your everyday grocery store.
• Grow your own food! Not all of us have the space for a full garden, or the energy to manage one, but tomatoes can be grown on your front porch without much fuss. Herbs on your window sill. Lettuces need a little more space, but they're also really easy. 
• Sign the AgJobs Pledge, indicating your support of a bipartisan piece of legislation to improve working conditions for farm workers.

Additional reading, in case you're interested:
Food Politics Blog
Civil Eats
ObamaFoodORama

Thanks to Susana at BorderLinks for these statistics and action steps, and for the work she does with the Sustainable Foods project there.

Sustainable Systems, pt. 2

Meanwhile, in Mexico, a significant portion of the population is still growing corn. Did you know that Mexico has the world's largest genetic diversity of corn? Yep--not all corn is white and yellow, and a good deal of it is native to Mexico. Farms here continue to be small, where people do their best to keep their families fed, and hope to sell or trade the little extra they can produce to cover the rest. In fact, in some parts of Mexico, tortilla--not even all corn products, but just tortillas--continue to make up 70% of people's daily nutritional intake in 2011.

Sustainable Systems, pt. 1

I want to talk a little bit about corn. Corn, as an example, illustrates pretty perfectly the economic relationship between the United States of America and Mexico. It's kind of a long story, though, so I'm going to breaking this up over the next few days. Here we go.

alles gute, meiner!

Stop getting older already. Sheesh.

Happy Birthday, Smith!

Grace

I don't remember where I learned my favorite prayer, but I associate it strongly with the Quaker community in Columbia, SC. The idea is this: What does grace mean to you today? Before this year, I mostly used this prayer as a pre-meal blessing. Lately, I like to use it as a way to reflect on my experiences. It's interesting to me what unexpected answers I have to this simple question.
One of my more frequent answers lately has been a name: Vero.
When I first arrived at my work site in 10 de Abril, I offered to "help" her in the kitchen to fill in the gap left by an employee on maternity leave. I'm not much help, I'm afraid. I frequently spill things. I dice things I'm supposed to cut into strips. I put potatoes instead of peas in the rice. I'm a mess. I surprise myself every day with the new ways I invent to wreck breakfast.
Vero's response is invariably, "Esta bien." No problem. Don't worry.  Even when the mistake can't be corrected, Vero doesn't seem to be bothered. She moves through the small, hot kitchen with grace, quickly finding solutions and moving on with the morning. She is consistently the human embodiment of the forgiveness that I need, but don't know how to ask for. She is my grace.

The Things They Carried

One of the most powerful experiences of our border immersion trip for me was the afternoon we spent walking in the desert with the guys from CREEDA. CREEDA is a residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Agua Prieta, Sonora based on the model of Alcoholics Anonymous. A major part of their program is doing community service, in order to help build self-esteem of addicts, and get them reconnected with the community in a productive way.
One of the ways in which CREEDA clients serve is by trucking water to tanks along the Mexican side of the border in areas where there have been high numbers of deaths due to dehydration. The city of Agua Prieta pays for the water, and ranchers with border lots grant permission for the tanks to be placed on their land. We were advised not to drink the water from the tank. At first I thought the concern was that if all 11 of the people in our group drank just a half liter of water, there would be little left for those who really need it. Then it was explained that the water is not filtered, and it would likely make us sick. The water isn't "clean," but it is wet, and it can mean the difference between life and death for many migrants.

Rising from the center of this tree, barely visible, is a faded and tattered flag
indicating the presence of a water tank.

The men who walked with us through the desert confessed that they had crossed mojado. Wet. In a place of so little water, they walked from one country to another and they came out wet. Many of them not only crossed the border themselves but for a time worked as polleros, coyotes, smugglers. They knew the most common paths, the best hiding places, the greatest dangers. They pointed out discarded tuna cans and extinguished fires, and some of them knew how long it had been since someone had passed.
As we walked, even our inexperienced eyes noticed things on the ground. Discarded objects. Dropped objects. Unnecessary things. Sometimes it was clear what made their owner leave them there on the ground--a tin can emptied of food, a bottle drained of water. Sometimes it wasn't even clear what made someone bring them there in the first place--a pot of hair gel, a metal spoon. Each object told a story in a language of hopelessness I will probably never learn to speak, or to hear. I cannot tell you their stories. I barely begin to tell you my own. I can only hope they might speak themselves.

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